We live in a world fraught with a widespread sense of precariousness, be it in terms of an economic, environmental, or political sense of security. When instability does strike, its consequences can impact the lives of multitudes and also undermine the slow-moving progress made in terms of achieving human development goals in the areas of health and education, delivery or provision of nutrition or water, and sanitation.
Adverse events, including natural disasters or man-made shocks such as economic or political shocks, don’t differentiate between the haves and have-nots. However, those better off can recover much quicker than the poor and already marginalised after being struck by calamity.
Over two billion people who are struggling with multidimensional aspects of poverty around the world remain most vulnerable to any future shocks. People with limited capabilities, such as lack of education or access to adequate healthcare, are much more vulnerable to sudden shocks. Being poor in itself makes people vulnerable due to their limited capacity to adapt in the face of an unpredictable disaster. The landless poor in rural areas across the developing world, including in Pakistan, for example, remain caught in intractable cycles of low productivity, seasonal unemployment and low wages, and are particularly vulnerable to shocks, especially to the ongoing changing weather patterns. There are several other factors that have an evident impact on how people deal with shocks, over which exerting direct control is not even possible. For instance, there is little that people can do to alter their age, gender or ethnic identity. Those who are from a minority group or have disabilities also face multiple barriers, which can negatively impact their ability to recuperate.
Limited capabilities combined with restricted choices due to out-of-control circumstances often prevent poor and marginalised people from coping with threats. Thus, even short-term shocks like an economic downturn have long-term consequences for vulnerable people. Such individuals do not automatically bounce back from what appears to be a transitory shock and are instead often trapped into debt cycles and suffer much hardship.
It is encouraging to see that the UNDP has articulated a new approach to addressing vulnerability based on the concept of a lifecycle approach, which, unlike more static models, suggested that poor people in different stages of their lives confront different types of risks, which in turn require targeted responses. Some periods of life are identified as particularly important: for example, the first 1,000 days of a child’s life, or the transition from school to work, or from work to retirement. Setbacks at these points can be particularly difficult to overcome and can have prolonged impacts. To address these particular vulnerabilities and build resilience to future shocks, targeted interventions are needed, as well as addressing the lingering causes of vulnerability. Universal access to basic social services, especially health and education, better social protection, including unemployment insurance and more effective pension schemes, can help improve poor people’s ability to respond to, and recover from, adverse natural or man-made disasters.
Accomplishing these goals is, however, not going to be easy and it will require multiple and coordinated efforts between grassroots organisations and various tiers of national governments, as well as support from global institutions like the UN. Unless the already vulnerable are capacitated to better cope with impending disasters, the prevailing disparities will continue to worsen with each new shock experienced around the world. The broader implications of this phenomenon will in turn become increasingly complex to contend with, including the increase in cross-border refugee flows, more internal strife and further global instability.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 25th, 2015.
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