Urban Disaster Resilience: Capacity Building for whom? Janki Andharia, PhD Professor, Jamsetji Tata Centre for Disaster Management Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai

Structure Resilience: Old wine in new bottle? Strength of the concept A word of caution, the critique Capacity building Approach to community resilience building 2

Old wine in a new bottle? Why the new term? What is the problem with vulnerability? What does it add to the discourse? Does it change situation on the ground for communities? Explosion of literature in the last 2 years 3

Resilience Related to DRR and recovery, emphasis on capacity. Social resilience is associated with adaptation of individuals and society to environmental change and with enhancing coping ability of a community which strengthens it. Implies enhancing peoples’ rights and addressing socio-economic, gender and environmental inequalities that exacerbate vulnerability 4

Recent definitions “ the ability of individuals, communities and states and their institutions to absorb and recover from shocks, whilst positively adapting and transforming their structures and means for living in the face of long-term changes and uncertainty’” (OECD 2013). 5

Metaphor, outcome and process Resilience – is a metaphor, need to unpackage at community level both an outcome and a process Practices focused on outcome have tended to adopt top-down reactive approaches which can favour the status quo and take attention away from inequalities As a process, building disaster resilience involves supporting the capacity of individuals, communities and states to adapt through assets and resources relevant to their context. 6

Strength of the concept 1/2 Social Resilience compels external intervention agencies to bring the focus back to communities, their agency, their capacities and local institutions of democratic governance. The inherent strengths of people, households and communities based on cultural contexts and diversity of conditions and ways of living are recognized when exploring the idea of resilience. Resilience building therefore aligns itself to rights based approaches and emphasizes the need to "bounce forward" rather than merely "bounce back". 7

Strength of the concept 2/2 Makes linkages with social and environmental justice. It is not just giving - but strengthening coping capacities and adaptation strategies Requires careful, exploration and study of a community, especially since the objective is to address vulnerabilities and also to leverage their inherent strengths. Recognizes the interconnectedness with livelihoods, vulnerability and ways of living. Creates space for inclusion of traditional knowledge and past adaptation strategies that communities deployed successfully 8

CRITIQUE 1/3 Could become an emotive rhetoric, with of no analytical and strategic help when resilience is low (Coaffee and Rogers, 2008) Could inadvertently place upon the community, already experiencing poverty, deprivation and marginalization, the onus of absorbing impacts of decisions and actions of others over which the community has little control (Andharia & Lakhani, 2010). Glorifying resilience of a society which struggles for survival and has limited choices 9

CRITIQUE 2/2 Normalising poverty, the broader context which creates or sustains vulnerabilities and disasters in the first instance. Davidson (2010) argues that statements about human resilience should be critically examined, with regard to how knowledge is produced (epistemology and methodology) and to what the knowledge says (science and theory). Could reproduce pre-existing vulnerabilities, and marginalising processes. Pelling and Manuel-Navarrete (2011) have therefore argued for a definition of resilience that is transformative in nature instead of only reconstituting the status quo ex ante. 10

11

Approaches or actions to facilitate long term community resilience building 1/3 1.Develop a monitoring tool to assess community resilience : to help identify areas where programmatic support is required. Community Resilience Index with indicators and benchmarks would help policy makers identify vulnerable areas, enable comparison and intervene pro-actively to enhance resilience. The Index would provide a simple method of predicting if a community will reach and maintain an acceptable level of functioning after a disaster and provide guidance to programming resilience 2.Strengthen local level capacities especially adaptive capacities with adequate skilled human resources, institutional support as well as with support from multi-stakeholder networks for risk reduction at the local level. Contextualizing interventions to ensure meaningful participation especially of vulnerable and at risk communities. Adopting inclusive approaches that help address inequalities & power imbalance within communities across class, caste, gender ethnicity. 12

Approaches or actions 2/3 3. Develop a National Policy and guidelines to mainstream DRR and CCA in social protection programmes to build resilience, creating an enabling environment connecting different levels and scales of intervention. Adopting multi- stakeholder approach to risk governance is important. 4.Invest in context-specific sustainable solutions/ technologies to foster resilience especially among the vulnerable or at risk populations- bringing together traditional knowledge and technological advancements for economical and locally appropriate solutions for the design and implementation of mitigation measures. 13

Approaches or Actions 3/3 5. Develop a National Framework to guide recovery from disasters including the small scale recurring disasters. This should include flexible funding mechanisms to support the financing of long term community resilience. Supporting equitable access to resources, measures to reduce risk and vulnerability and promoting long term resilience to shocks and stresses are important actions on part of the government. Advocacy in these areas would also help. 14

THANK YOU 15