Project name: Climate change and the environment determinants of violence and mental distress in fragile contexts: Ethiopia, Myanmar and Nepal
This project builds on two previous ESRC projects that identify well-being, mental fragility and violence as critical negative impacts that are related with environment pressures associated with climate change. These include Narratives of violence: the impact of internal displacement on violence against women in Nepal and Myanmar (shortened to Narratives of Violence) which investigated the issue of gender-based violence in Myanmar and Nepal that occurs at times of flooding, and the Water Security in Ethiopia and the Emotional-response of Pastoralists [WEEP] project that examined the consequences of drought and severe water insecurity on the emotional wellbeing and mental fragility of pastoralist populations in Ethiopia.
Developing a strategy to synthesise the learnings from these projects will be mutually beneficial from an evidence-development perspective. It will enable the research teams to accumulate a critical mass of evidence on how and why climate induced changes in water availability shape incidences of violence and mental distress in contexts that are already fragile. Based on DFID’s assessment of State Fragility, Myanmar is considered a High Fragility State whilst Ethiopia and Nepal are Low Fragility States (DFID, 2018).
All contexts offer significant opportunity to examine whether generalisable mechanisms are apparent across the cases which will support further theorising and practical recommendations. Bringing together the projects also provides the opportunity to co-curate a powerful impact strategy that addresses the intersection between key development agendas on climate change (specifically water security), gender, violence and mental fragility.
The long-term goal will be to develop a theoretical framework that forms the basis of an early warning system for governments and other agencies to anticipate and respond to spikes in violence and mental distress at times of climate stress.