Addressing the cultural gap between humanitarian assistance and local responses to risk through a place-based approach

The brief contends that current disaster risk reduction (DRR) efforts often fail because they ignore local cultural interpretations of risk, leading to a disconnect between international aid and on-the-ground realities. Despite significant global investment in aid, climate-related risks continue to rise. The authors argue that failing to engage with culture results in wasted resources and can exacerbate existing inequalities related to gender, ethnicity, or disability. They call for the development of tools and frameworks that equitably reflect diverse, culturally-influenced understandings of risk to make DRR strategies more effective and context-specific.

• Despite an estimated $3 trillion in aid over the last twenty years, disasters and climate-related risks are increasing, suggesting that international humanitarian efforts to build resilience have been insufficient.
• The failure to integrate local culture into DRR leads to a disconnect where external aid actors may impose cultural biases, bypass existing social structures, and distribute aid inequitably, which can reinforce inequalities based on disability, ethnicity, or gender.
• Current references to culture within DRR are too vague to be operationalized, and without a place-based approach that engages with cultural knowledge, DRR and development plans will remain mismatched, wasting resources and increasing risk.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2016). Addressing the cultural gap between humanitarian assistance and local responses to risk through a place-based approach. https://www.sei.org/publications/addressing-the-cultural-gap-between-humanitarian-assistance-and-local-responses-to-risk-through-a-place-based-approach/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Addressing the cultural gap between humanitarian assistance and local responses to risk through a place-based approach. 2016. https://www.sei.org/publications/addressing-the-cultural-gap-between-humanitarian-assistance-and-local-responses-to-risk-through-a-place-based-approach/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Addressing the cultural gap between humanitarian assistance and local responses to risk through a place-based approach |date=19 April 2016 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/addressing-the-cultural-gap-between-humanitarian-assistance-and-local-responses-to-risk-through-a-place-based-approach/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2016addressing, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Addressing the cultural gap between humanitarian assistance and local responses to risk through a place-based approach}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2016}, month = apr, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/addressing-the-cultural-gap-between-humanitarian-assistance-and-local-responses-to-risk-through-a-place-based-approach/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }