Strengthening the Understanding of Social Vulnerability in the Arab Region | LAS, AWC, WFP

AWC has Organized a Regional Workshop on the subject under The Climate Risk Nexus (CRN) Initiative jointly with WFP (Sept. 2016). The Workshop was intended to improve the understanding and evaluation of social vulnerability as affected by major sources of risks, particularly poverty, climate change water scarcity, food insecurity and water-related conflicts.

The workshop was a chance to discuss the applicability of these risks to the Arab countries and to identify their adverse effects that are already felt in the region. It also addressed the adaptation of strategies, policies and programs necessary to reduce vulnerabilities and evaluate current efforts. As a result of this workshop, report on enhancing the understanding of Social Vulnerability in the Arab Region was produced to review literature pertaining to the concept of social vulnerability and how it may be applicable to the Arab region. One of its key objectives is to improve the understanding of social vulnerability, and how it may be affected by different sources of risk, particularly poverty, climate change risks, water scarcity, food insecurity, and conflict.

The report focused on understanding social vulnerability and its application on the Arab region, the specific objectives included:

• Understanding basic terms relevant to social vulnerability and the main factors affecting them;
• Presenting a general framework of social vulnerability;
• Explaining why considering social vulnerability is necessary in order to reduce risk;
• Highlighting linkages with other major disciplinary teams and understanding how they relate;
• Understanding and analyzing the drivers of social vulnerability in the Arab region and their applicability to Arab countries

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