Methodology
During planning discussions, several things were identified as being of
importance in designing the project methodology:
- The existing institutional and physical landscape of drought and flood relief in determining what can or should be done,
- The presence of borders (the mosaic of conditions, assets, ownership, physical infrastructure, etc.) in creating variation,
- The key role of assets (and asset distribution) in determining response strategies,
- The key role of information in enabling responses,
- The distinctions between adaptation and coping, aspirations and perceptions.
A core assumption of the project is that everyone adapts – or tries
to.
| Field survey methodology was designed with three parts: |
|
Each part is laid in an overall nested approach: several village level dialogues and/or surveys, embedded in a basin (flood) or region (drought) analysis, placed within a macro context focused at the state level and above.
Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and household structured sets of questions will enable a collection of primary data on assets, livelihoods (including migration), perceptions and/or aspirations, and household lifecycles in such a way as to capture the points of views of all members of a household, paying attention to the different ages and gender of the respondents.
Review
Review of secondary data from recent census and major literature will
focus on the institutional/legal landscape for drought and flood relief
as well as water management and insurance, existing knowledge on adaptations,
coping strategies, aspirations, and perceptions, and major social, economic,
and demographic trends at a regional level. A strong focus is placed on
finding regional maps, especially showing flood or drought affected areas.
Mapping
Mapping will include physical as well as peoples’ mental maps of
their region. These will detail natural and infrastructure features (biophysical
maps, administrative boundaries, water management structures), the micro
and macro scopes of droughts and floods, household and community economic
links and networks (location and distances between homes, farms, work
places, markets, rural-urban linkages), household, community, family and
caste assets and access to external assets (by gender) including physical
and natural assets as well as monetary assets, and finally information
flow maps (distribution of cell phones, landlines, TVs, radios, newspapers,
external agencies/NGOs, etc.).
Survey of Adaptation, Coping, Aspiration,
Perceptions
PRA surveys will focus on the differences in aspirations and perceptions,
and adaptation and coping strategies of the various members of households
and communities, and between local groups and Government. The essential
question is: Who adapts what, when, where and how?
- How do people perceive droughts and floods (as disasters, resources, general features of the environment?)
- What systems (social, technical, economic, insurance, etc.) have people developed that are adapted to (fit with and take advantage of) droughts and floods?
- What systems have people developed to mitigate (i.e. cope with) the unavoidable negative consequences of drought and flood
- What livelihoods do people aspire to and how would that change their vulnerability to droughts and floods?
The methodology is designed to understand and document gaps in perceptions
and coping strategies, and to evolve adaptive strategies for developing
drought and flood resilience.