I am wondering if anyone happens to know of a case study that demonstrates a failed community resilience project, that specifically failed through a lack of regard for local knowledge or culture. Thus demonstrating the significance of local knowledge and culture to be incorporated in to resilience building projects.
Hi, not sure of this tread is still active, but by coincidence I heard a story just today that fits quite well here. I’m currently in the Philippines doing research on post-disaster recovery related to Haiyan (the 2013 typhoon). The story is the following: of the many INGOs that were active in the greater Tacloban area after Haiyan several (in particular the Tzu Chi Foundation from Taiwan) gave unconditional cash payments to affected people (which is quite unusual, but in my view useful to give people not only aid but also the feeling of having some control over their response actions, in comparison to just receiving food aid). In the end people got quite some money and some started up a local pastime of cock-fighting, including betting. That apparently infuriated the NGO folks (as in “I give you money to survive, and you gamble it away”). I’m not sure if that led to cash payments being stopped. However, it really missed the point. This was not about betting. It was about people regaining a sense of normality, which is critical in resilience. Hence one of the effects of the money was to bring the community closer together, and built resilience, using a local custom. This was apparently completely missed by the NGOs.
Best, Norman
The only way to know that there was failure would be through the review of project raw in/ex-post assessment reports. Final reports released are ubiquitously biased toward the interest of implementing entities (IO/NGOs, Associations, Government agencies) that all resilience projects went on successfully. This therefore is a good but hard question to answer.
At the conference highlighted below many examples of community resilience in the Pacific Islands region and beyond are discussed
: https://www.usp.ac.fj/index.php?id=22667
Annual Conference of the IGU Commission on Local and Regional Development, June 25 - 28, 2019 in Suva, Fiji
Development Challenges in Rural and Urban Areas
Bringing together rural, urban and regional development challenges is an interesting, but difficult task. It becomes even more challenging in a part of the world where countries and even parts of them are separated by a huge body of water: the Pacific Ocean.
With the notion of climate change potential risks to human well-being and the virtual survival of whole island states have added challenges that in the meanwhile are discussed globally.
These challenges call for investigations on how human activities and global environmental changes affect human well-being, economic, social and cultural systems in island societies and beyond.
In this context, the rationale of the conference is to bring together scientists and stakeholders from various connecting fields to address multiple impacts of various challenges to societies and to contributing to discussing and drafting practical solutions in form of mitigation and adaptation strategies in local and regional planning and development policies anywhere on the globe.
The conference will be held from June 25 – 28, 2019
The following topics have been suggested so far.
- Uneven development - Spatial and socio-economic inequalities
- Competitiveness and cohesion in urban and rural areas
- Local and regional vulnerabilities to climate change under the current socio-economic context - resilient cities and rural communities
- Role of multi-actor and multi-level governance in sustainable planning and development
- Survival strategies of peripheral communities
- Local and regional economic and social entrepreneurship
- Rural-urban changing relationships
https://www.usp.ac.fj/index.php?id=22667
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