By Miguel Angel Trejo-Rangel, Victor Marchezini, Daniel Messias dos Santos, Marina Gabos Medeiros and José Carlos Luzia Rodrigues. This blog was first posted on PreventionWeb on 24 May 2022.

Why social innovations to enhance disaster risk reduction?

Between 2000 and 2018, Brazil was hit by 65 flood-related disasters, representing close to 71% of disasters recorded. They were also the deadliest – causing 2,435 fatalities out of a total of 2,767.

It is therefore necessary to examine how societies respond to hazards using social innovations. Social innovations, according to Geoff Mulgan (2006), include actions that are related to the creation of long-lasting innovative activities, and services that are motivated by a social need.

This project looks at how social innovations could enhance disaster risk reduction (DRR) – and which innovations would be best suited to achieving results – in São Luiz do Paraitinga, Brazil, a city that is frequently exposed to floods and landslides.

What did we do?

We conducted a number of activities to look at which social innovations could enhance DRR in São Luiz do Paraitinga, and how they could be applied. Local high school teachers and civil defense members were enlisted to the core group to organize activities, and other participants (including the general public, high school teachers, and students) contributed by sharing their insights.

A participatory 3D model

The first activities were facilitated by the implementation of a low-cost participatory 3D model (P3DM) –a communicative facilitation method that can be used to stimulate participation in characterizing hazards, vulnerabilities, capacities, and disasters.

The P3DM was used in the town’s main square and the only high school, with different focus groups (general public, high school employees and students) and using a range of methods (semi-structured interviews, roundtable conversations, discussions, and presentations) to understand what social innovations could be led by locals to enhance DRR, and how.

Participatory mapping

The second activity was participatory mapping – a method that requires accessible geographical information, and the participation of specialists to communicate data to high school students.

The participatory mapping activity was facilitated with high school students at a workshop during which the participants were asked to identify hazard-prone areas and social groups with higher vulnerability, and then to propose DRR measures.

Survey

After collecting the social innovations that could be implemented for the city, we shared a survey of 26 questions. The survey was useful for gathering data about which actions interest responders most, to know what partnerships could be developed and what resources would be needed to implement the actions.

Seminar

Lastly, we organized a two-day hybrid seminar, at which both in-person and online participants engaged in roundtable conversations, a music presentation, a photography exhibition, and pedagogical games, as well as presenting the main outcomes of previous activities.

What did we find?

The project gave high school employees, students, and the general public an opportunity to identify social innovations to enhance DRR in their city. The ten actions selected by vote were:

• prevention plans
• natural area conservation and restoration
• tours of at-risk areas
• engagement of children and youth
• evacuation plans
• mapping of vulnerable areas
• community monitoring of the Paraitinga river
• communication mitigation measures
• territorial and land-use planning
• community-led rainfall monitoring.

These measures should be implemented by the community, with support from the relevant critical sectors (such as government, NGOs, and the private sector). The plan also requires technical, financial, and human resources, as well as incentives to motivate community members during the implementation processes.

Finally, the project noted that public policies should support the implementation of social innovations to promote disaster risk reduction, but these policies should also be developed using a social-innovation approach.

What happens next?

As a group, we recognize that DRR is a continuous process that should include a wide range of stakeholders. We therefore encourage other DRR facilitators and locals to see this project as a replicable practice that can be adapted to other contexts, in other areas exposed to the impact of other hazards. But most importantly, it is an intervention that includes the groups directly impacted by disasters.

As we move forward, we need to make sure that the proposals are implemented and supported by the stakeholders who can provide resources and incentives to make these actions possible.

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Miguel Angel Trejo-Rangel is a doctor in Earth System Science by the National Institute for Space Research, researcher at the Disaster Research Group (GPD) and specialist in Disaster Risk Reduction.

Victor Marchezini is a Sociologist of Disasters, researcher at the National Early Warning and Monitoring Centre of Natural Disasters in Brazil, professor of the Earth System Science postgraduate program at the National Institute for Space Research, and coordinator of the Disaster Research Group (GPD).

Daniel Messias dos Santos is a historian and pedagogue with a master’s degree in human development, and is currently a high school teacher at the State School Monshenhor Ignácio Gióia in São Luiz do Paraitinga.

Marina Gabos Medeiros is a historian, and is currently a high school teacher at the State School Monshenhor Ignácio Gióia in São Luiz do Paraitinga.

José Carlos Luiz Rodrigues is the head of the Civil Defense in São Luiz do Paraitinga, São Paulo, Brazil.

 

After two years of virtual co-working, Gold Matters project members reunited for an end of project workshop held in mid-May at the Nordic African Institute in Uppsala, Sweden. At the workshop they explored their learning from the project and refined its key conclusions. This post was first shared by Luciana Massaro on the Gold Matters website.

Finally, we met again! The Gold Matters members reunited after two years of virtual co-working on the occasion of the project workshop held in mid-May at the Nordic African Institute in Uppsala, Sweden. Emotions, ideas, and conversations flowed from the first moments and renewed our energy and enthusiasm for our project.

