ROLE OF LOCAL GOVERNANCE INSTITUTIONS IN PROMOTING SOCIAL RESILIENCE IN DROUGHT PRONE DISTRICT OF NUSHKI BALOCHISTAN

 

Nasrullah*& Syed Ainuddin**

 

Abstract

 

      Resilience is the ability of system, community or society exposed to hazards to absorb, accommodate to and recover from the effects of a disaster in a timely and efficient manner. In achieving community resilience, the role of local institutions is of prime importance. Local institutions can be used as catalyst in mainstreaming the community to withstand and recover from natural disaster. The prime objective of this paper is to evaluate the role of local institutions in providing social resilience in district Nushki. Which is an administrative district of Balochistan province of Pakistan. Located at the western end of the country’s border with Afghanistan. The indicators used to measure the social resilience are community awareness, age, educational level, health insurance facility and social capital in community.The results specify that the status of social resilience of drought prone community is poor.  The formal public sector district level institutions and civil society organizations have limited role in promoting community resilience in regard to formal risk assessment, identification, dissemination and mitigation. These institutions also have played minimum role to enhance the awareness and capacity building of local vulnerable communities, develop the coping mechanisms and implement the already existing laws. Theirrole has seen as disaster response activities and coordination with non-governance organizations during the disaster period in the district. The study recommends that the capacity of local level governance institution should be built regarding training and resources availability to play effective role in promoting social resilience in district Nushki.

 

Key Words: Role, Governance Institutions, Resilience, Drought, and Balochistan.

 

Introduction

 

      Drought is elaborated as the availability of minimum natural water. The pivotal and plausible causes of drought are low rates of rain, snow and hail and maximum evaporation and evapotranspiration ratio. Drought is a process, which is happening regularly worldwide and it has the distinguished quality of both the space and the earth, and it differs to a great extent from one place to another. It should not be mixed-up with barrenness and dryness as it is the average attribute of a lengthy cycle of the dry climate, which shows the conditions of long-range instability between the available water resources and the requirements. Drought is a dangerous threat of nature that results from shortage of rainfall for a long period of time, generally one or more seasons, which culminates in the scarcity of water for some initiatives, group or natural environment.

 

      Historically, Balochistan has encountered serious hazard of floods, earthquakes, droughts and tsunami. During 1997 to 2004, Balochistan experienced the serious drought; the major cause of droughts in Balochistan was the shortage of precipitation. Recently Provincial Disaster Management Authority declared majority of districts of the Balochistan affected by the drought and among other districts Nushki is one of most effected districts of Balochistan The district Nushki was also seriously affected by drought between 1997 and 2004. Consequently, the prices of the food raised, malnutrition spread out over a large area of the district, which was resulted in the widespread diseases such as tuberculosis (TB) and hepatitis A, B.C. that affected the people of the area (PDMA 2012) especially deprived segment of society including women and children. It has also resulted in the scarcity of the quantity of fodder, and livestock breed rearing in the area.

 

      In areas, which were gravely and seriously influenced by drought, livestock was destroyed up to 80 percent. Moreover, another significant means of subsistence i.e. orchards were also ruined up to 80 percent. This resulted in the migration of the people from their native places to the big cities of the province in order to survive. This migration from rural to urban settlements eventually led into the social and economic issues in the province.

 

      In Pakistan, governance institutions for the Disaster Risk Reduction have been established at various levels in 2010 i.e. one at the national level such as National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and four at the provincial level i.e. the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) with an objective to implement the policy level decisions of provincial disaster commissions and monitor the disaster management in their respective areas. Other major objective of the establishment of the NDMA is to perform the duty of focal point and coordinating institute in order to assist in the execution of the strategies regarding the disaster risk management in their particular jurisdictions. The authority carries out the duty of focal point for the provincial and regional commissions. It will carry out its duties of development, execution, and monitoring and evaluation of disaster risk management in vulnerable areas in the provinces.

 

      At the local level district and municipal, Disaster Management Authorities are consisted of the elected heads of the districts and municipalities and head of different line departments, Similarly at the union council-UCs level structure of the governance, consisting of the nominated local level elected representatives from the respective villages and wards.

