The Interplay Between Socio-economic Crises and Disaster Risks: Examples from the Developed and Developing World (original) (raw)

Regardless of the origin, financial and socio-economic crises feature combinations of adverse conditions: lack of access to financing/credit, slump in investments, household demand and consumption, a falling GDP, high deficits and debt ratios, loss of income, unemployment, shrinkage of state provisions, poverty, enforced migration, homelessness, and an incapacity to satisfy basic needs. These translate into losses for collective and private agencies in the crisis community. The systemically interrelated losses are not only financial and economic but also physical, human, social, and political (e.g., loss of trust in political leadership). Each agency that suffers losses experiences an increase in vulnerability because vulnerability, by definition, is a susceptibility to loss. Resilience is also badly affected as a result of the crisis impacting properties through redundancy, robustness, diversity, self-sufficiency, autonomy, and flexibility. Therefore, communities faced with socio-e...