DisastersPub Date : 2025-12-15DOI: 10.1111/disa.70026
Samuel F. Derbyshire, Nathaniel Jensen, John Mutua, Tahira Mohamed, Puff Mukwaya, Guyo Roba, Susan Njambi-Szlapka, Sirimon Thomas, George Tsitati, Alan Duncan
{"title":"Anticipatory action and pastoralism in Africa: a synthesis of current challenges, opportunities, and priorities","authors":"Samuel F. Derbyshire, Nathaniel Jensen, John Mutua, Tahira Mohamed, Puff Mukwaya, Guyo Roba, Susan Njambi-Szlapka, Sirimon Thomas, George Tsitati, Alan Duncan","doi":"10.1111/disa.70026","DOIUrl":"10.1111/disa.70026","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article synthesises the current situation vis-à-vis the aid modality of anticipatory action in pastoralist settings. Broadly comprising pre-planned, pre-financed interventions triggered by early warning systems and aimed at reducing the impacts of crises, anticipatory action has been effective at reducing the impact of shocks in multiple settings (particularly sudden-onset shocks such as floods and cyclones). Yet, it has seemingly failed to achieve as significant an impact in mobile, livestock herding areas, where recurrent drought—a slow-onset disaster—is a defining ecological feature. To understand this limited success, this article explores the distinct challenges posed by the socioeconomic and ecological dynamics of the drylands, where crises are never uniform or unilinear and are thus extremely difficult to make predictions amidst. Surveying diverse evidence and perspectives, it highlights some of the unique characteristics of pastoral livelihoods, which set them apart from other forms of subsistence in ways that are critical to the conceptualisation and implementation of assistance programmes. In doing so, it examines cross-cutting themes of central significance to the future of anticipatory action in the drylands, identifying key uncharted areas for future inquiry and new potentials that might be unlocked through novel approaches to programming and intervention.</p>","PeriodicalId":48088,"journal":{"name":"Disasters","volume":"50 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12703664/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145758065","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DisastersPub Date : 2025-12-02DOI: 10.1111/disa.70031
Tahira Mohamed
{"title":"Institutional and policy networks in disaster management in the Horn of Africa: insights from Kenya1","authors":"Tahira Mohamed","doi":"10.1111/disa.70031","DOIUrl":"10.1111/disa.70031","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Disasters in the Horn of Africa have become more frequent and protracted due to climate change and the compounding factors that restrict resource access, leading to severe food insecurity and livelihood losses. While governmental, international, and regional partners have made significant progress in adopting disaster management policies and frameworks, challenges remain. Limited empirical attempts have been made to understand how diverse actors with differing goals and competing interests interact with one another and influence disaster management and development outcomes. Drawing on qualitative data collected over two years, this paper explores the diverse practices within and across disaster management in the region, using Kenya as a case study, and focusing in particular on drought as a national disaster. It investigates how multiple actors, networks, and other hidden dynamics shape disaster response outcomes. It establishes that various institutional barriers, rigid structures and mindsets, along with shifting priorities and insufficient resources, often result in fragmented drought responses, disjointed coordination, and siloed operations across multiple layers. This study highlights the importance of paying attention to these dynamics and recognising them as key grounds for improvement. It advocates for more introspection and new approaches to collaboration rather than new policy frameworks.</p>","PeriodicalId":48088,"journal":{"name":"Disasters","volume":"50 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12670474/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145655078","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DisastersPub Date : 2025-12-01DOI: 10.1111/disa.70029
Farida Rachmawati, Connie Susilawati, Melissa Teo, Abdul Majeed Aslam Saja, Bernadetta Devi, Ria Asih Aryani Soemitro, Sara Wilkinson, Ashantha Goonetilleke
{"title":"Flood risk perception, awareness, and preparedness behaviours among vulnerable population groups: implications for building community resilience","authors":"Farida Rachmawati, Connie Susilawati, Melissa Teo, Abdul Majeed Aslam Saja, Bernadetta Devi, Ria Asih Aryani Soemitro, Sara Wilkinson, Ashantha Goonetilleke","doi":"10.1111/disa.70029","DOIUrl":"10.1111/disa.70029","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The frequency and intensity of flood disaster events are increasing. It is well documented that community flood vulnerability and impacts vary depending on household attributes. Nevertheless, vulnerable households in high flood risk areas rarely invest time and effort to reduce their vulnerability. A mixed-methods case study investigated the key factors that shaped flood risk perceptions, awareness levels, and information accessibility among households with three levels of vulnerability. Flood concerns were found to increase with household vulnerability and having a vulnerable family member elevated flood disaster risk. Disaster awareness is affected by household attributes such as evacuation assistance for vulnerable family members, as well as by support from government/community groups. Personal networks, including families and neighbours, are primary flood information verification sources, with WhatsApp being the main social media platform utilised. The findings suggest that governments should tap into trusted community and social networks to disseminate flood risk communication to reduce disaster vulnerability.</p>","PeriodicalId":48088,"journal":{"name":"Disasters","volume":"50 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145649855","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DisastersPub Date : 2025-12-01DOI: 10.1111/disa.70027
