Assessing how disasters damage and disrupt
livelihoods
One of initial components of a PCR process
(as outlined in PCR Tool 4: Assessment of
reconstruction needs and resources) is to review the
needs and resources available. Suggested methods
included:
• Pillars of survival: an assessment of people’s
livelihoods and coping mechanisms; and
• Defining economic activities: where people are
invited to describe how they earn/ed an income
currently and before the disaster.
• Emergency Market Mapping Analysis (EMMA)
and Participatory Market Systems Analysis.
EMMA is used to look at particular market
sectors. It could be applied in the first instance
to the most important livelihood activities such
as fishing or farming. A preliminary assessment
aims to draw up, as far as is known, the
structure and operation of the market prior to
the disaster. A second assessment is carried out
to create a diagram of the market map after the
disaster. This indicates where the linkages are
broken, or particular infrastructure, actors or
rules are not functioning. This provides a guide
to where the market needs to be rebuilt. Further
analysis can include a prognosis on recovering
and developing markets and an assessment of
potential responses.
For further information on EMMA see
http://practicalaction.org/emma-toolkit or
http://emma-toolkit.info/
For an overview of assessing markets and
helping them to recover see Adams and Harvey
(2006).
Using the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework
to assess how livelihoods are damaged
The results of these assessments can also be
understood in terms of the Sustainable Livelihoods
Framework (SLF), which helps provide a more
complete picture of poor people’s assets and
vulnerabilities (Figure 1). It guides us in terms
of understanding the assets that were critical to
people’s livelihoods and identifying those that have
been lost. It helps us to understand the sources
of vulnerability in the face of future disasters. It
can be adapted for use in both urban and rural
contexts.
The SLF helps us to identify all the ways
in which households’ assets are disrupted and
damaged following a disaster. Examples are listed
below. For more guidance see: ELDIS, and Benson
(2007).
Physical assets
• Damage or destruction of individual houses
inevitably disrupts or terminates home-based
business activities (production/selling of food
and consumable goods, storage, repair of
fishnets etc.)
• Putting out of use of collective infrastructure
and facilities such as boat jetties, roads,
shops and stalls, market buildings,
telecommunications installations, energy
supplies, storage buildings and water supplies).
• Damage to and loss of tools and equipment such
as boats, tractors, bicycles, stoves etc.
• Degradation of land through, for example,
landslides over agricultural land, or land being
Key
H = Human Capital S = Social Capital
N = Natural Capital P = Physical Capital
F = Financial Capital
Figure 1. Sustainable Livelihoods Framework. Source: DFID (1999)
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