House of Commons - International Development

Select Committee on International Development Seventh Report

2 Understanding disasters

10. In recent years, the IDC has undertaken several inquiries which have addressed issues relating to humanitarian assistance.[26] Several of our inquiries, including those into Darfur, Iraq and Afghanistan have considered the role of human action in creating humanitarian crises.[27] This was also a theme of our report on Conflict and Development: Peacebuilding and Post-Conflict Reconstruction.[28] Having recently scrutinised a number of 'man-made' humanitarian crises, we decided to limit the broad terms of reference of our inquiry into humanitarian assistance by focusing specifically on responses to natural disasters. The case for this restricted focus was reinforced by the knowledge that seven times more people are affected by natural disasters than by man-made disasters, and that this proportion is rising.[29]

Defining disasters

11. We are aware, however, that the distinction between natural and man-made disasters is largely an artificial one. Most disasters can be understood as the result of natural hazards combined with human vulnerability. Natural hazards can be either weather-related (including storms, drought and flooding) or geophysical (including earthquakes, volcanoes and landslides). Vulnerability can be defined as "the extent to which a person or group is likely to be affected by adverse circumstances".[30] The vulnerability of populations to disasters is created at various scales.[31] At the broadest, global scale, there are root causes of vulnerability such as poor governance, civil war and demographic change. At the national and regional scale there are dynamic pressures that create vulnerability, such as structures of land tenure, economic policies, epidemic disease and urbanisation. At a local level there are unsafe conditions such as unsustainable land use, chronic hunger and poorly constructed buildings. Crucially therefore, a natural hazard will only lead to a disaster if it affects a population which is vulnerable to it. Furthermore, the extent of the impact of the disaster will be determined by the ability of the population to anticipate, cope with and recover from it: capacities often referred to collectively as 'resilience'. It can therefore be argued that there are no purely natural disasters; human and natural elements are always inextricably linked.

12. For the purposes of this report however, we have understood the term natural disaster according to the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) definition as: "a serious disruption triggered by a natural hazard causing human, material, economic or environmental losses, which exceed the ability of those affected to cope."[32] Although we acknowledge that the boundaries between categories are frequently blurred, we have focused primarily on natural disasters as distinct from disasters triggered by human conflict, or 'complex emergencies' resulting from a combination of conflict and natural hazards.

13. Another distinction commonly made in the field of natural disaster response is between rapid-onset and slow-onset disasters. Both the Indian Ocean Tsunami Disaster and the South Asian Earthquake can be characterised as rapid-onset disasters. This classification is used to refer to hazards which arise suddenly, or whose occurrence cannot be predicted far in advance, including for example, earthquakes, cyclones and floods. Slow-onset disasters, by contrast are those resulting from hazards which can take months or years to generate a disaster. The most common example of a slow-onset disaster is drought, although the HIV/AIDS epidemic has also been seen as a slow-onset disaster.[33]

14. If, as discussed above, natural disasters are understood as the result of natural hazards combined with human vulnerability, it is evident once again that the distinction between slow-and rapid-onset disasters is somewhat artificial. The socio-economic processes that make populations vulnerable to 'rapid-onset' disasters often occur over a period of years, while sudden changes in the local living conditions of populations in areas affected by 'slow-onset' disasters often precipitate individual experiences of disaster. Nonetheless the distinction is often useful and frequently employed within the humanitarian sector. In practice, humanitarian responses that have been developed to deal with slow-onset disasters often differ from those used in the context of rapid-onset disasters. The distinction between slow-and rapid-onset disasters is therefore one that we employ in this report.

The relationship between humanitarian response and development assistance

15. The term humanitarian response refers to actions taken in order:

"to save lives, alleviate suffering and maintain human dignity during and in the aftermath of man-made crises and natural disasters, as well as to prevent and strengthen preparedness for the occurrence of such situations".[34]

Fundamentally, most humanitarian action depends on national and local authorities giving their consent for a humanitarian presence and allowing access to affected populations.[35] There is a widespread consensus that humanitarian actions should be rooted in a set of humanitarian principles, including humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence. These have been codified in International Humanitarian Law and the framework of principles developed by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).[36] The application of humanitarian principles, however, has often been contested with different actors interpreting them in different ways.