 

      These Local level line departments have pivotal role in resource mobilization for domestic development initiatives and augmentation need of the respective communities at gross root level in the orbit of the targeted districts.Furthermore these institutions develops the capacity of community based organizations leaders by developing different skills and knowledge to effectively manage the finances, people and mobilize resources, interpersonal communication and presentation and negotiation skills.

 

      The major aim of the research study is to analyze the resilience of communities, local governance institutional role and capacity in uplifting and promoting social resilience to natural catastrophe. The categories of local Governance Institutions included in the evaluation are: (1) Formal public sector local governance at district, municipal and union council levels, (2) Non-Governmental Organizations and (3) Tribal and Faith based along with professional Organizations.

 

 

Profile of Study Area:

 

Map of Balochistan highlighting District Nushki

Source: Adopted from Government of Balochistan 1998.

 

Location of the study area:

 

      District Nushki is one among 33 administrative districts of Balochistan province of Pakistan. Located at the western end  of the country border with Afghanistan. The district is bounded on the north by desert region of Afghanistan called Shorawak, on the east by sarlath hill range and Mastung district, on the west district Chaghi   and on the south by Kharan District Nushki was part of district Chaghi earlier in 2003 the area was notified as separate district,. Nushki is at the distance of I05 KM in the west of Provincial Headquarter. The British linked Nushki with Quetta through railway line in 1905. Administratively Nushki district is further divided in one tehsil and ten union councils with Tehsil Noshki and 10 Union Councils known as; Ahmed Wall,  Anam Bostan,  Badini, Baghak Mall,  Dak, Jamaldini, Kashingi,  Mengal,  Noshki and Noshki Bazar. According to the census of 1998 the total population of District Noshki is 98,030 (51,394 Males, 46,636 Females). The household size is 7.2 and housing units are 13417. As per 3.27 annual growth rate the district-projected population is 149309 and housing units are 20739, 2015. The population of Noshki District is not homogeneous. The main tribes in the district are Baloch, Bareach, Badini, Jamaldini, Mengal, Syed, Yallanzai, Muhammad Hassani, Sasoli and Qazi. The major languages spoken are Balochi, Brahvi, Pashto and Urdu.

 

Climate of Nushki District:

 

      Climatically Nushki has both hot and cold weathers, from April to September the district is extremely hot and from December to February Nushki is crucially cold. The temperature varies from Day and Night due to the combination of dessert, mountains and plains, the climate also varies from area to area. The rain is irregular and scanty due to its location outside the monsoon region. The table below shows the rainfall and temperature of the district month wise:

 

Table: Rainfall and Temperature of District Nushki

 

Source: Regional Metrological center Karachi 2008

Rainfall (mm) and Temperature (°C):

 

Framework for Evaluating Community Resilience

 

      Assessing community resilience is a difficult process due to the vibrant relations of the environment with society, community, and the people. Different conceptual frameworks were developed by different researchers to measure the specific disaster resilience.  For example Cutter’s (2010) framework was developed for ecological and social resilience. Ainuddin’s framework was developed for earthquake disaster resilience and Joseph’s capital framework, which posited that every framework has its own strengths and weaknesses or limitations. The conceptual framework adopted for this study was taken from different frameworks including Cutter 2010, Ainuddin S. 2012, and Joseph S. 2010, capital based approach. The five main factors focused in this framework include social resilience, economic resilience, physical resilience and institutional resilience for the measurement of community resilience.

      In social aspects of resilience the social network including community based and non-governmental organizations, tribal and religious and professional organizations were focused to measure the community resilience. While conceptualizing the economic aspect of community resilience, specific factors such as household income, expenditures, assets, loans, saving, diversification of household livelihood were considered as major indicators along with social fund. For the physical aspect of community resilience the ownership of houses, capacity of houses, nature of houses, basic public facilities in household, means of communications are included in this aspect of resilience. Human aspects of community resilience including the education, health, information and skills of community members that influences the skills and knowledge of human in communities are also taken into account. The institutional aspects are measured through the role of governance institutions (Public and private institutions) at district level including administration, education, health, social welfare, local government, building and road department, civil defense and meteorological departments as key institutions that can contribute in community resilience in disaster management.

