What drives vulnerability? Explaining the institutional context of flood disaster risk management in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

This paper analyzes institutional vulnerability drivers in Flood Disaster Risk Management (FDRM). Using Ghana as case study, we explain the distinct institutional context of vulnerability to natural hazards in Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA). Addressing a research gap, the limited consideration of the embeddedness of institutional vulnerability, we broaden Papathoma-Köhle et al.'s (2021) institutional vulnerability framework for application in SSA. This combines the analysis of institutions that directly or indirectly impact disaster management and of the capacity to respond to impacts of hazardous events. We explore four pillars, each with specific drivers (socio-cultural, socio-political, fiscal-economic and legislative-regulatory), to answer two research questions: 1) What drives institutional vulnerability in Ghana? and 2) How do these drivers foster or hamper FDRM in Ghana? Specifically, we analyze the drivers of institutional vulnerability and how they hamper FDRM, revealing causal links between the institutional context and FDRM policy implementation. Our qualitative application of the framework enables us to identify the interconnectedness between drivers of institutional vulnerability and underlying causes. Our results show that in an SSA country such as Ghana, the institutional context can be understood as a sensitive interplay of formal and informal institutional drivers, behavioral pitfalls, a culture of impunity, and deficits in necessary resources and risk transfer mechanisms.