How do structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) affect disaster vulnerability in urban areas? Research by Oxford Brookes University argues that urban areas are not necessarily disaster-prone by nature. Rather, SAPs accelerate urbanisation, population movement and concentration, thus increasing the disaster vulnerability of low-income urban dwellers. Would macro-economic reform avert disaster vulnerability, asks the paper?

The complex link between environmental degradation, associated with SAP policies aimed at rapid economic growth and hazards in urban areas is increasingly recognised. SAPs cause cities to change faster than their developmental, planning and environmental systems can safely respond, leading to urban systems ill-suited to the scale of growth and restructuring of economic activity. Increased production, competition and efficiency, are traded off against adverse environmental consequences. SAPs demand that cities compete globally – indeed developing country cities can provide highly competitive labour markets. But are the environmental costs in terms of living conditions and quality of housing worth it?

At the same time SAPs have resulted in changing forms of governance, so that urban planning is often decentralised to understaffed and under financed local authorities. Low-income groups are often excluded from urban planning processes. These factors reinforce the social and economic inequalities of urban areas and compel the urban poor to settle in unsafe areas, because their competitive power in land and housing markets is very weak. Urban populations are also increasing as deteriorating rural living standards force people to migrate to cities.

Within this context, research findings suggest that:

• human factors in creating or increasing vulnerability through SAPs can be as decisive as natural phenomena in causing disasters
• natural phenomena would likely cause less severe disasters if people had better opportunities to settle in safe sites in healthy, hygienic conditions
• the magnitude of a disaster reflects existing levels of inequality, exclusion and marginality
• the assumption that countries seeking rapid economic development cannot afford environmental control measures has dangerous long-term consequences
• cities can both contribute to and reduce their vulnerability depending on methods and approaches used in development

Policy implications include suggestions that:

• disaster mitigation needs to be fully integrated into cities’ planning processes
• the economic environment is conducive to production but need not necessarily be detrimental to urban environmental systems and settlement strategies
• development models take into consideration local and regional structures
• land policy reform should improve access to safer land and housing for low-income groups
• sustainable development is supported by enhancement of financial and managerial capacity of local institutions

Source(s):
Structural adjustment, urban systems and disaster vulnerability in developing countries’ in Cities Volume 15/4, pp 291-299, Elsevier Science by Mohamed Hamza and Roger Zetter (1998)

Funded by: HEFCE

id21 Research Highlight: 16 February 2001

Further Information:
Roger Zetter
School of Planning
Oxford Brookes University
Gipsy Lane Campus
Headington
Oxford OX3 0B
UK

Tel: 44 (0)1865 483925
Fax: 44 (0)1865 483925
Contact the contributor: rwzetter@brookes.ac.uk

Oxford Brookes University, UK

Mohamed Hamza
Disaster Management Centre
Cranfield University
RMCS, Shrivenham
Swindon, SN6 8LA
UK

Tel: +44 (0)1793 785 769 / 785 287
Fax: +44 (0)1793 785 883
Contact the contributor: m.hamza@rmcs.cranfield.ac.uk

Cranfield University, UK

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