A needs-based approach for exploring vulnerability and response to disaster risk in rural communities in low income countries

Vulnerability assessment and reduction are now central to developing a holistic and integrated approach to disaster risk reduction, including mitigating the effects of a disaster. Pre-existing frameworks for mapping vulnerability and planning response to disasters do not completely fit the realities of rural communities in low income countries where most people informally organize their own livelihoods, resources, space, security and response to disasters according to their needs and capacities. Livelihood activities are undertaken to satisfy needs. Hence, understanding needs of people and communities in this context can help unravel vulnerability and response capacity to disaster risks. This paper therefore applied a needs-based approach to explore and analyze the vulnerability of two rural communities in northern Ghana to flood risk. A survey was done, using a semi-structured questionnaire, to collect data immediately after the flood in 2007. Based on ranking of needs, the results show that survival and security needs (mainly food, housing, education and reliable income) were dominant before and after the flood. During the flood, however, survival and empathic needs were more important. The results also show the disconnection between institutional frameworks for disaster management and the needs of the communities and, therefore, show a scope for policy and research in disaster management. However, in the context of sustainability, economic needs (dominated by income) were slightly greater than environmental needs (dominated by drainage, water and sanitation and relocation) which, in turn, were higher than social needs (dominated by health and education). Interestingly, most respondents indicated that a reliable source of income was a prerequisite for satisfying social needs in the short term and environmental needs in the long-term. It is concluded that the approach used in this research is simple, intuitive and easy to apply to map vulnerabilities to disaster risk across multiple scales. It is also easy to integrate into policy and management decisions about disaster risk reduction.