Terra incognita: the contribution of disaster risk reduction in unpacking the sustainability–peace nexus

Abstract

The pursuit of sustainable development in the context of global environmental change requires enhanced capability to deal with changing hazard profiles, across scales and geographies. Humans attempt to manage human and natural systems interactions in ways that minimize disaster risks, and the political expression of this ambition is the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 (‘Sendai Framework’). These efforts lay the foundation for sustainable development, as since the onset of the Sendai Framework, the policy objective of disaster risk reduction has been explicitly linked to global progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. Separately, peace is a focal point of SDG 16, and widely regarded as foundational to attainment of all SDGs. Meanwhile in academic and policy arenas throughout the 2000s, evidence attests of the amplifying negative impact of climate-related disaster events on increasing violent conflict. What remains underexplored are questions of whether and how effective management of human and natural systems interaction, through disaster risk reduction, can contribute towards conditions of peace through peacebuilding. This paper explores how delivery of the Sendai Framework is necessary for sustainability, and potentially also for peace. In the context of the sustainability–peace nexus, the contribution of disaster risk reduction is terra incognita. This paper aims to deepen understanding of those under-researched tripartite links.

Disasters as Ambivalent Multipliers: Influencing the Pathways from Disaster to Conflict Risk and Peace Potential Through Disaster Risk Reduction

“…A nascent body of literature has explored how DRR may promote peace in pre-disaster phases including sustainable development as well as in post-disaster reconstruction and learning phases (Peters et al, 2019a; Peters & Peters, 2021). The field of DRR takes actions to save lives by systematically understanding and acting upon the root causes of disasters, and DRR activities can be integrated into all disaster phases, including pre-disaster prevention, preparedness, and mitigation; recovery (e.g., distributing relief in ways that prevent additional deaths and promote coping capacities); and reconstruction and learning (e.g., ‘building back better’ and promoting a culture of prevention in sustainable development).…”

“…The field of DRR takes actions to save lives by systematically understanding and acting upon the root causes of disasters, and DRR activities can be integrated into all disaster phases, including pre-disaster prevention, preparedness, and mitigation; recovery (e.g., distributing relief in ways that prevent additional deaths and promote coping capacities); and reconstruction and learning (e.g., ‘building back better’ and promoting a culture of prevention in sustainable development). Prevention may link DRR to peacebuilding, which encompasses a range of initiatives taken before, during, and after conflicts to prevent lapses or relapses into violent conflict (Peters & Peters, 2021).…”

Connecting Disasters and Climate Change to the Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus

“…Previous research has shown that a lax definition of the term “peace” allows some actors to better navigate authoritarian or conflict-affected scenarios, particularly in “contexts where governments had a very specific view of peace and conflict and perceived that having programming with these themes would be admitting to having conflict and needing peacebuilding in their country” (Brown & Mena, 2021, p. 30). However, the lack of consensus on how to define peace has concerned academics for decades, with debates including the concepts of negative and positive peace, the distinction between social violent conflict and different types of war, everyday peace, to the notion that peace does not mean the absence of violence or war (Peters & Peters, 2021). Moreover, the addition of peace into the HD nexus has prompted further debates on including other phenomena in the nexus, particularly CC (see CARE, 2019; European Parliament, 2021).…”

“…To date, disaster diplomacy research has not found a direct, causal link between disasters and related actions to peace, though disasters may open up opportunities for short-term cooperation that hinge on pre-disaster conditions (Kelman, 2012). There is increasing optimism that disaster-related activities like DRR have the potential to contribute to peacebuilding and conflict prevention (Peters & Peters, 2021; Peters et al, 2019). Recent empirical evidence suggests that integrated programming linking DRR with peacebuilding can contribute to reducing vulnerabilities, (re)distributing resources equitably, encouraging cooperation, and finding opportunities for social and political (re)integration and peace (Peters, 2022).…”

Air Quality and Environmental Effects Due to COVID-19 in Tehran, Iran: Lessons for Sustainability

“…These changes are regular in a dynamic and nonlinear system such as planet earth [1][2][3][4]. Meanwhile, increasing changes in natural processes are often caused by human interventions, which bring risks that may lead to human disasters and disturb environmental sustainability of the environment [5,6]. Among these, the COVID-19 pandemic is considered a disastrous crisis that can lead to significantly increased mortality and disruptions in various geographical regions' economic, political, social, and human systems on multiple scales [7,8].…”