Informality and Marginalised Groups in Crisis Response

The Covid-19 pandemic had ripple effects that extend beyond the domain of health risks into economic, social, and political domains. These effects were not evenly distributed and exacerbated existing societal inequalities and marginalisation (UNDRR and UNU-EHS 2022: 11). Informal and migrant workers, and those living in informal settlements, were disproportionately affected by the health and secondary impacts of the pandemic, which further impacted their livelihoods and ability to meet basic needs, and constrained their ability to recover given the coping mechanisms they had to adopt (Chen et al. 2022: 19). At the same time, successful disaster risk reduction (DRR) often depends on informal actors and networks (Boersma et al. 2019). Limitations of formal disaster governance mechanisms have been much discussed, with shortcomings being largely connected to the lack of (local) knowledge, contextual understanding, incentives, coordination mechanisms, or flexibility, as well as focusing on infrastructural and technocratic solutions over engaging with existing local resources (Duda , Kelman and Glick 2020: 375). Despite this, short-term, single-hazard disaster management approaches still dominate (Donoghoe et al. 2022). Research supported by the Covid-19 Responses for Equity (CORE) Programme – which is supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) – points to the need for special provisions addressing current and future challenges of informal workers in disaster response (Pillai et al. 2022b). This requires not only including informal workers in Covid-19 recovery policies, but also centring them in economic, social, and disaster policy (Alfers et al. 2022). Certain actions need to be prioritised, including the need for better data, a rethinking of policies to ensure they encompass gender considerations and social protection measures that are inclusive of informal and migrant workers, and greater recognition of the important role that grass-roots organisations play in supporting marginalised groups in times of crisis