Livelihood Coping and Recovery from Disaster: The case of coastal Bangladesh

Bangladesh has a long history of coping with and recovery from disasters. Although climate extremes are increasingly taking huge tolls especially in the southwestern part of the country, households are resisting the negative outcomes of these events eventually.

This research explores the livelihood coping and recovery strategies of the people of a coastal village in the wake of a cyclone Aila. The vulnerability approach to disaster is adopted as theoretical framework of the research, in which disaster is considered as hazards affecting vulnerable people. Using semi-structured interviews and observations, the coping strategies of a cyclone affected village community are examined.

The study finds that people’s livelihood coping and recovery largely depend on the indigenous knowledge. Results show that households followed diverse strategies such as livelihood diversification, informal risk sharing within the community and migration in response to the cyclone Aila. The study also addresses the role of local government, civil society organizations and communities and finds that these actors hardly addressed the root causes of vulnerability.