Climate Change & Adaptation
7. Acknowledgements
Title: Contribution of Vocational Education and Training (VET) to Enhance Disaster Resilience: A case study through Human Capital Lens in Coastal Area of Bangladesh.
Abdullah Al-Maruf. Boris Braun 1. Introduction
Human, social, natural, financial and physical capitals are the main factors that affect household livelihoods (DFID, 1999; Ungar, 2011) which are needed in order to cope with stresses and shocks and for the pursuit of livelihood strategies (IDS,1998). Almost every year, these household capitals are affected by the cyclone and storm surges in the coastal area of Bangladesh (Fakhruddin& Rahman, 2013). As a result, different livelihood vulnerabilities (less income, poor housing condition, crisis of drinking water, lack of sanitation) are increasing with regard to different forms of household capitals (Kulatunga, et al. 2014). However, it is very difficult to handle all forms of capitals by households before, during and after disasters (Speranza et al. 2013). Despite the remarkable initiatives of disaster management taken by the governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGO), vulnerability to disaster is still a big challenge in the context of coastal Bangladesh. Hence, resilience through household’s capital, especially which capital is predominant to enhance household resilience to cyclone and storm surges is an urgent question to the academics, policy makers and practitioners. This research aims to examine how the components of human capital (HC) relate to the components of resilience to mitigate or adapt to cyclone and storm surges. This papers particularly explores how vocational education and training contribute to enhance household resilience to cyclone and storm surges in the coastal area of Bangladesh. The empirical findings are based on a household survey (sample size 1200) in nine coastal villages within the districts of Khulna, Bagherhat, Pataukhali, Lakshmipur and Noakhaliof Bangladesh that was conducted from 15th October 2014 to mid of February 2015.
Vocational education and training (VET) is an important component of human capital (HC). VET plays a significant role on households during, after and before disasters.
During the cyclone and storm surges, the first responders are the local residents because disaster response organizations usually takes a minimum 48-72 h to go to the affected areas-sometimes longer due to communication and access difficulties (Islam and Walkerden, 2014). Institutional relief goods and can take four to five days to reach the devastated areas (Khalil, 1993; Haque, 1997; Alam and Collins, 2010). For this reason, households have to use their own skills and knowledges to minimize their loss and damages of household assets in this crucial moment. After disasters, affected households are responsible to manage this adverse situation by their vocational skills and knowledge particularly to find a new job, fixing houses, sanitation and try to increase income and savings which also key components for probable next disasters or before disasters. In addition, affected residents exchange expertise among neighbors and relatives. So the contribution of vocational education and training in the three stages of disasters is a key point to understand disasters resilience to cyclone and storm surges. This study uses the experiences with Cyclone Aila (On 25 May 2009, 3.9 million people were affected when Aila slammed into southern Bangladesh killing 190 and injuring more than 7,000; reported by IRIN, 2009) and Sidr (On 15 November 2007, 3,400 people were killed and millions more rendered homeless by Sidr – now described as the most powerful cyclone to strike the
impoverished low-lying nation in just over 15 years; reported by IRIN, 2009), in nine affected coastal villages, to reveal how vocational education and training contribute to enhance household resilience to cyclones and storm surges.
Resilience through different forms of capital is gradually being recognized as vital issue in the disaster management domain. A number of studies have focused on resilience through sum of human, social, physical, natural and financial capitals. A large number of studies have focused on a particular capital for building resilience to disasters, for example social capital (Bourdieu 1986; Putnam 1995, 2000; Coleman 1988; Lin 2001; Adger 2003; Aldrich 2006, 2012;
Murphy 2007; Islam et al. 2010; OECD 2010; Braun &Aßheuer 2011; Islam &Walkerden 2014, 2015; Shimada 2015;) financial capital (THULSTRUP 2015; Huggins et al. 2015;
Hudner& Kurtz 2014; Speranza et al. 2014; Mayunga 2007; Cutter et al. 2008; DFID 1999;
Mayunga 2007; Cutter et al. 2008) natural capital (Dominati et al. 2014; Sherrieb et al. 2010;
Brand 2009), physical capital (Islam et al. 2010; Ungar 2011; DFID 1999; Institute for Development Studies 1998). Severalearlier studies have been executed on the component of human capital to the different economic production oriented e.g. formal education, school enrollment, income, wage of labor (Unger et al. 1998; DFID, 1999; Grossman, 2000; OECD, 2008; Cuaresma 2010; Fleisher et al., 2011; Ng et al., 2005; Singh et al.,2009; Baron, 2011;
WEF, 2013) , job training and production of organization (Mincer, 1962; Singh et al., 2009;
Unger et al., 2011), health and labor force(Grossman, 1972, 2000; Bartel&Taubman, 1979;
Anson & Anson, 1987; World Bank, 1993; Ross & Mirowsky, 1995; Olson &Pavetti, 1996;
Jayakody et al., 1998; DFID, 1999; Pindius et al., 2000; Nerdrum& Erikson, 2001; Bloom &
Canning, 2003; WEF, 2013), individual knowledge and skills and economic value (Snell &
Dean, 1992; Becker, 1993; Bontis, 1999, 2001; Finkelstein and Hambrick, 1996; Huselid, 1995; Pennings et al., 1998; Wright et al., 1995; Sullivan, 1999; Mayo, 2000; OECD, 2001;
Nerdrum& Erikson, 2001; Walker, 2001; Youndt&SnelSheffin, 2003, 2004; Wiig, 2004;
Abeysekera& Guthrie, 2005; Bozbura et al., 2007; Isaac et al., 2009; Gates &Langevin, 2010;
Santos-Rodrigues et al., 2010; Choudhury & Mishra, 2010; Baron, 2011; Unger et al., 2011), leadership ability(Bozbura et al., 2007), geographical migration (Hicks 1932, Sjaastad 1962;
Harris & Todaro, 1970; Glaeser et al., 2001), job experiences (Hudson, 1993; Baron 2011;
CDIP, 2006; Gates &Langevin, 2010). However, a few of them have been carried out in resilience through human capital regards to cyclone and storm surges in the coastal area Bangladesh.There is much less scholarship addressing the details of vocational education and training,in particular, the role of VET for enhancing resilience. In addition, in the most existing literature, resilience addressed for community level (Flora & Flora 2013; Ashwill et al. 2011; Pigg et al. 2013; Gasteyer
& Araj 2009; Cannon, 2008; Siles et al. 2013; Gomez et al. 2008; Flora & Bregendahl 2012; Flora
& Delaey, 2012) whereas the resilience at households level is more effective for policy making for reducing conflicts within community (Das, 2009; Dasgupta, 2014). The household level or micro level disparities are slightly reflected in the present studies on resilience to cyclone and storm surges. This study addresses this gap.
Therefore, this study aims to fill that gap. The present study investigates how coastal households use knowledges which obtained through vocational education and training as a component of human capital for enhancing resilience to cyclone and storm surges. The objective of the study is to mushroom the understanding of research scholars, development practitioners, and policy makers about the strength of vocational education and training, and how it foster the household resilience.
This empirical affirmation fabricates a significant contribution to the literature on human capital and disaster resilience.
2. Key concepts