Pathways to Resilience IV: Global South Perspectives

Navigating Resilience in the Face of Disasters

Abstract #141
Title: Patterns and Practices of Adaptation: Resilience among School Age Children in Malawi in face of Disasters.
Presenter: Charles Mphande (Victoria University, Australia)
Co-Author: Dixie Maluwa-Banda, Samson McJessei-Mbewe
Introduction: This ongoing study examines resilience among school age children in the Malawi with a view to identify adaptive strategies. In the 2015 floods, the South of Malawi was most severely affected by floods; 350, 000 children were out of school, 230,000 people displaced and 276 were missing or killed
Methods: Adopting a mixed-methods approach, largely within the qualitative tradition, the study follows child, family and societal adaptation narratives  in face of extreme adversity. Drawing on Masten (2011, 2014) the study examines various adaptation patterns that have emerged. Given Malawian communities are largely communal and rural, the study draws on Ungar (2013) to cast light on societal practices constituting important elements of the adaptive processes and patterns that are manifest among the school age children.
Findings: The study highlights the importance of understanding vulnerabilities and working within strengths based community development approaches, to strengthen protective factors from within community assets, so as to reduce societal vulnerability.

Abstract #228
Title: Re-thinking resilience from indigenous perspectives in the Global South: A cross-community study in disasters from Mapuche territories and Occupied Palestine
Presenter: Devin Atallah (National Research Center for Integrated Natural Disaster Management (CIGIDEN), Chile)
Introduction: Resilience thinking has moved into the forefront of global discourses on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). Indigenous peoples from the Mapuche of Chile and from refugees living in United Nations camps in Occupied Palestine, are both poignant examples of the importance of including social justice frameworks within resilience thinking in disasters.
Methods: This presentation provides a brief literature review outlining three themes or 'waves' that have emerged throughout the decades in resilience research in disasters. Then, this presentation engages a cross-community exploration by employing comparative data analysis of narratives from two distinctive qualitative studies of intergenerational resilience in indigenous communities: one completed with refugees in Occupied Palestine through the University of Massachusetts Boston, and the other through El Centro de Documentación e Investigación Indígena RUCADUNGUN with Mapuches in Chile. A total of four participant interviews from each study were selected (N = 8). These semi-structured interviews were analyzed using decolonial narrative methods.
Findings: Findings contribute to conceptual frameworks that explain resilience processes in indigenous communities responding to historical trauma and ongoing conditions of crisis and inequity. This presentation argues for incorporating decolonization frameworks into the increasingly transdisciplinary field of DRR with particular sensitivity and applicablility to historically colonized groups accross the Global South.

Abstract #41
Title: Cross-Border Migration and Disease Control & Management: A Study of Frontline Border Communities in Northern Ghana and Southern Burkina Faso
Presenter: Dennis Chirawurah (University for Development Studies, Ghana)
Co-Authors: Santuah Niagia, Stephen Apanga
Introduction: Migrant and mobile populations across border communities in Ghana and Burkina Faso use unauthorized routes and pathways for varied cross-border livelihood pursuits yet  public health control measures rely on verification of travelers’ medical records, history of risk exposure & detection of symptoms at formal international ports of entry & departure.
Methods: 46 Key informant interviews and six focus group discussions were conducted in selected frontline border communities in northern Ghana and Southern Burkina Faso to gain insights on cross-border interactions and interrelationships to more accurately target, prevent, detect and respond to threats of disease outbreaks such as the Ebola
Findings: Cross-border intermarriages, funerals, soothsayer consultations, shared markets and health care resources characterized cross-border migration and mobile populations. Understanding the interactions and interrelationships is an important dimension in effective cross-border public health management and Public health managers need to take this into account in efforts to manage cross-border disease threats.