From poverty to power - Oxfam-Québec

4 RISK AND VULNERABILITY LIVING WITH RISKdeprivation also force women and girls into the sex industry and stokemigration to the towns, where HIV is more prevalent. The negativesynergy works both ways, with sickness, death, and the need to attendnumerous funerals undermining farming families’ abilities to adapttheir livelihoods to a changing climate. 5Short-term disruptions and suffering have long-term consequences.Research shows that, even decades after droughts, wars, and floods,those affected earn and consume less, have fewer qualifications, andget sick more often. Moreover, the ways in which poor people copewith such shocks often trade off short-term survival against thepossibility of long-term progress.This section explores some of the multiple risks in the lives of poorwomen and men. It examines the everyday risks that poor people face,as well as the shocks that can buffet whole communities and countries,from ‘slow onset’disasters such as drought to ‘sudden onset’catastrophessuch as earthquakes and war. It assesses the changing nature of risks,and sets out ideas for preparing people, mitigating the impact of suchrisks, and addressing their root causes. It shows that poor people arenearly always more vulnerable, and suggests that reducing theirvulnerability is crucial in the fight against poverty and inequality.WHO IS VULNERABLE?‘Vulnerability’ describes the reduced ability of some communities orhouseholds to cope with the events and stresses to which they areexposed. Such stresses can equally well be an ‘everyday disaster’ suchas a death in the family, sickness, a robbery, an eviction, or the loss of ajob or a crop, or a major event such as a drought or a conflict thataffects the whole community. Both types of event can tip poor familiesover the edge into a downward spiral of increasing vulnerability andpoverty. The risk that a poor individual or household faces can beunderstood as a simple formula: risk = hazard x vulnerability. Risk canbe the result either of extreme vulnerability to comparably minorevents, or of a massive shock that sweeps even well-defended familiesbefore it.Figure 4.1 shows a sample of the risks that can threaten a poorindividual or household, and the key assets with which they can manage201