How much more exposed are the poor to natural disasters? Global and regional measurement

Abstract

This paper proposes a simple indicator to measure the exposure to natural disasters for the poor and non-poor population, in order to assess the global and regional trend of natural hazard and poverty. Globally, poor people are two times more exposed to natural disasters than the non-poor in the twenty-first century. The time trend varies across regions, with poor people in East Asia and Pacific being most exposed to natural disasters, followed by those in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. The change of exposure measure over time is decomposed into two factors: a pure exposure change, which could be fuelled by climate change; and a concentration component. The result shows that the total net increase of exposure between the 1970s and the 2000s is driven significantly by the increased concentration of the poor (26 per cent) in disaster-prone areas, whereas the contribution of that factor remains very small for the non-poor (six per cent).

Women’s empowerment following disaster: a longitudinal study of social change

“…Manyena et al (2011) bolster this with the concept of ''moving forward'' to enhance postdisaster recovery. However, recovery does not always result in positive change; disasters exacerbate social inequalities (de Wall 2008)-poor people are two times more exposed to disasters than non-poor (Kim 2012). Furthermore, vulnerable groups such as children, the elderly, women and people with disabilities can be severely worse off when disaster strikes.…”

Climate-Related Disasters in Asia and the Pacific

“…The poor, who often have less adaptive capacity, are frequently more vulnerable to climate-related hazards (Kim 2012, Carter et al 2007. As an Australian folk song has it: "Bare legged Kate, when the floods come down, it's the poor on the creeks are the ones who drown."…”

“…It covers both the direct effects (e.g., property damage or death) and the indirect effects (e.g., increase in food prices) from a hazard. Exposure is increasing as more and more people in Asia and the Pacific locate themselves in hazardous areas such as booming megacities, on deltas, or along coastlines and rivers (UNISDR 2012, Kim 2012. Entire new settlements may be built in harm's way, where even basic infrastructure is lacking, and disaster management may not seem urgent until the next lethal event occurs.…”

Exposure to Floods, Climate Change, and Poverty in Vietnam

“…Kim (2012) assesses these dynamics at the country-level, and finds that poor countries tend to be more exposed to natural disasters, including floods, compared to rich countries. More recently, ) examined whether poor people within countries are more exposed to flood risk, and found that this was the case for 60% of the 52 countries sampled.…”