Household resilience to climate change hazards in Uganda

• Published date: 20 January 2020
• Pages: 59-73
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCCSM-10-2018-0069
• Date: 20 January 2020
• Author: George Oriangi,Frederike Albrecht,Giuliano Di Baldassarre,Yazidhi Bamutaze,Paul Isolo Mukwaya,Jonas Ardö,Petter Pilesjö
• Subject Matter: Public policy & environmental management,Environmental issues,Climate change

Household resilience to climate

change hazards in Uganda

George Oriangi

Department of Geography, Geo-Informatics, and Climatic Sciences, Makerere

University, Kampala, Uganda and Department of Physical Geography and

Ecosystem Science, Lund University, Lund, Sweden and Department of Geography,

Gulu University, Gulu, Uganda

Frederike Albrecht and Giuliano Di Baldassarre

Department of Earth Sciences, Centre of Natural Hazards and Disaster Science,

Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

Yazidhi Bamutaze and Paul Isolo Mukwaya

Department of Geography, Geo-Informatics, and Climatic Sciences,

Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, and

Jonas Ardö and Petter Pilesjö

Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, Lund University,

Lund, Sweden

Abstract

Purpose –As climate change shocks and stresses increasingly affect urban areas in developing

countries, resilience is imperative for the purposes of preparation, recovery and adaptation. This study

aims to investigate demographic characteristics and social networks that inf‌luence the household

capacity to prepare, recover and adapt when faced with prolonged droughts or erratic rainfall events in

Mbale municipality in Eastern Uganda.

Design/methodology/approach –A cross-sectional research design was used to elicit subjective

opinions. Previous studies indicate the importance of subjective approaches for measuring social

resilience but their use has not been well explored in the context of quantifying urban resilience to

climate change shocks and stresses. This study uses 389 structured household interviews to capture

demographic characteristics, social networks and resilience capacities. Descriptive and inferential

statistics were used for analysis.

Findings –The ability of low-incomehouseholds to meet their daily expenditure needs, householdsize, and

networks with relatives and non government organizations (NGOs) were signif‌icant determinants of

preparedness,recovery and adaptation to prolonged droughts or erraticrainfall events.

Practical implications –The results imply that policymakersand practitioners have an important role

vis-à-vis encouraging activities that boost the ability of households to meet their daily expenditure needs,

promotingsmall household size and reinforcing social networks that enhancehousehold resilience.

© George Oriangi, Frederike Albrecht, Giuliano Di Baldassarre, Yazidhi Bamutaze, Paul Isolo

Mukwaya, Jonas Ardö and Petter Pilesjö. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is

published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce,

distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-

commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full

terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

This research was supported by SIDA (331).

Climate

change

hazards in

Uganda

59

Received3 October 2018

Revised20 January 2019

1 May2019

29May 2019

3August2019

21August 2019

Accepted11 October 2019

InternationalJournal of Climate

ChangeStrategies and

Management

Vol.12 No. 1, 2020

pp. 59-73

EmeraldPublishing Limited

1756-8692

DOI 10.1108/IJCCSM-10-2018-0069

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