The Matter of Access to Capitals: A Case Study of Gender-Differentiated Vulnerability to Flooding in Laos PDR

This thesis analyzes gender-differentiated vulnerability to the flooding in 2011 within a rural
community in Laos PDR - the village of Ban Lao situated in the Mekong River basin.

The study employs the Community Capitals Framework (CCF) to explore what resources women and
men in the case study had lost in the flooding to thereafter be able to analyze what capitals where
most essential for their coping and adaptation capacity. A gender perspective is further applied to
reveal the differences between women and men in terms of access to the seven capitals in the
framework and how it is essential for gender-differentiated vulnerability to flooding.

The case study illustrates that the women and men responded and used different coping and
adaptation strategies before, during and after the flooding of the village. Most common were short
term coping such as selling animals and rescue belongings. Long term sustainable strategies labeled
adaptation were income diversification, a strategy the prerogative of male household heads.

Gendered differentiations in access capitals do not only restrain the options for livelihood
diversification but also determine the choice of which strategy to approach to be able to reduce the
impacts from flooding.

Thereby can reductions of vulnerability to future flooding on local level only be achieved by a fuller
understanding of the interaction of the seven capitals and how they influence the capacity and choice
of coping and adaptation strategy.

Keywords: vulnerability, flooding, gender, access to capitals, Community Capitals Framework, Laos
PDR