Cities, Disasters and Livelihoods

This paper describes the impacts of recent disasters in urban areas and their contribution to poverty, and highlights how little attention urban devel- opment planning and disaster relief organizations give to disaster mitigation. It also describes CARE International’s Household Livelihood Security (HLS) model and how this allows an urban livelihoods approach to integrating measures for reducing poverty with measures for reducing risks from disasters. It pays particu- lar attention to supporting low-income groups and community organizations in building and diversifying their asset bases. A focus on reducing household vulner- ability to shocks and stresses (including disasters) also reveals the supporting actions needed from municipal authorities and disaster relief organizations.