Introduction
The Vulnerability and Risk Assessment (VRA) methodology is a participatory tool which aims to engage a variety of both traditional and non-traditional stakeholders and through a process of dialogue and analysis build consensus on the main hazards and issues affecting people in a designated location. The VRA activities are then used to prioritize existing vulnerabilities, risks, capacities and subsequently support the joint development of measures to reduce risk, enhance wellbeing and promote resilient development.
As well as unpacking vulnerability the VRA also builds our understanding of the current coping strategies and potential capacities of people and environment to prepare, adapt and overcome the identified hazards and social issues. In doing so, the VRA aims to trigger a sense of empowerment and collaboration among stakeholders and prevent a reductionalist approach which only sees people as vulnerable/without any ability to better manage their risk profile. In addition, the methodology promotes good governance and accountability by bringing together stakeholders across scales – community members, community leaders, practitioners, researches, decision-makers at local and regional government – with an emphasis on the inclusion of women and marginalised voices. Through the simple interaction of these stakeholders and the facilitation method itself the VRA helps generate collaboration and joint solution-oriented thinking (step 3 and 4).
A VRA can be used for a variety of reasons; programme design, to inform a baseline where the data is then included as part of the continuous monitoring; for sense checking and mid-term reviews and as part of community capacity building and knowledge transfer around climate change. In this instance the VRA was used during the inception phase of a new multi-country programme focusing on DRR and local humanitarian leadership. The objective was to utilise the vulnerability analysis to help deliver result 1 on ‘increased knowledge on DRR and Climate Change’ but also to provide community-led recommendations to inform result 2 ‘Improved preparedness’ and result 3 ‘mitigation and resilience’. The process itself was therefore beneficial for knowledge transfer and capacity-sharing but beyond that the ideas generated provided information on local-level experience and priorities. Ultimately the participatory nature of the exercise served as a means to validate any pre-existing organisational assumptions about most important risks and appropriate adaptive strategies for the target area. As part of this programmes, and Oxfam’s, commitment to partnership and localisation this work was predominately led by our local partner organisations CABUIPA and REDESO. This report outlines the findings of this VRA exercise carried out in Kahama district,Tanzania in May 2018. Key Benefits•Ensures a transparent and collectively owner process of prioritising which issues and solutions the project should focus on.•Means of verifying existing staff assumptions and expectations of what are the most critical issues and which solutions would be most impactful.•Excellent opportunity to convene local voices, ensure bottom-up participation and build consensus between different stakeholders who we then hope will work together during the project.•Highlights gaps in existing knowledge, what questions remain unanswered and also what further thematic research may be required. •Ensures solution ideas are locally-driven and therefore relevant, appropriate, acceptable and ultimately more likely to be successful. Challenges •The usefulness of the information relies heavily on who you choose to consult hence the stakeholder mapping is the most important preparation task.
4•Staff need to be fully trained and able to facilitate the process. This requires time and effort away from normal assignments and needs to be planned well in advance. •In order to prepare the longlist you need a comprehensive secondary data review and staff who have specific local knowledge of the location hence it is vital for this process to be led by field teams rather than national offices. In this instance the localpartners led the process which was highly successful. •Language barriers between facilitation staff and participants limits the depth of discussion that can take place and any validation/checking of comments. To mitigate this we designed the process to beToT so that the teams can lead their own VRA processes and undertook 1 shared exercise to further build the confidence and experience of the local facilitation team. Kahama/Msalala District Context Briefing1.0: Social DemographicsAccording to the 2012 Population and Housing Census, Kahama/Msalala District had 250,727 people out of which 122,234 were males and 128,493 were females (Kahama/ Msalala District Profile, January 2014). DRR project targets 51,238 people (25,721 females and 25,517 males) foundin 14 villages located in 3 wards of Kahama/Msalala District.2.0: Hazard profile and impactIn Kahama/Msalala district the key disasters attributed to climate change are: Drought and Floods. The impact of drought on the lives of peoplein Kahama/Msalala districtinclude.Low yield of agricultural crops (food and cash crops); Hunger and famine; acute water shortage; Death of livestock; and Loss of income. The impact of flood on the lives of people mainly include: Damage to homes/houses and properties of families. Damage to crops and agricultural land; Loss of Income; Displaced Families.3.0: Geographical dataMsalala District is among the four districts in Shinyanga Region and it is one among the six councils in the region which are Kishapu, Shinyanga Municipal, Shinyanga Rural, Kahama Town Council, Ushetu and Msalala. The district lies between latitude 3015″ and 4030″ south of Equator and Longitude 31030″ and 33000″ east of Greenwich. The district borders Geita region to the north and to the south it borders with Tabora region. To the west, the district borders with Shinyanga district and to the east it borders Kahama Town Council. Administratively Msalala district has 2 Division, 18 Wards and 92 Villages.
