Abstract: No region or country is immune to Natural Disasters. But the differentiating factor lies in a country’s response and ability to rise up from the effects of unexpected external causes.
This paper wishes to address and shed light on two aspects: the effects of natural disaster on a country’s: economy and society, and also the response of respective Governments/ international institutions to the disaster by highlighting the level of effectiveness. This will be done, by comparing the major effects (economic and social) of disaster on a developed and an under-developed nation’s society and economy, the nation’s responsiveness in terms of aid and disaster management, and finally, critically analyzing this responsiveness between the two. It will also explore reasons why under- developed nations tend to suffer more as compared to wealthier nations, and the difference in cost shouldered by nations of varying development. The two nation’s that will be analyzed along with the respective disaster are: Developed- United States of America; 2005 hurricane Katrina, and Underdeveloped- Haiti; 2010 Haiti Earthquake. This paper will not focus on the concept of development, so will not explore, but rather view it as the progress and advancement- socially and economically (as comparitive degree of progress between U.S and Haiti). But more crucially to this paper, will understand how differently endowed countries tend to react appropriately.
Beyond data and facts, unfortunately, there is not adequate literature and material that discuss a country’s ‘responsiveness’. To elaborate- because of differences in factors such as: political, social, economical, legal, cultural, demographic, technological advancements (for e.g. in forecasting disasters) etc., the scope in comprehending how nations are affected by disasters and deal with them is huge, - especially considering the fact that nations are likely to respond differently based on the differences in the above mentioned factors. There are inherent factors that already affect how a nation may withstand/respond to the economic and social effects, which are inevitably based on its economic might and social resource. It is through these themes, this topic is relatively unexplored. There is a need to understand that the development of a nation, and its own factors can play a differentiating role in: saving lives, minimizing cost, provide more aid, planning, providing manpower, keeping the economy afloat, etc.; and how the disaster is viewed and approached with response.
Apart from loss in lives and property, themes such as- losses, unemployment, loss in production, increased borrowing, aid, inflation, derailment of trade, etc., are common to disasters. Because of unexpectedness, they can affect the economy to destructive lengths- to even cause recessions in some cases, which is why there is a need to understand how fast a nation, can bounce back to normalcy. With such predilection, there comes a need to study this. The impact of this research will be that it will expand the scope of research, and also provide for the development of present/future disaster management programs by highlighting underlying reasons and factors that affect a nation, so that more effective disaster management programs/methods can be implemented to be able to efficiently deal with disasters, -by neutralizing the ‘development’ factor.
This paper will bring out certain conclusions; that developed nations tend to suffer greater capital/ monetary loss because of high level of capital invested (across all sectors), where as under-developed nations tend to suffer greater loss of lives as compared to economic/monetary loss. Again within the developed nation (US), the Black population suffered more in terms of greater number of lives lost than the white population because of lack of options, which confined them immobile and more susceptible to threat as they did not have the resources to either take shelter nor travel away from the disaster point. US worked independently (all Federal agencies towards a common yet combined goal) and recovered (economic, infrastructure and social) within six months, unlike Haiti who relied completely on international help (different agencies/nations worked independent of each other resulting in chaos and lack of concrete recovery), and is recovering from the effects of earthquake even today (both economically and socially).
The paper will base its data and literature on secondary data, derived from congressional reports, humanitarian works, aid agencies, NGO’s etc. Existing reports and papers will provide data; the main analysis of ‘developed’ and ‘under developed’ nations will be developed from secondary data. The analysis and inferences will be made using existing data- by understanding trends, patterns in economy and society, and combining them with existing theories and anecdotes by experts in the field.
Keywords: Natural Disasters, Development, Developed, Underdeveloped, Earthquake, Hurricane, USA, Haiti, Economy, Hurricane Katrina, Haiti Earthquake, International Economics.
Title: Natural Disasters: The Economic and Social Impact, and Overview of Responsiveness of Countries Based on Development
Author: NATHAN SERVAND
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3156 (Print), ISSN 2348-3164 (online)
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