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PhD Candidate in Disaster Risk Reduction, UCL

The UCL-IRDR promotes doing scientific research that can influence disaster risk reduction practice within academia, industry, NGOs and government.

Rebekah is a PhD candidate with ten years of experience working for NGOS in the development and humanitarian practice. Her research comprises disaster risk mitigation processes before, during and in the first few months and years following an event.

Rebekah’s research demonstrates how transitional phases to disaster recovery can be crucial time periods in determining longer-term vulnerability among hazard-exposed populations. Through analysing case studies from around the globe of microinsurance initiatives as a mechanism for disaster preparedness, Rebekah has posed that such initiatives can be considered through both a humanitarian and a business lens (Yore and Faure Walker, 2019). Her studies of the effectiveness of warnings support the notion of warning systems being a process in which scientific, communications, social and infrastructure components must be considered. Rebekah’s 2020 paper in Disasters proposes that these components can be considered in terms of foreground factors, those factors that relate directly to the warning system, and background factors relating to culture, understanding, trust, perception and decision-making power of the individuals affected (Yore and Faure Walker, 2020). Her work highlights the need to place these systems and post-disaster shelter in the context of pre-existing vulnerabilities and housing conditions including the financial and construction systems. Her broader research on disaster microinsurance, the complexity of hazard warning systems and temporary housing accentuate that disaster preparedness, emergency response and longer-term reconstruction are highly social and strongly connected processes, and improving one means considering them all.

Experience

  • 2015–present
    PhD Candidate in Disaster Risk Reduction, UCL
  • 2017–2021
    Project Director, Rescue Global

Publications

  • 2020
    A method for determining the suitability of schools as evacuation shelters and aid distribution hubs following disasters: case study from Cagayan de Oro, Philippines, Natural Hazards
  • 2020
    Early Warning Systems and Evacuation: Rare and Extreme vs Frequent and Small-Scale Tropical Cyclones in the Philippines and Dominica, Disasters
  • 2019
    Microinsurance for Disaster Recovery: Business Venture or Humanitarian Intervention? An Analysis of Potential Success and Failure Factors of Microinsurance Case Studies, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction