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Women are exposed to vulnerabilities that can lead to drug use or hinder recovery. However, there is a dearth of studies on recovery programs for women. This study aims to add to the literature by examining the feasibility of a women-only aftercare program for recovering users in the Philippines.

The study used a mixed-method design with pre and post-program surveys used to measure changes in participants’ recovery capital. Focused group discussions elicited participants’ context, their reactions, perceived outcomes and suggestions on the program.

Women in the program shared narratives of pain, trauma and abuse before treatment. Participants reported significant improvements in personal, community and family recovery capital dimensions. The program enabled personal growth in the form of new knowledge, skills and self-confidence. The women-only program also provided a safe space for women, to receive support from other women, community members and family. However, the women continue to face continuing challenges related to stigma and discrimination and a lack of livelihood opportunities.

A limitation of the study was its small sample size and the lack of a control group. Another limitation was the variability in treatment received by the women, which could have affected overall outcomes. Future studies using a randomized control trial and longitudinal designs may provide more robust conclusions on the effectiveness of the program.

Given punitive contexts, gender-sensitive and trauma-informed programs and services for women involved in drug use could potentially mitigate the abuse, stigma and vulnerabilities they experience.

This study contributes to the sparse literature on women-only aftercare, particularly in countries that criminalize drug use.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic continues to impact economic systems, with devastating consequences on livelihoods. Anecdotal evidence has predicted the adverse effects of COVID-19 on the livelihood of food system actors. Uganda experienced two lockdowns in March 2020 and June 2021 with varying government containment measures. During the first lockdown, fresh food market vending was deemed essential to meet urban food demand, and was consequently exempted from a total shutdown despite the ban on public and private transport. Thus, this study sought to examine the effect of COVID-19 containment measures on fresh food market vending businesses in Uganda.

Using primary data collected from fresh food market vendors, this study applied a pooled time-series estimation to examine the effect of the first lockdown COVID-19 containment measures on fresh food vendors' welfare.

The study revealed that COVID-19 had a significant negative impact on the income of fresh food vendors, with female vendors being the most affected. COVID-19 containment measures reduced the diversity of buyers, individual customers and the number of commodities traded in causing a greater impact on vendors' income.

The unavailability of data for vendors who did not return to the market at the time of data collection limits the scope of the study. Additionally, the absence of data for the second lockdown limited the analysis to only March 2020 lockdown period.

The empirical analysis highlights how vulnerabilities of different gender categories could be exacerbated by crises. The study provides empirical evidence of various market distortions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the disproportionate impact on women and men market vendors which calls for the need to integrate women's perspectives in future planning for market systems as well as advocating for gender-sensitive recovery responses.

Women migrant street vendors are considered a vulnerable group in societies, thereby being hard hit during a crisis. This research aims to examine effects of COVID-19 social distancing on their businesses, consumption, health and general lives; solutions and mitigation strategies that they adopted in response to these adverse effects; and their recovery of socioeconomic lives after social distancing.

The data were collected from the women migrant street vendors in urban Vietnam. Descriptive statistics, probit model and ordered probit model were used for empirical analysis.

Women migrant street vendors faced immense challenges during social distancing. They also lacked solutions to sustain their businesses and were forced to resort to various mitigation strategies. Their socioeconomic lives were also slow to recover after social distancing. In addition, those experiencing greater business loss faced more adverse effects during social distancing and have more difficulties in the recovery of socioeconomic lives after social distancing.

This research highlights the importance of redesigning social policies to support women migrant street vendors during crises. It also emphasizes the need to formalize and legalize their activities to foster sustainable and inclusive development in the long term.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is among the first attempts to explore the effects of COVID-19 social distancing on the women migrant street vendors and to examine how they respond to these adverse effects.

Earthquake stressful events cause many consequences and need for survivors. Housing reconstruction is one of the most urgent needs; due to traumatic experiences, dialectical changes in people–place relationships occur.

The present study uses the Poe method and Q methodology to identify the hidden dimensions of trauma-informed housing reconstruction. A questionnaire with 74 items on the Likert scale was developed based on indicative Poe. It was completed by the purposive sampling method by Bam households. The influential factors in housing reconstruction with a psychological recovery approach were extracted by q-factor analysis in communities with different traumatic experiences.

According to the findings, first, people who had experienced complete home destruction; severe physical injuries; loss of family members and relatives; and were trapped under the earthquake rubble have different place-based needs in housing reconstruction for coping with fears and environmental concerns, protective behaviors, safety perception and as result safety reassurance. Second, regardless of the traumatic experience and losses, reconstruction acceleration and economic-social dignity have a positive effect on the communities’ psychological recovery.

