People-centred strategies to integrate disaster and climate resilience in Zimbabwe

Purpose This study aims to explore people-centred approaches to integrate disaster and climate resilience. This is set against the backdrop of evidence that disaster and climate resilience are treated as discrete epistemic concepts in policy and practice, despite sharing subtle complementarities and synergies. Design/methodology/approach The study adopted a constructivist grounded theory, which is a key element of qualitative research. This operated within the exploratory research design. Community members, disaster risk reduction and climate change practitioners were purposively selected to participate in the study. A total of 28 respondents participated in semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. Findings The study findings highlighted that disaster and climate resilience are linked to risk and vulnerability reduction, and they need to be integrated. The findings further revealed that socio-economic, environmental, institutional and infrastructural strategies can lead to integrated disaster and climate resilience. When strategies to incorporate disaster and climate resilience are people-centred, they prioritise the needs, knowledge, insights, experiences and aspirations of at-risk communities. Thus, at-risk communities can develop interventions, set goals, make informed decisions and find synergistic solutions to tackle complex challenges and thrive in the face of climate change and disaster risks. Originality/value This study presents the earliest efforts to suggest ways to integrate disaster and climate resilience from the viewpoint of at-risk communities. This is against the backdrop that calls to integrate disaster and climate resilience have been growing, but without suggestions of how the integration can be achieved.