Developing a Relative Ranking of Social Vulnerability of Governorates of Yemen to Humanitarian Crisis

Abstract

Abstract:The social vulnerability of the Yemeni population to humanitarian emergencies is not evenly distributed between the governorates. Some governorates may be more susceptible to the impacts than others, based on the circumstances of the people residing within them. In this paper, we present a methodology for assessing social vulnerability of governorates of Yemen to humanitarian emergencies using a Geographic Information Systems approach. We develop a spatial index of social vulnerability from an initial list of 80 variables that were reduced to 12 factors through Principal Component Analysis. Our findings show that the differences in social vulnerability between governorates are primarily driven by 12 factors, of which education, lack of basic services in health, water and sanitation, electricity, housing quality, poverty, limited livelihood opportunities, and internal and external displacement are the major determinants. The results show that the factors that contribute to social vulnerability are different for each governorate, underpinning the need for context-specific vulnerability reduction approaches. The most vulnerable governorates are characterized by conflicts, armed clashes and violence. The geographic variability in social vulnerability further underpins the need for different mitigation, humanitarian response and recovery actions. The use of Geographic Information Systems approach has contributed to our understanding of the geographies of vulnerability to humanitarian emergencies in Yemen.

Assessing Risks from Cyclones for Human Lives and Livelihoods in the Coastal Region of Bangladesh

“…The factors with eigen values greater than one were retained for calculating vulnerability indices. Each factor was attributed a directional sign based on the interpretation of the contribution of the dominant variables’ loading on the factor to increase or decrease vulnerability [ 9 ].…”

“…To minimize those, we used several possible combinations of risk components to prepare risk maps of different alternative scenarios. Although individual risk indices exist as theoretical definitions in the literature [ 63 , 64 ] and are used separately in other parts of the world for specific case studies [ 7 , 9 , 41 , 42 ], the application of four risk indices in the same case study is indeed an innovative component of our study. We consider different meaningful arithmetic combinations of these components to map the spatial pattern of risk in the coastal unions ( Figure 3 ).…”

“…Vulnerability, usually considered as two components namely physical and social vulnerability, refers to the susceptibility of people, sector of society or economy to death, injury or damage by natural hazard [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ]. Assessment of vulnerability has been proposed by developing indices based on different spatio-temporal scales, hazard types and their impacts [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ].…”

Evaluation and Assessment of Aflatoxin M1 in Milk and Milk Products in Yemen Using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography

“…e problem of food contaminated with AFM1 is a real concern and acts as a double-edged sword in zones of conflicts that are facing both humanitarian crises and food insecurities. e crisis in Yemen has put the lives of more than 24 million dwellers at risk [19] with approximately 15 million requiring humanitarian assistance, while about 11 million are facing malnutrition and food insecurity [20]. In the ongoing humanitarian crises in Yemen, one of the most vulnerable groups are children under five years [19][20][21].…”

Can Severity of a Humanitarian Crisis be Quantified? Assessment of the INFORM Severity Index

“…First and foremost, humanitarian crises are diverse and evolving events, and many quantitative tools have been designed specifically for natural disasters at a static time point. Of the metrics that can be applied to a wide array of crises, most are designed for intra-country assessment of severity (e.g., the UNOCHA’s Humanitarian Needs Comparison Tool (8) or Kandeh et al’s assessment of crisis-related vulnerability in Yemen (9)). While it is useful to assess geographic disparities, initial need for humanitarian assistance is often based on aggregate crisis estimates.…”