Jackson Wachira, Masresha Taye, Nancy Balfour, Hussein Tadicha
{"title":"The mixed resilience outcomes of water interventions in the pastoral drylands of the Horn of Africa","authors":"Jackson Wachira, Masresha Taye, Nancy Balfour, Hussein Tadicha","doi":"10.1111/disa.70027","DOIUrl":"10.1111/disa.70027","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In recent decades, development and humanitarian actors in the Horn of Africa have employed the concept of resilience to design and justify the establishment of diverse water supply systems. The principal aim of these interventions is to enhance pastoralists' resilience to droughts and other shocks. However, limited empirical research has examined the resilience outcomes of new and existing water supply systems in pastoral areas. This study addresses this gap by analysing primary data collected in Marsabit County in northern Kenya and the Somali region of eastern Ethiopia. Adopting a contextual approach to resilience, the findings challenge the oversimplified narrative that links water supply systems in pastoral drylands directly to resilience. The results reveal major trade-offs: while water infrastructure enhances short-term water access, it also disrupts mobility, generates sociopolitical conflict, engenders ill health, exacerbates inequality, and spawns range degradation. The analysis shows that water supply systems contribute to resilience only when well-governed and aligned with mobility, resource access, diversification, and social networks—conditions rarely met in many dryland contexts.</p>","PeriodicalId":48088,"journal":{"name":"Disasters","volume":"50 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12667009/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145649847","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DisastersPub Date : 2025-11-28DOI: 10.1111/disa.70028
Stern Mwakalimi Kita
{"title":"‘It's like these scientists own the rains’: indigenous knowledge, disaster warnings, and the politics of legitimacy in Malawi","authors":"Stern Mwakalimi Kita","doi":"10.1111/disa.70028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/disa.70028","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study examines the declining use of indigenous knowledge (IK) in early warning systems for climate-related disasters in Malawi, drawing on qualitative data from four disaster-prone districts and national-level institutions. While IK is frequently referenced in policy discourse and programmatic frameworks, its practical integration into disaster risk reduction (DRR) efforts remains limited, underlining deeper epistemic tensions that structure disaster governance. The findings reveal that scientific systems are institutionally privileged owing to donor logics, technocratic norms, and standardised metrics, while IK is increasingly marginalised, both by formal structures and shifting community dynamics, including youth disengagement, intergenerational disconnects, and religious beliefs. Adopting a co-productionist lens, the study argues for a move beyond tokenistic inclusion and towards genuine knowledge pluralism, recognising the distinct value of IK in fostering resilience, particularly in resource-constrained and culturally diverse settings. The paper contributes to ongoing debates on epistemic justice, legitimacy, and the politics of knowledge in DRR and climate adaptation.</p>","PeriodicalId":48088,"journal":{"name":"Disasters","volume":"50 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/disa.70028","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145626435","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DisastersPub Date : 2025-11-25DOI: 10.1111/disa.70032
James M. White, Carina Green, Esin Düzel
{"title":"Vulnerable knowledge: responding to the uncertainties of climate change-related disaster","authors":"James M. White, Carina Green, Esin Düzel","doi":"10.1111/disa.70032","DOIUrl":"10.1111/disa.70032","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper uses uncertainty generated by environmental change and climate crisis as a prompt to rethink the concept of vulnerability within disaster studies. Where some have sought to recover a latent political potential in vulnerability, a togetherness founded in the disclosure of insecurities to others, we argue that there is value in refusing to settle on any single meaning. This is explored directly through an analysis of narrative interviews with persons bearing different vulnerabilities in four European countries. Tracking forms and expressions of vulnerability across research sites, we identify an unease and fragility in knowledge of disaster risk, before assessing how people nevertheless make sense of their experience and act collectively to find ways through uncertainty. The paper also considers vulnerability reflexively in the context of epistemic practices, suggesting that modesty and openness to more localised ways of knowing might contribute to the adaptability and responsiveness of disaster studies. We conceptualise these diverse dispositions to uncertainty as vulnerable knowledge.</p>","PeriodicalId":48088,"journal":{"name":"Disasters","volume":"50 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/disa.70032","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145597846","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DisastersPub Date : 2025-10-16DOI: 10.1111/disa.70025
Dr Ahmad AL Ajlan
