On 15th February, 2025, Fields of View presented our simulation tool, E-QLT, for the Analytics Track of the India Conference at Harvard: Policy Hackathon 2025 - and we won!
The question we sought to answer for the Hackathon was: How can we address the current gaps in assessing vulnerability due to climate change? We proposed a climate vulnerability assessment framework using E-QLT, our simulation tool that assesses vulnerability at a household level across the interconnected dimensions of finance, health, and education. The model simulates how climate shocks affect the vulnerability of households and the efficacy of existing social protection measures in building household resilience.
In India, climate vulnerability has been assessed at the state and district levels. While these macro-level indexes can be used to identify vulnerable regions, they have limited application in developing strategies for building resilience at the household level.
E-QLT models how households manage their monthly expenses, and the effect of their expenditure preferences on various aspects that contribute to the household’s vulnerability, such as health, education, and living standards. The simulation is based on the Sustainable Livelihood Approach (SLA)x, which considers five kinds of capital (out of which we specifically modeled physical, financial, and human capital) and integrates the impact of shocks, household vulnerability, resilience mechanisms, and the trade-offs inherent to the household well-being.
Data and exploratory scenarios form the starting conditions for the simulation runs.
The data we consider at the household level includes demography, income and expenditure patterns, and eligibility for and access to various resilience mechanisms. This data can be primary, secondary, or synthetic based on certain typology, depending on the intended purpose of the analysis.
Similarly, the exploratory scenarios to be used are dependent on the intended purpose of the analysis. The scenarios can be determined by involving stakeholders working towards addressing vulnerability and those being impacted by vulnerability.
For the Hackathon, we considered selected scenarios to demonstrate how E-QLT can analyse household-level climate vulnerability in Odisha and Kerala using household data available at the national and regional levels.
Now, we are working on a platform for E-QLT that can be used by NGOs, and other stakeholders involved in advocacy and policy, to better understand the vulnerability of their communities. Next, we aim to embed the simulation tool with organisations to aid in the development of policy that is effective at building community resilience.
Reach out to us at [email protected] to learn more about E-QLT, and how this tool can help you with better policymaking.