      The impact of above-mentioned social, economic, physical, human and institutional aspects of resilience can produce a socially integrated, economically vibrant, physically developed, knowledgeable and skilled society with coordinated and efficient institutions that will contribute to a resilient society in the occasion of a natural disaster.

 

Figure 1: Conceptual Framework for community Resilience.

Source: Conceptual framework adopted from Cutter 2010, Ainuddin 2012, and Joseph 2007.

 

Materials and Methods

 

      This research study is basically exploratory and descriptive in nature. Both secondary and primary sources of data are utilized for this research. Secondary data is important for any research to understand the prevailing condition and can also guide the researcher. Therefore secondary data was collected from published articles, policy documents, online sources and books. Primary data was collected from the drought prone union councils of the study area using questionnaire survey, key informants interviews and focused group discussions with community. Key informant interviews were conducted with line departments of the district, which was followed, by conducting focused group discussions with community to understand the problems and identify the grey areas.

      Assessing the social resilience of a community the indicators used were higher the education level which enhance the capacity and understanding of early warning and evacuation decision and have positive impact and the lower level of education have the negative impact. The second indicator was the age, if the age is less than 15 years and more then 45 years, mobility during disasters and evacuation always remains a challenge that have negative impact. Health insurance can enable the people to get the timely treatment and reduce the effects during secondary disasters following a major disaster such as increase of epidemic diseases.  People with physical and mental disability will overburden the household finance during disaster recovery and create mobility problems during emergency evacuation this has negative impact. Social capital is another indicator that will facilitate the people in accessing the community resources and strengthen the coordination and cooperation during emergency (Adger 2000 Norris et al. 2008, Heinz center 2002, Morrow 2008, Cutter et al. 2010, Cutter et al. 2008, Tobin et al. 1999, Cutter et al. 2003). The scale used for the assessment of community resilience was taken from Ainuddins 2012 published paper in 2012, the range of assessment was 0-1, the I reflects the maximum resilience and 0 minimum resilience in some cases the maximum rate indicated the minimum resilience and result were concerning social resilience.

 

Resilience Factor Index:

 

      The values of the indices can be interpreted as, higher the value of the indicator, higher is the weight and index value, and finally higher is the resilience of that particular variable within a domain/component or zone. The resilience factor index of any selected indicator used under any component is worked out as:Resilience Factor Index .RFI) of ith indicator = (%Value of the ith indicator (actual)/

%Value taken as the level of the resilience of the ith indicator

     

      Less value or those around or close to zero should be considered less resilient, and high values toward to 1 should be considered more resilient. For some indicators in which high values reflect low level of resilience, precaution has been taken to make them comparable in the same way (higher the value of a variable, higher is the resilience) by reversing the calculation of resilience factor index as mentioned below.

Resilience Factor Index .RFI) of ith indicator = (%Value taken as the level of resilience of the ith indicator/

%Value of the ith indicator (actual):

 

      For each indictor, it has been tried to assign a particular percentage value for the optimum level of community like the optimum value for the high school and higher education is 60%

 

Resilience Factor Index of education indicator, which is positive impact= Real value= 18.26% divided by given value=60 % = 18.26/60= 0.3%

 

Resilience Factor Index of age less then 15 years indicator, which is negative impact= Given value = 20% divided by real value =24.37% = 20/24.37=0.82%

 

Results and Discussions

 

Social Resilience

      Data highlighted in Figure 1 of component indicators in disaster prone districts of Nushki Balochistan revealed that:

      The Education level in district Nushki was with poor only 18.26 % and the resilience factor index was 0.3 % people, with 6 optimum level, were having high school and above education in district Nushki. These results are in conformity with Norris et al.2008, Morrow 2008 and Cutter et al 2010, that argue that higher education level raises the awareness and preparedness activities of the communities. It was observed that in district Nushki that the awareness level was low.

 

      The maximum age group above 45 years were 6.94% and the resilience factor index was 2.16 % people, with 1.5 % optimum level, was living in district Nushki of Balochistan, The below 15 years age group were 24.37% and the resilience factor index was 0.82, with 2 optimum level, in District Nushki of Balochistan, This means that Nushki is vulnerable or less resilient in terms of age group of the communities because in both indicators Nushki had higher number of people above 45 years of age and below 15 years of age. These results are in line with Morrow, 2008, Cutter et al 2010, Cutter et al 2010 Tobin et al 1999 & Cutter et al 2003.