It is noteworthy that housing reconstruction with a psychological recovery approach has two basic aspects. Although some independent factors of traumatic experiences will be efficient in this approach, it was found that the type of earthquake traumatic experiences will also be effective in the survivors’ place-based needs and biases.

Fires have the potential to destroy, resulting in the loss of property and livelihoods, as well as injury, death and repeated trauma for those who are already vulnerable. However, fire as a hazard has been treated rigidly and un-critically, a model that has influenced how it is perceived by policy makers, first responders, engineers and academics and subsequently approaches to implementing and better understanding fire prevention, mitigation, response and recovery from the impacts of fire.

This article deals with fire, arguing that its case can help imagine what liberation might mean within and for disaster studies. The study argues against dogmatic, outdated, technological and solution-focused perspectives that have constrained how fire and its effects are understood and discuss what disciplinary liberation could mean for the study of fire and its integration within DRR. The study’s approach is based on the DRR Assemblage Theory, which points to fire as an issue at a societal level.

The study explores the themes of fire and liberation through contributions and insights that have emerged through the authors' professional experience in research and practice. It offers an original and timely engagement with disaster studies through the lens of fire, an increasingly pertinent phenomenon for disaster scholars and practitioners alike.

By drawing on the example of fire as a socio-technical-environmental phenomenon, this paper contributes a novel perspective on the intellectual and practical possibilities that can emerge from disciplinary liberation.

Psychiatric patients’ post-treatment identities are one of the potent indicators reflecting the efficacy of the medical intervention. This study aims to explore how psychiatric patients construct their post-treatment social identities through a gender lens.

This study used a descriptive phenomenological approach, and in-depth interviews were undertaken on 29 informants with experience of psychiatric treatment for at least one year and who are in the remission stage. The lived experience of each informant was scrutinised, which covered how psychiatric post-treatment affects and alters their personal life, work and social relationships. Data collected were then analysed using thematic analysis.

The result found two mutually reinforced identities, namely, self-empowerment and resilience emerged from their experience with psychiatric post-treatment. Firstly, self-empowerment themes include acceptance of the disorders, meaningful choices, assertiveness and helping others. Such self-empowerment attributes enabled them to negotiate with the doctors during the treatment and also with their family members and partners. Secondly, psychiatric post-treatment allows them to be resilient; their good feeling of being liberated from the symptoms while allowing them to partake in a normal lifestyle. Meanwhile, gender differences were found to have diverse meaning-making that positively impacted their lives, particularly among female informants.

Firstly, the data collection was only made in two states in North Peninsular Malaysia; hence, it would be biased in this sense to generalize to a larger population. At the same time, a prevalent study could be undertaken to view the pervasiveness of mental illness among Malaysians. Secondly, the study did not investigate the social institutions that are linked to the relief of psychiatric patients in the country. Thus, there is a grey area on how at the systemic level aid is given to the patients and the impact of such action.

A rigour campaign on promoting mental health should be undertaken to create an inclusive environment for the patients. This is consistent with the aspiration of deinstitutionalization and the Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 agenda by the Malaysian government. This is a call for an allotment in special education, training, and funding, employment, housing and other aspects that are significant for their livelihood.

The findings discovered that their social environment primarily caused the depression suffered by the patients. The remark is particularly true for female informants who had very little control over their lives and bodies. Hence, health professionals should consider practicing cultural and gender-sensitive treatment for these patients. Such treatments are to avoid re-discriminating, or re-victimisation feelings to occur during the treatment.

Patients’ post-treatment social identity construction is seldom reported systematically through a gender lens. This study is one of the early efforts on gender lens that allow one to understand how it influences social structures and institutions, especially in the Malaysian realm.

The politically laden nature of postdisaster recovery calls for more research on its governance, especially at the micro-scale. Apart from engineering-oriented frameworks, researchers need new theoretical underpinnings. This paper aims to review the development of the evolutionary resilience theory and use it as an analytical framework to evaluate the governance of post-earthquake reconstruction planning in China.

This paper examines how reconstruction planning is governed in the epicenter town of the 2008 Great Sichuan Earthquake, highlighting three key qualities of evolutionary resilience. The authors draw on site investigations, semistructured interviews and analysis of official and unpublished documents from various sources.

This paper finds that despite the absence of specific resilience statements in reconstruction plans of the time, qualities of evolutionary resilience, including social connectedness, flexibility and innovation, were evident in a hybrid and contradictory reconstruction planning system. In this respect, resilience thinking appears in Chinese planning earlier than generally assumed. This paper suggests that this manifestation of resilience was the result of an instrumental utility in addressing socioeconomic uncertainties in the postdisaster environment and, thus, may not be systematic.

