This study presents a novel way to separately investigate trends during the past decade regarding the impact of extensive and intensive disasters on child welfare and development. Studies covered a broad variety of countries located in different geographical regions and exposed to different types of hazard.
This research presents an initial assessment of the trends for recent years which generally corroborate the patterns of disaster impact on child welfare promoted through the advocacy literature and thus support much of the child-centred advocacy in the DRR sphere – however it has also shown that disasters can also create unexpected impacts that improve welfare outcomes.
Through a rapid desk-based assessment this study contributes to learning and debate by investigating whether available data gives evidence of patterns and trends of the impact of disasters on childhood welfare indicators over the past decade (1999-2009). The study is unique in presenting an initial approach to disaggregate and empirically
analyse the trends of both ‘extensive’ and ‘intensive’ disaster risk on child welfare and development, using a similar and comparable methodology. This reflects a growing concern with the need for DRR practices to engage in tackling regular low level risk, as well as responding to emergency high impact situations.
