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Building Back Better: Delivering people-centred housing reconstruction at scale

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The Indian Ocean tsunami was a disaster on an unprecedented scale and elicited local and international responses which went well beyond the experience of previous disasters. The widespread efforts which ensued provided a test-bed for some of the prevalent ideas, beliefs and practices of the early years of this century concerning the management of natural disasters and their relation to development.

Through implementation and debate, these experiences both triggered and coincided with deep reflections on the part of multilateral and bilateral agencies, governments, international NGOs, civil society and scholars over their priorities and approaches to vulnerability reduction, short-term relief and temporary shelter phases, and post-disaster reconstruction. In consequence, new actors have entered the sector; it has come to include more, larger actors, who were either new to housing or new to disasters; and who practice housing reconstruction on a larger scale than previously. Many actors from all sectors have adopted the practice and language of participatory and integrated development to describe their new strategies and activities.

The book has been developed through ongoing collaboration between Practical Action, London South Bank University, and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. These organizations sought to bring together practitioners, academics and donors to refl ect on this turning point in approaches to post-disaster reconstruction, and to draw lessons for future practice, policy and advocacy. The process has included a major international conference held in London in March 2009 and a number of international workshops and its outputs include a tool-kit for practitioners, a position paper for activists and academic articles.

This book contributes to the rich debate on the potential for developmental post-disaster reconstruction. Its key concern is the potential for post-disaster housing reconstruction to break the cycle of poverty and dependence, reducing people's vulnerability to disasters and to other adverse events and conditions. It aims to inform policy, programme design and practice.