Children and youth

Children and youth may be disproportionately exposed to disasters and experience the impact of a hazard differently, depending on their age. Children's and youth’s participation in disaster risk reduction yields potential benefits through increased resilience, enhanced personal development and skills, self-efficacy, and interpersonal relationships, and for communities through improved social connections and networks and disaster preparedness. Children and youth participation can help identify and address the specific needs and priorities of children and youth in the face of disasters.

People with disabilities

Persons with disabilities are especially vulnerable when disasters strike not only due to aspects of their disabilities, but also because they are more likely, on average, to experience adverse socioeconomic outcomes than persons without disabilities, including higher poverty rates, which directly affects their disaster resilience. Disasters and poorly planned disaster response and recovery efforts can exacerbate these disparities, leaving persons with disabilities struggling to cope even more both during and after the emergency. Policies which address the priorities, solutions and needs of persons with disabilities and leverage their potential through inclusive approaches can significantly reduce the disproportionate impact of disasters on persons with disabilities and strengthen community resilience.

Economically disadvantaged people

People living in poverty or extreme poverty will often experience higher levels of risk and find it more difficult to recover from a disaster or emergency event. Lack of accessible funds can mean people or families are unable to afford disaster-proof housing, and rehouse themselves or replace necessary items following a disaster. This is particularly relevant when the country has limited social services or state-backed safety nets.

Migrants and refugees

Worldwide, migrants, asylum seekers and refugees often face specific conditions of marginalization. They may struggle on a daily basis to access adequate services, resources and opportunities as a result of factors as diverse as limited language proficiency and local knowledge, social and spatial isolation, and a lack of trust in members and institutions of their host communities. More fundamentally, they may suffer due to their host society’s political and cultural stances via-à-vis migration and migrants.

These factors also have distinct impacts on their exposure to hazards and access to self-protection and support options in the face of shocks and stresses of all kinds — and therefore on their vulnerability to disasters. Accounting for migrants’ specific conditions of vulnerability is essential in devising interventions that reduce the risks they face. At the same time, it is important to recognize that, by virtue of their translocal background, they are likely to have a unique set of experiences, skills, narratives and networks, which can be leveraged to build their own and their host communities’ resilience. As societies all over the world become increasingly diverse, the inclusion of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees is a key element of sustainable, effective disaster risk reduction.

Indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities

Minority ethnic and indigenous peoples experience particularly high climate and disaster risk, are often not involved in disaster risk reduction policy making and tend to face difficulties in accessing resources and assistance in dealing with disasters. Marginalisation of these groups may become further exacerbated in the aftermath of a disaster or emergency event. However, traditional knowledge held by indigenous groups can often provide alternative ideas for disaster risk reduction and climate resilience. Integrating traditional knowledge within the administrative frameworks of a city or region must be done with a full understanding of how each will enhance or detract from the other.

Older people

Older people are more likely to die and injured than the younger members of a community in a disaster or emergency event. Older people also often have more complex medical requirements, lack of physical and social mobility and can often be excluded from mainstream society. These factors can contribute to an increased disaster risk amongst the elderly. In terms of capacity to respond and recovery from disasters, older people will often have life experience and knowledge of previous disasters and can provide valuable experience to disaster risk reduction.