Strategic Framework for Resilient Livelihoods in Earthquake-Affected Areas of Nepal; ICIMOD Working Paper 2015/6

Rasul, Golam; Sharma, B.; Mishra, B.; Neupane, Nilhari; Dorji, Thinley; Khadka, Manohara; Joshi, Spruha

doi:10.53055/icimod.611

Cited by 6 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Using the devastating April/May 2015 Nepal earthquakes and aftershocks as a case study, we investigate the ways different forms of adaptive capacity respond to hazard exposure to shape patterns of recovery. The Nepal earthquakes had catastrophic impacts on life and property, killing 8790 people and injuring more than 22,300, while also damaging or destroying more than 750,000 private houses and government buildings and approximately 30,000 classrooms (National Planning Commission 2015, Rasul et al 2015). Within 9 months of the earthquakes, Nepal experienced more than 400 additional earthquakes and aftershocks with a magnitude of 4 or greater and within 1 year, 4000 landslides initially triggered by the earthquakes (Shrestha et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contextualizing patterns in short-term disaster recoveries from the 2015 Nepal earthquakes: household vulnerabilities, adaptive capacities, and change

Spoon¹,

Gerkey²,

Rai³

et al. 2023

E&S

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Disaster recovery is multidimensional and requires theoretical and methodological approaches from the interdisciplinary social sciences to illustrate short-and long-term recovery dynamics that can guide more informed and equitable policy and interventions. The 2015 Nepal earthquakes have had catastrophic impacts on historically marginalized ethnic groups and Indigenous households in rural locations, arising in the immediate aftermath and unfolding for years afterward. Analyzing factors that shape household recovery patterns can help identify vulnerabilities and adaptive capacities in addition to signaling potential future changes. We pursue this goal using survey data from 400 randomly selected households in 4 communities over 2 10-week intervals at 9 months and 1.5 years after the earthquakes. Building on previous research that used non-metric multidimensional scaling ordination to identify patterns among multiple indicators of recovery (Spoon et al. 2020a), we investigate associations among these patterns of recovery, hazard exposure, and four domains of household adaptive capacity: institutional participation, livelihood diversity, connectivity, and social memory. Our results suggest: (1) social inequality, high hazard exposure, and disrupted place-based livelihoods (especially for herders, farmers, and forest harvesters on the geographic margins) had strong associations with negative recovery outcomes and displacement; (2) inaccessibility and marginality appeared to stimulate ingenuity despite challenging circumstances through mutual aid and local knowledge; (3) recoveries were non-linear, differing for households displaced from their primary home and agropastoral practice and those displaced to camps; and (4) some households experienced rapid changes while others stagnated. We contribute a temporal dataset with a random sample collected following a disaster that uses a theoretically informed quantitative methodology to explore linear and non-linear relationships among multidimensional recovery, adaptive capacity and change and provide an example of how vulnerabilities interact with adaptive capacity.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contextualizing patterns in short-term disaster recoveries from the 2015 Nepal earthquakes: household vulnerabilities, adaptive capacities, and change

Spoon¹,

Gerkey²,

Rai³

et al. 2023

E&S

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Disaster Risk Reduction and Building Resilience in the Hindu Kush Himalaya

Vaidya

Shrestha

Nasab

et al. 2019

The Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

From goods to goats: examining post-disaster livelihood recovery in the aftermath of the Nepal earthquake 2015

2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Disasters can have substantial impacts on people’s livelihoods in developing countries. Further, if the need for livelihood interventions is ignored or delayed, the crisis may trigger unexpected harmful consequences in the affected households in the aftermath. Therefore, restoring livelihoods should remain a priority in the post-disaster recovery process. However, such recoveries in rural contexts and developing countries, like Nepal, are complex as the livelihood restoration process is affected by serious spatial, socio-economic, and political factors. We employed qualitative research methods in four highly affected districts in the 2015 Nepal Earthquake (7.8 Mw) to examine post-disaster livelihoods recovery. Our paper critically assesses the humanitarian response based on the narratives and lived experiences of affected households. The findings show that humanitarian assistance was crucial in addressing several unmet needs of disaster-affected rural households in resource-poor settings in Nepal. However, the interventions were generally fragmented, insufficient, neoliberal led (forcing market dependencies), and largely business-as-usual in their orientation. Previous studies in Nepal paid insufficient attention to the goods provided to affected households in the name of recovery. Therefore, our paper scrutinises selected humanitarian objects, such as power tillers, and unpacks their political economy and effectiveness in local contexts. Further, our findings show that some livelihood policies reinforced the gap between the haves and have-nots, thereby reproducing pre-disaster inequalities in the post-disaster field.

show abstract

Strategic Framework for Resilient Livelihoods in Earthquake-Affected Areas of Nepal; ICIMOD Working Paper 2015/6

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

Contextualizing patterns in short-term disaster recoveries from the 2015 Nepal earthquakes: household vulnerabilities, adaptive capacities, and change

Contextualizing patterns in short-term disaster recoveries from the 2015 Nepal earthquakes: household vulnerabilities, adaptive capacities, and change

Disaster Risk Reduction and Building Resilience in the Hindu Kush Himalaya

From goods to goats: examining post-disaster livelihood recovery in the aftermath of the Nepal earthquake 2015

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About