About

Poverty alleviation in the wake of typhoon Yolanda is an ESRC-DFID funded three-year collaborative research project between the University of Nottingham and the University of the Philippines (ES/M008932/1).

This project monitors the effectiveness of the typhoon Yolanda relief efforts in the Philippines in relation to building sustainable routes out of poverty. The project focuses on urban population risk, vulnerability to disasters and resilience in the aftermath of these shocks. Urban slum dwellers are extremely vulnerable to natural disasters. The key themes of the project are vulnerability, risk, resilience and shocks in relation to paths in and out of poverty.

Lessons learned from this research will be highly relevant to post-disaster reconstruction efforts in low-income countries, specifically within densely populated urban areas. These communities are amongst the most at risk and yet least able to resurrect themselves after disasters. Vulnerability and risk are conditions that are heightened by poverty, and inform why and how poor people are exposed to natural disasters, whilst resilience informs how they coped and how coping strategies can be supported and risk lessened.

We will measure resilience over time and to test the extent to which the notion of ‘Building Back Better’ is credible.