16. The traditional boundary between humanitarian and development actors used to be drawn according to a distinction between acute needs, necessitating an emergency response, and chronic needs, to be addressed through long term programming. Historically there has been a conceptual, cultural and operational divide between the humanitarian and development sectors. However, the move towards conceptualising disasters as the product of natural hazards combined with human vulnerability has blurred this divide. This conceptualisation has shown that the poverty-related needs addressed by development actors often make populations vulnerable to disasters. The extent to which development actors take account of populations' disaster vulnerability and focus on disaster risk reduction, is variable. The UNDP has argued that the development community "generally continues to view disasters as exceptional natural events that interrupt normal development and that can be managed through humanitarian actions".[37]

17. Humanitarian interventions in the aftermath of a disaster often address the acute manifestation of chronic needs which had previously been addressed by development actors. Efforts by humanitarian actors to address acute needs often impact on prospects for the reduction of chronic needs, the long term aim of development actors. The extent to which humanitarian actors take account of the long term impacts of their interventions is also variable. Like development actors, humanitarian actors have had a tendency to treat natural disasters as atypical interruptions, rather than seeing them in their developmental context. Humanitarian actors have struggled in particular with crises related to chronic vulnerability such as the 2005 food crisis in Niger[38] and the 2006 drought in the Greater Horn of Africa.[39]

18. There is an increasing acknowledgement of the blurring of the boundary between development assistance and humanitarian responses, particularly in relation to slow-onset disasters.[40] This seems to be partly related to the increased attention being paid by development actors to targeting extreme poverty and chronically poor people, and addressing exclusion, vulnerability, equity and rights issues. Development funds allocated to mitigating or preventing disasters will strengthen poverty reduction strategies, where failing to act may undermine or destroy them. The move towards seeing disasters as a development issue has led to a renewed focus on the interface between the fields of humanitarianism and development assistance, and the extent to which they can be complementary. The effectiveness with which development and humanitarianism work together is particularly crucial for organisations such as DFID, which are engaged in both fields. Although it is important to acknowledge and retain the important differences and distinctions between the fields of humanitarianism and development, there remains scope for more effective interaction, lesson learning and cooperation at both policy and operational levels. We return to this subject in Chapter 9.

26 See reports available on the International Development Committee website (www.parliament.uk/indcom) including: Third Report of Session 2002/03, The Humanitarian Crisis in Southern Africa, HC 116-I and II, March 2003 and Third Report of Session 2001/02, Global Climate Change and Sustainable Development, HC 519-I and II, July 2002.As part of their written evidence to this inquiry DFID responded to a list of written questions following up recommendations relating to humanitarian assistance made by the IDC in previous reports (Ev 145). Back

27 See International Development Committee's Second Report of Session 2005/06, Darfur; the killing continues, HC 657, January 2006; Fifth Report of Session 2004/05, Darfur, Sudan: The Responsibility to Protect, HC 67-I and II, March 2005; Fourth Report of Session 2002/03, Preparing for the Humanitarian consequences of possible military action in Iraq, HC 444-I and II, March 2003 ; First Report of Session 2002/03, Afghanistan: the transition from Humanitarian Relief to Reconstruction and Development Assistance, HC 84, January 2003. Back

28 International Development Committee's Sixth Report of Session 2005/06,Conflict and Development: Peacebuilding and Post-conflict Reconstruction, HC 923-I and II, October 2006. Back

29 Q 275 Mr Jan Egeland Back

30 Longley, Christoplos and Slaymaker 'Agricultural Rehabilitation: Mapping the linkages between humanitarian relief, social protection and development', HPG Report 22 (2006), London: ODI, p.13. Back

31 Blaikie, Cannon, Davis and Wisner 'At risk: Natural hazards, people's vulnerability and disasters', (1994) London: Routledge. Back

32 UNDP 'Reducing disaster risk: A challenge for development', (2004), available online at http://www.undp.org/bcpr/disred/documents/publications/rdr/english/rdr_english.pdf. Back

33 Stabinski, Pelley, Jacob, Long and Leaning 'Reframing HIV and AIDS', (2003), British Medical Journal 327, pp.1101-1103 Back

34 Ev 139 [DFID] Back

35 UN Security Council authorised interventions are an exception to this. Back

36 Pictet 'The Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross', (1979) Geneva: Henry Dunant Institute. Back

37 See footnote 32. Back