Vulnerability Analysis

The analysis of the fundamental issues of vulnerability in relation to it causal factors as well as its relation to some sections of the population such as women and children, persons with disabilities, HIV positive persons, the extreme poor and the destitute will inform policy direction of the District towards designing programmes that will address their concerns.

  
The district abounds with a number of factors that predispose its population to one risk or the other.  Most of these factors are natural while others are manmade.  Analysis of the current situation of the District revealed that drought or rain failure is one of the factors that predispose the people to the risk of food insecurity.  Crop failure is common during years of drought and the people who are mostly peasant farmers suffer severe forms of hunger. 

Small scale rearing of cattle, goats, sheep and poultry are kept as alternative social security against periods of drought and lean season.  Other phenomenon of significant threat to the people includes floods. Sometimes the whole village could be razed down by floods. The building pattern and the roofing materials in most of the communities including sections of the District capital predispose the communities to the risk of fire outbreaks and floods.

The combined effects of these factors make the district very vulnerable to acute food shortages, fire disaster, cholera and other diseases including malaria.  Women, children, the aged, the physically challenged etc are the worst affected. 

Women and Children are less resilient to the risk of acquiring sicknesses.  Women lack equal access to productive resources such as land as their male counterparts.  They are the least educated in the formal sector and the worst placed in terms of opportunities for alternative sources of employment.

A further analysis of the social setups of the indigenous people reveals a sense of declining family ties and this has negative implications on the traditional social security system especially for the aged, the physically challenged, Orphans and persons infected with HIV/AIDS.   There is a growing feeling of individualism among the people and this gradually weakening the social security system.