Why the Missing Voices Approach is needed
Some people receive warnings, such as SMS messages, from government bodies or NGOs when a natural disaster strikes. However, the most marginalised groups in vulnerable communities often never receive the information they need, or face significant challenges to acting on the warnings.
For example, in Peru, 64% of women in some vulnerable communities do not have mobile phone access to receive SMS alerts. In Senegal, text-based alerts are useless to 48% of the population who are illiterate. Only 20% of people with disabilities report being able to evacuate immediately and without difficulty in the case of a sudden disaster.
What makes Missing Voices different?
It is not necessary for the most vulnerable and marginalised to bear the brunt of the devastation sparked by extreme weather. Practical Action develops Early Warning Systems tailored to vulnerable communities and guided by their experiences, expertise, and needs.
The Missing Voices Approach is designed to listen to those who are less heard and use that insight to shape the decisions that affect their lives. We allow people to share their experiences in their own words and in a safe environment, a process that can be incredibly empowering for those who are most often ignoreds. The Missing Voices Approach provides them with the opportunity to be deeply listened to and have their input utilised.
Working with the most marginalised in communities aids the development of early warning systems that serve everyone by providing the right information in the right way and at the right time using high-tech, low-tech, and no-tech solutions.
- The right information can overcome education barriers that lower the effective understanding of alerts.
- The right way can account for economic inequalities that hamper access to technology-based information.
- The right time can ensure provisions are made for people with mobility and visibility issues.
Practical Action has demonstrated how early and effective alerts minimise the consequences of catastrophe for decades – but we have the potential to do so much more.
Click below to download more information about the Missing Voices Approach.
