Paper details

Paper authors	Uacitissa Mandamule
In panel on	How to include marginalized groups in risk communication and community engagement
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

Communication on natural disasters plays an important role in the response of households to the looming danger and in the actions to be adopted to safeguard household resources and assets. Formal and informal disaster communication can occur before the hazard, with a focus on preparedness and removal of people from risk zones, and after it, focusing more on the victims and their rights.

Literature review and fieldwork research in the district of Búzi, Mozambique, shows that, while victims tend to reflect on the psychological effects of the events themselves and on the economic losses and social transformations they produce, Non-Governmental Organizations and humanitarian aid agencies focus on alleviating the immediate and mediate impacts of the occurrences.

Communication made by these actors in the aftermath of the disaster shows that, in addition to producing social and economic vulnerability, natural disasters can also favor the occurrence of collective dependency, physical and symbolic violence on women and girls. This paper also discusses how economic state weakness can undermine efforts to protect victims’ rights and avoid protracted recovery.

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