 

      The health coverage was minimum in district Nushki. The availability of health insurance facility in district Nushki was only 2% and the resilience factor index was 0.04 with 5 optimum level that shows the minimum resilience of communities in district Nushki. The results are in agreement with Heinz Center 2002 and Cutter et al 2010.

 

      The ideal situation in relation to the high and maximum non-availability of physical and mental disability, the minimum 87% with 1.16 resilience factor index and the optimum level was 7.5 prevailing in district Nushki. That also reflects the weak resilience

 

      In term of physical accessibility to community trust during disaster. The district Nushki had 57% with 1.12 resilience factor index and the optimum level is 5.  The situation of community trust that has to be very higher in rural communities is not as expected in the study area. This indicates that communities themselves do not have trust and collective wisdom to work during any disaster exhibits minimum resilience in district Nushki. These results are in line with Heinz Center 2002 and Cutter et al 2010. 

 

 

Figure 1: Social Resilience factor index (Nushki)

Source: Survey data 2016.

 

Role of Local Governance Institutions

 

      Data pertaining to the role of local governance institutions as exhibited in Figure-2 in relation to information provided by governance institution about natural disaster. It is shown through tabulated Data that 90.71 % respondents having 127 frequencies were with negative remarks. 7.86 % respondents having 11 frequencies were with no comments about non familiarity with such kind of information and 1.43 % respondents having 2 frequencies were with positive comments and they were provided with the information related to natural disasters in district Nushki.

 

      Data in Figure-2 illustrates the conduction of any training for reduction of effects of natural disasters by any governance institution. It is evident from the tabulated data that 82.14 % respondents having 115 frequencies were with negative remarks that no kind of training was imparted by any governance institution, 17.14 % respondents having 24 frequencies were with no comments about no familiarity with such kind of trainings and 0.71 % respondents having 1 frequency were with positive comments and they were trained regarding reduction of effects of natural disasters in district Nushki.

 

      Regarding the existence of law in relation to land utilization for different purposes in disasters proven districts namely Nushki Balochistan, data mentioned in Figure 2 reflects that 50.71 percent respondents having71 frequencies were with negative remarks that no kind of law was present regarding land utilization for different purposes. 48.57 % respondents having 68 frequencies were with no comments about non familiarity with law related to land utilization and 0.71 % respondents having 1 frequency were with positive remarks and expressed that they had certain law in relation to land utilization for different purposes in district Nushki.

 

      Data pointed in Figure-2 highlighting training of children in schools during natural disasters by any governance department in disasters prone districts Nushki, Data revealed that 76.43 % respondents having 107 frequencies were with negative remarks that none of the governance department had trained their children in schools regarding how to act during natural disasters. 22.86 % respondents having 32 frequencies were unaware, about non familiarity with such kind of training by any governance department in schools to train children to address natural disasters and only 0.71 % respondents having 1 frequency were having positive comments about the governance departments training their children in schools about how to act during the occurrence of a natural disaster in district Nushki.

 

      Data mentioned in Figure-2 regarding the availability of any early warning system about natural disasters in disasters prone area like Nushki. Tabulated data revealed that 82.86 % respondents having 116 frequencies were with negative remarks about any early warning system about natural disasters and 17.14 % respondents with 24 frequencies were without any remarks and were having no information about any early warning system in district Nushki.

 

      Data comprising Figure-2 is about the existence of NGOs or CBOs in the areas concerned. The analysis of the data revealed that 52.14 % respondents with 73 frequencies mentioned that no NGO or CBO was present in their area in district Nushki. While 47.86% respondent with 67 frequencies expressed positive views about the existence of NGO or CBO in their area in the same district.

 

      Data highlighted in Figure-2 regarding the existence of any tribal organization in the areas concerned. Explanation of the data augmented that 93.57 % respondents with 131 frequencies mentioned that no kind of tribal organization was present in their area in district Nushki. While 6.43 % respondents with 9 frequencies expressed positively that yes there was tribal organization in their area.

