Complex and multiple realities: understanding poverty and vulnerability context in Lagos informal settlements
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Date
2016
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AESOP
Abstract
Vulnerability has been identified as a major hindrance to sustainable livelihood, social and economic development and poverty alleviation. The concept of vulnerability has evolved over the years and it has been applied in various disciplines. For examples, it has been widely applied in the fields of natural hazards climate change and poverty and sustainable livelihoods. This paper focuses on vulnerability from poverty and sustainable livelihoods perspective. DFID (1999) defines vulnerability as trends, shocks and seasonality, which people have limited or no control over, but affect their livelihoods. Vulnerability consists of two sides – external and internal. The external side consists of risks, shocks and stress to which an individual is subject to, while the internal side refers to a lack of means to cope with risks, shocks and stress (Chambers, 1989).
This paper examines the vulnerability contexts within which the residents of informal settlements pursue their livelihood and what they are vulnerable to. The theoretical underpinnings of this research are, first, that the urban poor pursue their livelihoods within multiple and complex vulnerability contexts, which exacerbate their poverty. Second, it is theorised, that vulnerability is closely linked to asset ownership. The poor are particularly vulnerable because they have limited assets to cope with shocks and to build a sustainable livelihood.
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Proceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the south
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