Community Disaster Risk Management - Vulnerability and Vulnerable Populations
Whilst all communities and countries are at risk of being exposed to all type of disasters, the disaster impact directly associates with how individuals and communities are resiliant or susceptable to hazardous events [1]. Understanding and identifying vulnerability of an individual or a community is a key component in developing and implementing Disaster Risk Management (DRM) policies and programmes to increase disaster risk reduction capacity and resilience in communities [2].
The WHO Health EDRM Knowledge Hub on Disaster Risk Management of Communities introduces vulnerability and vulnerable populations.
Vulnerability
Vulnerability is defined as:
‘the characteristics determined by physical, social, economic, and environmental factors or processes which increase the susceptibility of an individual, a community, assets, or systems to the impacts of hazards (UNDRR Terminology, 2017)' [2].
Vulnerability is determined by historical, political, cultural and institutional and natural resource processes that shape conditions of people's lives and life styles. These processes may result in producing a range of underlying drivers of vulnerability, such as living in disaster risk areas or in poor housing, ill-health, political tensions or a lack of local institutions or preparedness measures.
Vulnerability is a key component of disaster health risk for communities and people’s vulnerability to disaster risk can be the biggest factor in determining their disaster risk. This is because disaster risk does not only depend on the severity of hazard or the number of people affected, but it is the result of susceptibility of people to the disaster impact [2]. Therefore, understanding levels of vulnerability in relation to hazards (exposure) help to explain why some hazards can result in severe impacts, while some events don't.
More Information
More information on vulnerability can be found in Chapter 3.2: Disaster Risk Factors – hazards, exposure and vulnerability in the WHO guidance on research methods for health emergency and disaster risk management, revised 2022 [1].
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Vulnerable Populations
Some population groups are more vulnerable to disasters and suffer from higher disaster risks due to the characteristics and intersection of age, gender and sexual identities, race, culture, religion, disability, socio-economic status, geographical location, or migration status [3]. It is important to ensure that marginalised and vulnerable populations are adequately included and represented in evidence-based research and practice for health emergency response and disaster management in the context of Health EDRM.
Depending on disaster scenarios, vulnerabilities and resiliencies of communities may also shift [1]. Factors that potentially increase vulnerability include [3]:
- age and developmental stage (scroll down; add the summarized sentence in the Guidance for each item)
- gender and sexual identities
- pre-existing chronic conditions
- persons with disabilities
- marginalized groups in the community.
In order to reduce disaster health risks of high-risk groups, it is important to identify specific vulnerable populations and risk management capacity in a community, and to develop and implement appropriate vulnerability reduction strategies in Health EDRM.
More Information
More information on vulnerable populations can be found in Chapter 2.5: Identifying and engaging high-risk groups in disaster research in the WHO guidance on research methods for health emergency and disaster risk management, revised 2022 [3].
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References
[1] Saulnier DD, Dixit AM, Nunes AR, Murray V.(2022). Chapter 3.2 Disaster risk factors – hazards, exposure and vulnerability. In: WHO guidance on research methods for health emergency and disaster risk management, revised 2022. World Health Organization. pp. 151-163. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/363502 (Accessed 15 June 2023).
[2] United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. Terminology: Vulnerability. Available from: https://www.undrr.org/terminology/vulnerability (Accessed 15 June 2023).
[3] Newnham EA, Ho JY, Chan EYY. (2022). Chapter 2.5: Identifying and engaging high-risk groups in disaster research. In: WHO guidance on research methods for health emergency and disaster risk management, revised 2022. World Health Organization. pp. 37-134. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/363502 (accessed 15 June 2023).
