Continuities in crisis : everyday practices of disaster response and climate change adaptation in Mozambique

 

Mozambiqueis a poor country located in the South-East coast of Africa. Due to its prevailing poverty and geographical location along the coastline of the Indian Ocean, and downstream of major regional rivers, the country experiences, in average, one disaster of great magnitude every year (triggered by floods, cyclones and drought) and ranks third in global weather damage.  This has led, over years, to a massive deployment of aid. The need for aid is indeed taken for granted without questioning how local actors (i.e. local people) perceive and act upon both, disasters and aid, in building their livelihoods. This thesis looks at the everyday practices of disaster response by local people, government, donors and (I)NGOs in Mozambique. The major conclusion that I draw from the present thesis is that disaster management in Mozambique involves the crafting of continuities in crisis by the different actors involved. It can be stated that for poor people  ‘normal life’ can hardly be disentangled from the exceptionalities of disaster situations. I found that people seek continuity in their livelihoods once disasters happen in institutions and their lives, that is, they do not wait for aid to (re)start their lives nor disasters crash completely their capacity to respond. Second, crises allow the continuity of humanitarianism- a deep political, economic and moral endeavor.  Crafting continuities in crisis is, ultimately, what makes societies to move.