{"title":"Neoliberal economic policies as a root cause of forced migration from Arab Spring countries: the case of Syria","authors":"Dr Ahmad AL Ajlan","doi":"10.1111/disa.70025","DOIUrl":"10.1111/disa.70025","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article illustrates the impact of neoliberal economic policies on forced migration from Arab Spring countries. It highlights how these policies, based on the recommendations of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, significantly contributed to the outbreak of civil wars and subsequent refugee crises. The central argument of this analysis is that the economic reform programmes were a primary driver of the forced migration wave after 2010. Using Syria as a case study, the paper shows how the implementation of these programmes led to the erosion of the social contract that had previously ensured stability in Syria. This erosion was characterised by the marginalisation of rural areas and populations, the reduction of subsidies, and the economic and political marginalisation of the country's youth. The article calls on international financial institutions to take into consideration the nature of political regimes and the dynamics of authoritarianism to prevent turmoil, civil wars, and forced migration in the future.</p>","PeriodicalId":48088,"journal":{"name":"Disasters","volume":"50 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-10-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12530031/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145303896","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DisastersPub Date : 2025-10-03DOI: 10.1111/disa.70024
Cansu Civelek
{"title":"From state commodification to local reproduction of vulnerability: ethnographic insights from a Risk Zone Urban Renewal Project in Turkey","authors":"Cansu Civelek","doi":"10.1111/disa.70024","DOIUrl":"10.1111/disa.70024","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This paper explores how vulnerability is not only defined by the state but also actively reshaped through policy implementation and lived experience. Drawing on ethnographic research in Eskişehir, Turkey, I propose an analytical distinction between the ‘commodification of vulnerability’—framing risk in technoscientific and moral terms to justify intervention—and the ‘reproduction of vulnerability’—capturing the emergent precarity produced by such action. Following the 2011 Van earthquakes, Turkey's central government advanced disaster prevention as a national imperative. In 2012, Law No. 6306 was enacted to facilitate large-scale urban transformations in the name of risk prevention. Eskişehir's Metropolitan Municipality quickly adopted the ‘Renewal Law’, initiating the Risk Zone Urban Renewal Project with the stated aim of protecting lives and property. While official definitions of vulnerability centred on the structural durability of the built environment, residents of the designated area have encountered new and unanticipated vulnerabilities, ranging from housing insecurity and prolonged legal limbo to socioeconomic instability and emotional distress.</p>","PeriodicalId":48088,"journal":{"name":"Disasters","volume":"50 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/disa.70024","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145213977","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DisastersPub Date : 2025-09-24DOI: 10.1111/disa.70023
Bilal Hamamra, Fayez Mahamid
{"title":"Faith, community, and resilience during genocide in Gaza","authors":"Bilal Hamamra, Fayez Mahamid","doi":"10.1111/disa.70023","DOIUrl":"10.1111/disa.70023","url":null,"abstract":"<p><b>‘</b>Gazacide’, following the events of 7 October 2023, has deepened trauma and exacerbated the severe dispossession and exploitation faced by Palestinians. Positive religious coping, particularly within the Islamic faith, and social support are crucial for alleviating the impacts of traumatic experiences and fostering psychological adjustment. Thirty participants, 17 females and 13 males, were recruited via snowball sampling to examine the role of these factors in Gaza. Interviews were scrutinised using thematic analysis, leading to the identification of six main themes: (i) the role of religion in providing psychological resilience; (ii) religious leaders as pillars of support; (iii) the role of social support networks in strengthening community resilience; (iv) the strain of overcrowding and displacement on social cohesion; (v) challenges of supporting vulnerable populations through religion and community; and (vi) rebuilding trust and hope amid displacement and genocide. Religious leaders and social support institutions play a vital part in promoting positive coping strategies, aiding individuals in understanding these experiences.</p>","PeriodicalId":48088,"journal":{"name":"Disasters","volume":"50 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145132254","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
DisastersPub Date : 2025-09-22DOI: 10.1111/disa.70018
Kristoffer Lidén
{"title":"Ethics and the governance of digital data in humanitarian action","authors":"Kristoffer Lidén","doi":"10.1111/disa.70018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/disa.70018","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Given limited legal and political oversight owing to the nature of humanitarian operations, the management of digital data by humanitarian organisations is largely governed through ethical self-regulation. In this paper I assess the perils and promises of such self-governance via an analysis of the <i>IASC Operational Guidance on Data Responsibility in Humanitarian Action</i>. By drawing on empirical literatures on the problems and practices that this guidance seeks to address, I argue that adopting its principles and procedures is no guarantee of ethical conduct. The reason is that interpretation of the principles is not agreed upon, and their practical implementation is constrained by conflicting commitments and the lacking capacity of organisations. On this basis, I consider the risk of ‘ethics washing’ resulting from failure to uphold ethical standards without acknowledging it. This leads to a discussion of whether ethical self-regulation should be replaced with more legal regulation and political control to avoid this danger.</p>","PeriodicalId":48088,"journal":{"name":"Disasters","volume":"50 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145111399","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}