This work enriches the understanding of recovery governance from an evolutionary resilience perspective where existing research is insufficient. It also offers ample practical guidance for similar cases in China and elsewhere.

This study investigated the role of community infrastructure planning in Sarawak, Malaysia, by concentrating on the obstacles that hinder effective governance of community infrastructure planning.

The qualitative approach via case study design was adopted in this study. The Song District, located in the State of Sarawak, Malaysia, was selected as the case study area. Semi-structured interview sessions were conducted with 21 respondents who belonged to the government agencies involved in rural community infrastructure planning and village community representatives to capture their views on community infrastructure development planning in the selected district. The gathered responses were analysed thematically and the outcomes are discussed.

The findings revealed that although the development of community infrastructure in Song District has progressed and has exerted transformative impacts on rural livelihood, several challenges were identified in the delivery of community infrastructure. The four main themes of challenges that emerged from the data were location factors, financial resources, cooperation and collaboration of stakeholders, as well as community involvement. The outcomes disclosed that, in terms of governance, the institutional roles of the community, stakeholders and government agencies must be integrated throughout the rural community infrastructure planning process to resolve the emerging challenges effectively so that the demands of the rural community are met meritoriously.

An effective and efficient community infrastructure planning approach ascertains that the community infrastructure development gaps in rural areas are bridged and brings fruition to the rural communities for their livelihood transformation.

This paper delineates a view on the governance aspect of community infrastructure planning in Sarawak, Malaysia, that is largely untapped. The study outcomes may facilitate practitioners and academics to move forward and recommend improvements in the approach to rural community infrastructure planning.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the functioning of a mutual aid group for mental health in rural area and analyze their own strategies for the recovery of mental health, especially those focused on cooperation, social innovation and the strengthening of their own culture through coffee.

The qualitative approach was addressed through the thematic analysis, method to identify, analyze and report patterns within the data. For the selection of participants, the members of a mutual aid group called “Cooperativa de Mujeres' was selected. This group functions as an autonomous business organization in Risaralda, Colombia. They have accompanied people diagnosed with anxiety, depression and domestic violence. Six women were interviewed, between the ages of 18 and 62.

Two thematic nuclei are described: “One for all” made up of categories such as identification with the other, need for the other, being able to communicate, contributing to the group involuntarily and actions to help others. “All for one”, made up of categories such as growing together, welcoming individuals in their individuality from group dynamics, strengthening the relationship of the person with reality, strengthen from the experiences of others.

Mutual Aid Groups in mental health propose associative structures that they seek to oppose the barriers of historical exclusion in the labor field and in this way contribute to the fact that the models, although they have a long history, have been little studied with a view to their implementation by health systems.

Current research in the field of health should focus on recognizing the flaws of the current mental health model focused on medicalization, psychologization and institutionalization, and point to a greater commitment to intersectoral support for initiatives and scenarios that promote links, networks, autonomy and care for each other and the environment, where sustainability and social and economic growth are fundamental.

The transformative actions of cooperatives are configured with a fundamental element when it comes to generating spaces for the rehabilitation of mental health.

Components of a mutual aid group in rural areas are explored, which could serve to replicate said structures in similar scenarios, especially in territories where social inequities make recovery difficult, such as Colombia.

The goal of this research is to look at how urban microfinance affects livelihood transformation in terms of poverty reduction, living standards, social well-being, empowerment and entrepreneurship.

This paper analyses the role of urban microfinance towards livelihood with special reference to Western Uttar Pradesh. Primary data were collected from 321 respondents who are users of a microfinance programme using a standardised questionnaire. The data were collected using a stratified random sampling technique, and the data were analysed using structural equation modelling.

Urban microfinance has a considerable impact on poverty reduction, the standard of living, social well-being, empowerment and entrepreneurship in the urban poor, according to the findings.

The fact that the majority of the borrowers were uneducated was the most significant barrier to them filling out the questionnaire. Their anxiety was the most significant psychological obstacle to successfully answering the questions, and it took time. As a result, it is urged that proper counselling be conducted before the poor borrowers fill out the questionnaire.

The current study highlights the factors that lead to the utilisation of microfinance services. This research will aid MFIs in selecting the appropriate products and services for the urban poor. The results of this study will aid them in understanding and meeting the expectations of microfinance CEOs.

This is a first study conducted in Northern zone of India measuring the roles urban microfinance institutions (MFIs) in uplifting the livelihood of urban poor.