The impact of disasters on development gains
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Material Information

Title:
The impact of disasters on development gains clarity or controversy
Creator:
Lavell, Allan
Disaster Risk Reduction Program, Florida International University (DRR/FIU) ( summary contributor )
Publisher:
La Red de Estudios Sociales en Prevención de Desastres en América Latina (LA RED)
Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO)
Publication Date:
Copyright Date:
1999
Language:
English

Subjects

Subjects / Keywords:
Risk management ( lcshac )
Natural hazards and disasters ( lcshac )
Genre:
non-fiction ( marcgt )

Notes

Summary:
This paper critically analyzes several arguments in the literature on how disasters impact the development process. It specifically highlights how the development process, as well as underdevelopment, can produce disaster. The author’s analysis features six basic premises: (1) ‘any serious analysis of the disaster-development problem must use a temporal framework that guarantees that the full "life cycle" of a disaster can be closely examined’; (2) ‘large-scale events should not typify and dominate the problem of disaster. More concern should be given to the wide range of lower level damaging events that recurrently affect different regions, localities and communities throughout the world’; (3) ‘the statistics produced to date on disaster impacts are not particularly conducive to any detailed analysis of the disaster-development problem’; (4) ‘concentration on the question of the impacts of disasters on development basically serves as a distraction from the fundamental question, which is the impact of development on disasters’; (5) ‘the basic problem is not that disasters may have important negative development consequences, particularly where their impact is large relative to the size of the affected economy. Rather, the real problem is the reduced size and/or level of development of the affected economy and society’; and (6) ‘the use of economic criteria and cost-benefit equations for attempting to justify risk mitigation and reduction may reap rewards for the modern sector economy, but this is not the case for the poor and traditional sectors that make up the majority of the victims of disaster’ (p.2). Throughout the paper, the author focuses more on the problem of disaster in developing countries. The Mitch hurricane in Central America and the Kobe earthquake in Japan have been compared in order to emphasize the salience of disaster preparedness. “It is the size of the affected economy and its levels of development that finally determine magnitude and the impacts on development. The problem is society not the hazard.” (p.13-14) Moreover, the author contends that disasters are socially and politically constructed, hence, their impacts depend to a great extent on this construction. ( English )
Subject:
General Risk Management ( English )
Subject:
Development ( English )
Citation/Reference:
Lavell, A. (1999). The impact of disasters on development gains: clarity or controversy. Latin American Social Science Faculty (FLACSO), the Network for the Social Study of Disaster Prevention in Latin America (LA RED).
General Note:
Paper Presented at the IDNDR Programme Forum, Geneva, 5-9th July 1999

Record Information

Source Institution:
Florida International University
Rights Management:
Refer to main document/publisher for use rights.
Resource Identifier:
FI13042565

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Aggregations:
Disaster Risk Reduction