Impacts of urban crises in low-income versus middle-income countries (GSDRC Helpdesk Research Report 1096)
Do conflicts and disasters affect urban areas differently in low income countries when compared with middle income countries?
Abstract
Query
Do conflicts and disasters affect urban areas differently in low income countries when compared with middle income countries? What other factors influence how conflicts and disasters affect urban areas?
Overview
National income is not widely analysed as a determinant of how conflicts and disasters affect urban areas. There are very few high quality, systematic studies of how conflicts or disasters affect urban areas that clearly differentiate between low-income and middle-income countries.
The evidence available on the effect of the overall level of economic development on disaster risk, the likely scale of economic and human losses to disasters, and the capacity of cities to respond to them, suggests that higher levels of economic development do not necessarily lead to reductions in risk, but are associated with improved capacity to respond to disasters and to recover from them. Income-related factors which have been identified as significantly influencing the impacts of disasters and conflicts in urban areas include quality of infrastructure, government capacity, and the proportion of the population living in informal settlements.
Citation
Strachan, A.L.; Mcloughlin, C. Impacts of urban crises in low-income versus middle-income countries (GSDRC Helpdesk Research Report 1096). Governance and Social Development Resource Centre, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK (2014) 8 pp.
Links