Livelihood assets, mutual support and disaster resilience in coastal Bangladesh

Abstract

Livelihoods, and the household assets that support them, are crucial for households' own disaster resilience, and for their capacity to provide support to other households during an emergency and recovery phases. Using a combination of a quantitative survey, and interviews and focus group discussions for qualitative depth, this study looks closely at the human capital, natural assets, physical assets, and financial capital that households in two Bangladeshi coastal villages rely on for disaster resilience. During the emergency response period, health and physical strength (human capital), and food stocks (physical capital) are the assets that households most rely on. Other kinds of assets (natural, and financial) play larger roles during early and long-term recovery phases. On average, each household has one healthy member of working age who is not employed, so expanding livelihood opportunities, both locally (e.g. in fish processing) and in skilled employment elsewhere (e.g. through technical education) is fundamental. Coastal households in Bangladesh are generally very poor. Only 4% of households were housed in concrete homes that are relatively cyclone resilient. Their main livelihood assets - boats, nets and agricultural land - are also all very vulnerable to cyclonic impacts. Strengthening disaster resilience via improving the asset base of coastal households is a ‘general resilience’ agenda. This broader development agenda is the foundation for improving disaster resilience.