Caroline Schaer

Condemned to live with one’s feet in water?: A case study of community based strategies and urban maladaptation in flood prone Pikine/Dakar, Senegal

Purpose – The number of poor and informal urban settlers in the world is rapidly growing, and they are increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of a changing climate. Therefore, understanding the nature and sustainability of locally adopted coping and adaptation strategies are key, yet still under-researched areas. Design/methodology/approach – Based on ethnographic research conducted in two poor, flood-prone municipalities in Pikine/Dakar, this paper identifies such coping and adaptation strategies and examines their prospects for maladaptation. Findings – The paper shows that poor urban dwellers are not mere passive spectators of climate change. With the very limited resources they have at their disposal, it is found that local actors respond to perennial flooding with very diverse strategies, which have varying degrees of success and sustainability. A key finding is that local coping and adaptation strategies are mainly maladaptive because they divert risks and impacts in time and space and have detrimen...

The Real Governance of Disaster Risk Management in Peri-urban Senegal: Delivering Flood Response Services through Co-production

Disastrous and recurring floods have impacted West African urban centres over the last decade, accentuating already existing vulnerabilities in poor neighbourhoods. Climate change-induced changing weather patterns and more extreme weather events are only part of the explanation for this situation, as large segments of the urban population in West Africa are not offered the public services, infrastructure and protective regulations needed in order to respond to floods. Through an empirically grounded approach, the article shows that the ability to respond to floods is formed largely outside the realm of the state in a poor peri-urban municipality of Pikine, Dakar. The authors show how the organization of collective services pertaining to flood response and climate change adaptation is maintained through co-production among service users and providers entailing a mixture of diverse governance modes. The article concludes that weak state capacity is not equivalent to non-existent or ungoverned collective services linked to floods. While flood response service delivery through co-production may constitute the best available options in a context of poor resources, because of the negotiated character of public service delivery, it also creates an environment favourable for brokers to take ownership of central processes of service delivery and for structural inequalities to be reinforced locally.

Prognostic value of nucleated red blood cells in critically ill children.

QUESTION Is there an association between the presence of nucleated red blood cells (NRBCs) in the peripheral blood and outcomes in critically ill children? METHODS Prospective observational study conducted in 2008 (January to December) in a multidisciplinary paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) of a tertiary childrens hospital. We provide univariate analysis, stratified by age group (neonates and children >28 days of age), and multiple logistic regression, comparing clinically important outcomes (death, ventilation, renal replacement therapy, inotropic support) with haematological (NRBC, haemoglobin, platelets, leucocytes), illness severity (expected mortality [paediatric index of mortality, PIM2]), demographic (age, sex) and diagnostic parameters and length of stay. Haematological parameters correspond to the first 24 hours of PICU admission. RESULTS Out of 670 patients, 195 (29.1%) were NRBC positive and 475 (70.9%) were NRBC negative. In the neonatal age group (n = 232), patients who died, were ventilated or received inotropic support had significantly more NRBCs than patients without these conditions (p = 0.032, 0.038 and 0.029, respectively). In the child age group (n = 438), only renal replacement therapy was significantly associated with NRBC (p <0.001). High PIM score (p <0.001) and longer length of stay (p <0.001) were independently associated with bad outcomes (composite endpoint: mortality and/or ventilation and/or renal replacement therapy and/or inotropic support); NRBC positivity was not an independent predictor of bad outcome (odds ratio 1.44, 95% confidence interval 0.62‒3.41). CONCLUSIONS NRBCs are not an independent risk factor for bad outcomes in paediatric intensive care. However, NRBCs may have some prognostic value in the first month of life. In children >1 month of age, the association between NRBC and outcome is much less pronounced.

Flood management in urban Senegal: an actor-oriented perspective on national and transnational adaptation interventions

In Senegal, considerable development assistance has been allocated to addressing the problem of repeated flooding in urban areas, involving changing thematic objectives, from short-term disaster relief to wide-ranging sanitation and drainage programmes. In spite of these numerous flood management interventions, the number of flood victims in Senegals urban centres has increased steadily since 1999. This article contributes empirically and conceptually to recent studies highlighting poor national disaster risk management frameworks in West Africa, by investigating how floods have been managed in Senegal and why this management has not led to the results expected by the population. The article finds that the configuration of flood management policies and programmes in urban Senegal points towards three key intertwined issues which have influenced the limited achievements of flood management in urban areas. These include, but are not restricted to, the political and personal appropriation of flood management-related processes, the reinforcement of the dichotomy between central government and municipalities, and a fragmented institutional framework with overlapping institutions.

Promoting Private Sector Engagement in Climate Change Adaptation and Flood Resilience—A Case Study of Innovative Approaches Applied by MSMEs in Mumbai, India

Recurring heavy precipitation and flooding cause extensive loss and damage in cities like Mumbai. Among the worst affected are Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), which suffer damage to physical structure and loss of business. These costs amount to millions of dollars and are borne by MSMEs in the absence of adequate insurance protection. With limited flood management services and inadequate infrastructure provided by the municipal authorities, MSMEs are implementing their own temporary measures for flood protection. These are often ineffective during heavy precipitation and create risks of maladaptation. As climate change is expected to worsen the risk of flash floods with changes in intensity, frequency and duration of rainfall, MSMEs need long-term solutions to build their adaptive capacity and resilience. This paper describes the business case for private sector engagement in flood risk reduction and climate adaptation from the perspective of MSMEs in Mumbai. Based on extensive field surveys of MSMEs located in industrial estates, the paper discusses the implications of floods for MSMEs. Moreover, the authors present a framework developed for MSMEs to make informed risk reduction and adaptation decisions and implement effective structural and non-structural measures to minimize the recurring adverse impacts of floods on their business operations.