 

      Data mentioned in Figure.2 relating to the presence of any religious organization in relation to addressing disaster management in the areas concerned. Analysis of the data revealed that 85.00 % respondents with 119 frequencies mentioned that no religious organization was present in their area in district Nushki. While 12.14 % respondents with 17 frequencies were unaware about the existence of religious organization in their area and 2.86 respondents having 4 frequencies showed their positive remarks about the presence of religious organization in their areas, in regard to disaster management.

 

      Data pertaining in Figure-2 regarding existence of farmers' association in respective areas, statistical analysis of the data revealed that 92.86 % respondents having 130 frequencies mentioned that no farmer’s association was present in their area in district Nushki. While 7.14 % respondents with 10 frequencies expressed positive views about the existence of farmers association in the respective areas in the district

 

 

Figure 2: Role of Local Governance Institutions in promoting social Resilience in Natural Disaster.

Source: Survey results 2016.

 

Conclusion:

 

      Vital emphasis and concentration of the research study was the assessment and evaluation to check the community resilience status and role of local governance institutions in drought prone district of Balochistan. Resilience is considered as ability of system, community or society exposed to hazards to absorb, accommodate to and recover from the effects of a hazard in a timely and efficient manner, in achieving community resilience, the role of local institutions are of prime importance. Local Institutions can be used as catalyst in mainstreaming the community to withstand and recover from natural disaster.

 

      The role of local governance institution were analyzed in the framework of information dissemination about natural disaster among the communities to raise their awareness and improve their perception regarding natural catastrophes, capacity building of effected communities to absorb, accommodate to and recover from the effects of a hazard in a timely and efficient manner, Legal arrangements of land use and land use planning, to establish the Early warning system mechanisms and link the communities with intermediately level institutions  which contribute in enhancing the social resilience of a society. The finding of study reflects that the institutions did not played their effective role to disseminate the relevant information and raise the awareness among community, build the capacity of communities, establish an early warning system, disseminate and implement the laws regarding the land use and land use planning to minimize the vulnerability and enhance the social resilience.

 

      The over all finding of the research study regarding role of local governance institutions in promoting social resilience in drought prone district of Nushki showed that although at policy level Pakistan has decentralized. Disaster Risk Reduction institutions at provincial/regional, district, tehsil and union council level and also has commitment of integrating Disaster Risk Reduction in all development initiatives at all levels but at Implementation level has been operating only at central and provincial level institutions. The formal public governance institutions at local level have very limited resources and capacity to work with communities and enhance their social resilience, the second major issue is the integration of disaster risk reduction initiatives mainstreaming in development projects but again the capacity is lacking, therefore the study recommends that the   resources should be channelized with local level governance institutions and their capacity has to enhance for fulfilling the policy commitments toward enhancing the social resilience of communities in regard to formal risk assessment, identification, dissemination and mitigation, building the capacity of local vulnerable communities, develop the coping mechanisms, implement the already existing laws of land use and initiate the land use planning in natural disasters and integrate the disaster risk reduction in all development initiatives.

 

      The results of study also reflected that Non-Governance organization played vital role in relief and rehabilitation activities with the support of international relief organizations but their role are also very limited in regard to promoting community resilience. The data reflected that their work is limited to awareness sessions in limited numbers and areas. The social capital in the shape of tribal, faith based and professional organizations are there and can play very active role in community resilience promotion in natural disaster but their potential role is also needed to explore and integrate at different levels.

 

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Appendixes:

 

Table 1: Resilience factor index (Nushki)

Resilience factor Index
Social Resilience	Indicators		Percent Value	Resilience factor Index
	1	Percent of people with high school and above education	18.26%	0.3
	2	Percent of people >45 years of age	6.94%	2.16
	3	Percent of People<15 years of age	24.37%	0.82
	4	Percent of people with health insurance	02 %	0.04
	5	Percent of people without any physical and mental disability	87%	1.16
	6	Community trust during disaster	57%	1.12
		Component resilience factor index (average)		0.93

Source: Primary data survey result 2016.

 

Table 2: Role of Local Governance Institutions in promoting Social

            resilience in disaster

 

Source: Primary data survey result 2016.