To break the ice, each member was asked to describe their journey in the project by bringing a meaningful object: a retort, two pieces of art, a pack of beans, a pen, two erasers, a book, a magnifying lens, a map, a notebook, a pair of shoes, a gold nugget, and a scale for weighing gold. Some objects represented the researcher’s personal involvement in the field, others spoke of miners’ everyday working life – these objects became useful tools for reflecting on transformations to sustainability.

In mid 2020, when the pandemic outbreak took a toll on our taken for granted lives, it became essential to switch to remote working in order to carry on with the research project. The pandemic exposed how vulnerable our jobs are, but also revealed our privileges with respect to many sectors with less flexible working conditions. We became used to seeing each other through a screen frame, often in the more intimate settings of our houses. It became normal to have funny interferences from family members and pets, and luckily, we never had any awkward moments.

As engaged anthropologists, we all started reflecting on meanings and consequences of such change on our personal and working life. It was striking how irreplaceable face-to-face interactions have proved to be. How nice it was to work together again in Uppsala, and also to share a laugh in person, especially if we consider that some members that joined the project more recently, like myself, never had a chance to meet the others face-to-face. It wasn’t only the impossibility of doing fieldwork for more than two years, but also the opportunity of visiting other fellow academics in their institutions, and exchanging knowledge and experiences.

The workshop, brilliantly organized by Eleanor Fisher and Cristiano Lanzano, went on smoothly, between working sessions, coffee breaks and nice dinners around Uppsala. All participants and personnel from the Nordic Africa Institute got involved in a live painting performance with artist Christophe Sawadogo, where we were invited to use the paint to write down and draw ideas and feelings over the importance of knowledge and education.

The workshop ended with a visit to the old Sala Silver mine, where we had the chance to physically descend into an example of Swedish industrial historical heritage that was also once a small-scale mine. What a perfect way to conclude our workshop!

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Luciana Massaro is a post-doc from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (NL)

In this blog, Esther van de Camp shares insights from a scenario planning workshop at which gold miners debated the most important and uncertain drivers of ASGM in relation to sustainability, and envisioned four worlds and one priority.

As part of a last PhD fieldwork, in 2022, I collaborated with fourteen leaders of several Artisanal and Small-scale Mining Organizations (ASMOs) in Busia District to do a Scenario Planning workshop. This Scenario Planning was a transdisciplinary method that used both artistic and scientific principles to i) pinpoint two paramount uncertainties of Busia’s gold mining future, ii) envision four worlds that cover the extremes of those uncertainties, and iii) prioritize strategies accordingly (Masterclass 2015). This was the driving question of our workshop: “considering the coming 20 years, how can we continue to develop a sustainable gold mining business?”

The workshop took place at the new school located on the edge of the village trading center, where the noises of ball mills and other mining machines were out of ear’s reach. The lawn surrounding the school showed traces of the exploration for gold that was put on hold in support of building the school. Tranquility and spatiality market the atmosphere of the school terrain. At the end of the day’s workshop, the terrain’s calm atmosphere felt like a silence before the storm.

The main take-home message of the workshop was the threat that miners increasingly felt that they would lose their land. A miner explained: “a big storm is coming, because little do we know that we are sitting on the richest gold belt of East Africa and nothing can stop them from evicting us.” This threat and awareness impacted the way that miners negotiated their various strategies for sustainable futures.

The small-scale mining professionals identified – in relation to their gold mining future and its transformations to sustainability – two paramount uncertainties, four worlds, and one strategy. The two uncertainties were land tenure (indefinite land ownership or loss of land)^[1] and empowerment of artisanal and small-scale mining (high or low). Other important drivers were education, attitude, technology and investments. Along the axes of the two uncertainties, they envisioned four worlds: ‘Out of our hands’ (land loss – high empowerment), ‘Gold in our hands’ (land owned – high empowerment), ‘Misery world’ (land loss – low empowerment) and ‘Promising world’ (land owned – low empowerment). Miners concluded that a fundamental strategy should be to survey the land: certainty of land ownership enabled and strengthened investments in other measures that miners are engaged in, such as underground mining, substitution of mercury and land reclamation.

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^[1] This corresponds to the land tenure systems freehold and leasehold out of the four types of land tenure in Uganda.

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Esther van de Camp is a Ph.D. student from Leiden University (NL)

 

Workshop team:

ASMO representatives: Aguttu Josephine, Amoding Beatrice, Angesu Paul, Apio Everlyn, Engidoh Paade, Kataike Margaret, Wabwire Simon, Masinde Betty, Naume Sarah, Olaro Augustine, Omoit Eriya, Omukaga Alex, Ujaala Robert and Samanya Isaac.

Host: Ongurata Richardson, headmaster of Tiira Golden Primary School in Tiira Town Council

Artist: Achom Agatha from Busia District, Uganda

Facilitators: Marauni Shadrack, youth representative in Busia District & Esther van de Camp, Leiden University

Masterclass (2015) Mastering the Future with Scenarios: Report of 3-day Masterclass with Ulrich Golüke September 11-12-13, 2015 Scenario Planning Masterclass.