Social Vulnerability in Sindh. Recent Floods as Amplifiers of Social Crisis in Pakistan

Abstract This paper describes a methodology to assess rural vulnerability after natural disasters with the help of a vulnerability-capacity index that enables an appraisement of environmental and human-made hazards in order to inform development practice in the aftermath of disaster. It focuses on the situation in the Province of Sindh in Southern Pakistan after the major flood of 2010 and aims at supporting relief and development planning through assessments of the disaster record of the affected regions and comprehensive vulnerability profiles of its population. Based on empirical fieldwork in eight villages of Sindh, the vulnerability-capacity index system is used to organise the numeric and narrative data gathered through a combination of different methodological approaches and presented in a way that pins down social and material vulnerability for development practitioners. The major areas for livelihood intervention in rural Sindh relate to establishing access to infrastructure, supporting people in replacing their productive assets and diversifying their income, thinking about measures to increase capacities for debt relief and building capacities and enabling social organisation to support rural communities to cope better with hazards.