ABSTRACT
Vulnerability to environmental stressors and disasters has the potential to undermine efforts to reduce poverty due to decreased livelihood security, reduced health status and the limited potential of the poor to participate in economic activities. This chapter investigates complex adaptive systems and the links between climate variability and other stressors in Ga-Selala, a rural village of South Africa. The research was primarily funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the study was framed by the following research questions:
How do people (at the village and municipal levels) prioritize responses to multiple stressors?
How does the perception of the best response to stressors differ between the village and municipal levels?
How can adaptation to stressors be linked to sustainable development initiatives?
It is becoming increasingly recognized that examining the impacts of stressors in isolation is of limited value in terms of developing a full understanding of both local realities and the range of factors that contribute to and aggravate vulnerability (Reid and Vogel, 2006). In this study, we explore the interactions between climate, water and health stressors, all of which are major contributors to poverty in South Africa.