Risk Returns

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includes guidance for Governments, the construction

sector, the finance and insurance sectors and homeown-

ers, with in-depth information on construction techniques,

standards and materials.

Post-disaster planning should aim to ensure effi-

ciency and public safety and take place swiftly so as

to preserve social and economic networks. From the

outset, authorities should be concerned with equity,

since those with the fewest resources generally get less

attention from aid organizations, and get it later. People

who are better integrated into economic and social

networks will recover faster.

In China, following the Wenchuan earthquake, plan-

ning for restoration and reconstruction started soon after

the event. Starting early allowed both development and

disaster managers to identify the problems and enable

decision makers to allocate the resources to meet short-,

medium- and long-term needs. The process was led

by the National Development and Reform Committee,

which worked with 45 ministries, provincial govern-

ments and state institutes to prepare a recovery plan,

while also seeking good practices and advice from the

international community. When the consultations were

completed, the authorities started to implement overall

planning for restoration and reconstruction.

Financing recovery

The scale of financial resources available for recovery,

especially from non-governmental sources, generally

depends less on need and more on media attention.

High-profile disasters such as the 2004 Indian Ocean

tsunami will attract much more funding than small

or medium-sized disasters. Governments need mech-

anisms to allocate financial, human and material

resources and they should focus on the activities most

likely to reduce poverty and vulnerability.

It is, however, possible for Governments to offer

more resources of their own by rearranging their

This creates a window of opportunity to remove barriers and create

new and enforceable regulations.

For example, following a major cyclone in 1991, the Bangladesh

authorities reassessed their risk reduction strategies. They rede-

signed cyclone shelters, enlarging them and relocating them closer

to current population centres, taking into account cultural traditions

and behaviour with accommodation for economically important

domestic livestock. Shelters and all new official buildings were in

future to have two elevated stories to protect families displaced

by floods. Shelters also primarily took the form of schools, health

dispensaries or other public facilities to ensure that they were well

maintained and, more importantly, that the public associated them

with disaster preparedness. Over the years, these community cyclone

and flood shelters have become an integral part of an overall local

risk reduction strategy that has further developmental benefits.

The recovery process can also be used to accelerate pre-existing

development initiatives and incorporate stronger elements of disaster

risk reduction. Again, Bangladesh provides an example. The largest

non-governmental organization (NGO) is the Bangladesh Rural

Advancement Committee (BRAC), which works with some three

million poor individuals, mainly women. Following flooding in 1998,

BRACwas able to use its presence in 55 districts to assist 850,000 flood-

affected women from landless and marginal farming households. The

strategy was to help people get back to their own homes with regular

income-generating activities, so most of the activities also fed into

longer-termdevelopment programmes that BRACwas already running.

Planning for recovery

Countries can achieve more sustainable recovery if they have effective

pre-disaster planning. National and international actors can make efforts

to predict disasters while having in place recovery policies and strategies.

Planning should also involve preparing for ex-post recovery. In Latin

America, the Organization of American States Unit for Sustainable

Development and Environment has undertaken ex-ante planning

for housing reconstruction to ensure adequate materials are available

following a disaster and that builders, homeowners and Government

agencies are aware of damage reduction measures and construction

techniques that can result in more hazard-resistant housing. This

Community-driven livelihood recovery in Kotagede, Yogyakarta