Leveraging Multi-Sector Needs Assessments to Assess Dynamic Social Vulnerability: A Methodological Exploration

In the context of escalating climate change impacts, conflicts, urbanization, and the complex interplay between ecological, physical, human, and technological systems, this research explores an innovative methodology for the assessment of dynamic social vulnerability for disaster risk assessment and management by exploiting Multi-Sector Needs Assessments (MSNA) data. Current frameworks for assessing social vulnerability frequently exhibit a hazard-specific focus and are not often generalizable because of differences in methodologies or limits in data availability. Moreover, they often fail to incorporate the dynamic nature of vulnerability, and neglect the inclusion of critical context-specific elements. The proposed research addresses these limitations by exploring the innovative application of MSNAs conducted by humanitarian organizations for assessing dynamic social vulnerability. MSNAs, by providing data across various sectors and geospatial scales, offer an underutilized resource for understanding the multi-dimensional and dynamic aspects of vulnerability in crisis-affected contexts. The use of MSNA data, which includes repeated assessments over time and disaggregation by different population groups and geographic levels, presents new opportunities to understand how and why social vulnerability can change over time. This research aims to address the methodological challenges of data accessibility,  standardization, comparability, and representation of socio-economic factors by proposing an innovative way of constructing a social vulnerability index based on MSNA data and indicators that can capture and reflect changes in social vulnerability over time. This approach will be demonstrated through a case study, providing a practical illustration of how dynamic social vulnerability can be effectively measured and analyzed using MSNA data. The research will also highlight how the methodology can be replicated to any other country for which MSNA data is available. By bridging the gap between crisis-driven needs assessments and long-term social vulnerability analysis, this study contributes to more informed, context-specific, and timely strategies in disaster risk management, humanitarian response and policy-making. The findings are expected to enhance the understanding of social vulnerability in varied contexts, highlighting the dynamic nature of vulnerability from a multi-risk and multi-hazard perspective.