UMR - Gouvernance, Risque, Environnement, Développement

Informations générales

Domaine de compétence

Human geography, disaster risk reduction

Mots-clés de la recherche

Disaster risk reduction, vulnerability, capacities, resilience, remittances, participation, migration, livelihoods, recovery

Zone(s) géographique(s) de compétence

Asie et Pacifique

Programmes et actions de recherche en collaboration avec le GRED

Projet sur la résilience au Vanuatu (Post Pam)

Domaines d'intérêt

La recherche porte sur la réduction des conséquences des catastrophes et risques naturels en collaboration avec les communautés locales, les gouvernements mais aussi les ONG principalement en Nouvelle-Zélande et dans les pays insulaires du Pacifique.

My research is driven by the gaps in policy and practice, I witness through my on-going engagement in disaster risk reduction activities in collaboration with local communities, government authorities and NGOs in New Zealand and the Pacific Island Countries. Over the past eight years, my research has focused on bridging the knowledge and actions gaps between local communities and external aid agencies. This is indispensable to achieve sustainable disaster risk reduction. My research has

emphasised that while vulnerable, local people own valuable knowledge and display resources and capacities in the face of disasters. They are capable to conduct risk assessments and have the legitimacy to participate in disaster risk reduction activities. I have thus focused on marginalised groups, migrants, prisoners, communities living is isolated places and children, which groups are often excluded from mainstream research. I have also developed innovative tools including participatory numbers, participatory 3-dimensional mapping and frameworks for integrating such groups and their resources into disaster risk reduction. These tools and frameworks emphasise initiatives from the bottom up and actions from the top down.

In that context, my research outputs have been designed to cater not only to scientists but also to policy makers and practitioners. The journals, oral presentations, projects and workshops to which I have contributed, have been chosen both for their scientific significance and their impacts on policy and practice. Over the past years, my research mostly focused on the Pacific Island Countries including Samoa, Vanuatu, Tonga, and New Caledonia, which are highly prone to disasters. Most of these research projects were/are done in collaboration with other academics (e.g. The University of Auckland, the University of Montpellier 3), research institutes (e.g. The French Institute of Research for Development, East Coast Lab), government agencies (e.g. NZ CDEM, National Emergency Management Office in Tonga) and International organizations and NGOs (e.g. Oxfam, World Vision, the French Red Cross), which reflects collaboration at international scale and efforts to impact policy and practice. I currently try to focus more on New Zealand with two ongoing projects, one funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment focusing on technology and disaster resilience and one funded by the Earthquake Commission focusing on migrants and disaster risk reduction.