TSUNAMI GLOBAL LESSONS LEARNED

The 2004 Tsunami: A Mega Disaster

The Tsunami Legacy:Innovation, Breakthroughs and

Change“Who Stops To Think?”The Challenges Of Leadership And Coordination

Seeing Those Who Are ‘Invisible’ Achieving Equity In Recovery

Creating A ‘Virtuous Loop’Embracing People’s Participation

Countering Corruption And Ensuring Accountability

What If It Happens Again?Innovations In Disaster Risk Management

“Who Stops To Think?”The Challenges Of Leadership And

CoordinationDedicated disaster governance mechanism – BRR (Indonesia), National Disaster

Management Agency (India), Ministry of National Disaster Management and Human Rights (Sri Lanka), National Disaster Management Centre (Maldives)

Complete authority to

local administrato

rs and coordination agencies –

more responsive

to local context

Breakthrough initiatives to ‘build back better’ – Tim Terpadu, Blue Print, PCN and RAN (Indonesia), Equity in

Recovery (India), Adopt-An-Island (Maldives)

Credible senior officials - familiar with

affected communities,

willing to consult widely

and good communicatio

n skills to explain

rationale for major

decisions

• Incentive to act - speedy, flexible, accountable coordination systems – with multi-sector expertise

• Continuous sectoral stocktaking and evaluation - collecting relevant data for wider circulation - determining what has been implemented and what the future should be

• Building local capacity to take over responsibilities – sustain recovery

• Responsive field presence of government and coordination bodies - decentralisation of coordination promotes responsiveness and grassroots involvement

• Strong global and regional support mechanisms - stand-by agreements on funding going past immediate disaster - smoother transition between humanitarian response and longer-term recovery

“Who Stops To Think?”The Challenges Of Leadership And

Coordination

Seeing Those Who Are ‘Invisible’ Achieving Equity In Recovery

• Access barriers to assistance - gender, age, ethnicity, class, religion, occupation

• Human rights perspective - enabling environment for participation of key players across all social groups - joint housing rights for spouses, education and resettlement of girls (India); Unified Assistance Scheme for permanent housing for the conflict-affected (Sri Lanka)

• Strong platform for community feedback to demand rights

• Programmes based on detailed assessment - independent audits by Social Equity Audit Secretariat resulted in NGOs increasing budget percentage for the excluded from 10-12% to 60% (India)

Seeing Those Who Are ‘Invisible’ Achieving Equity In Recovery

• Specific inputs, outputs and outcomes related to women and disadvantaged people in recovery programmes

• Organisational anti-discrimination capacity - training staff - awareness of gender-sensitive international guidelines

• “Untied” funds - flexibility to modify assistance packages – grievances by conflict-affected in Aceh and Sri Lanka

• Inclusion of equity issues in the early planning stages

• Opportunities offered by the recovery - tsunami recovery actors pushed the envelope on matters of equity and equality

• Close partnership with civil society actors to benefit from their expertise and experience – in house gender advisor in BRR

Creating A ‘Virtuous Loop’Embracing People’s Participation

• Participation of the affected - individual empowerment, ownership, coping capacity (Indonesia)

• Consulting at all stages - planning, implementation and monitoring - Human Rights Commission conducted consultations in 1,100 tsunami-affected communities (Sri Lanka)

• Credible and accessible communication - explain progress, outline plans, raise awareness – basic disaster risk management terminology translated to Dhivehi language (Maldives)

• Overall community development - strengthening social capital (India)

• Building capacity of existing community structures - restoration of indigenous livelihoods in Koh Lanta (Thailand)

• Soliciting input from community critical component of programmes - Help Desks to raise awareness and address grievances in each district by Human Rights Commission and United Nations (Sri Lanka)

• Recovery partners need necessary tools and skills to work with communities - decentralized authority - CARE and World Vision field offices more aware of the needs of the affected implemented better participation

• Key to success of ‘build back better’ - Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness

Creating A ‘Virtuous Loop’Embracing People’s Participation

Countering Corruption And Ensuring Accountability

• Corruption viewed as core threat to reconstruction • Ensuring accountability and reducing corruption -

the impact of competitive remuneration• Opportunities for reform going beyond business as

usual - autonomous Anti-Corruption Units set up in 2005 have received thousands of complaints that were dealt with decisively

• Systems creating genuine transparency and access - tsunami recovery agencies required to set up an account on Recovery Aceh-Nias Database (RAND) and send regular updates on funds (Indonesia)

• Client-oriented accountability mechanisms - governments and other partners contacted to identify useful products and information and RAND was modified

• Strong community networks promoting equity - stronger voice for marginalized citizens

• Availability of culturally sensitive information about activities -what the funds are being spent on, where, through whom, etc.

• Empowering the affected to actively monitor reconstruction and articulate community claims – AidWatch

• Strong complaints mechanism critical for reporting corruption - local Help Desks

• Treating complaints as opportunities for improving project design, not “burdens”

Countering Corruption And Ensuring Accountability

What If It Happens Again?Innovations In Disaster Risk

Management• Disasters not isolated events - social and

economic factors affect situation• Disaster risk reduction in development policies

- core feature in programming for vulnerable communities - pre-existing programmes saved lives and minimized danger in countries such as India

• Building on local knowledge and strengthening capacity - natural defence barriers, healthy coastal ecosystems

• Gender in risk communication - women well-placed to participate in risk assessment

• Accessible disaster information management systems critical to policy making – ‘one-stop map server’ combining databases

• “Last-mile connectivity” - reaching isolated areas - early warning systems linked to loudspeakers in rural areas

• Community participation - training community leaders, teachers, local disaster managers

• Robust disaster response legislation - Disaster Management Act passed in May 2005 in Sri Lanka

• Early warning systems across Indian Ocean rim - part of UNESCO-Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission - operational since 2006

• Hyogo Framework 2005-2015 - 168 governments pledged to reduce multi-hazard risks

What If It Happens Again?Innovations In Disaster Risk

Management

• Rely – on the ingenuity of the indomitable human spirit

• Innovate and replicate – encourage creativity and grass-roots planning among stakeholders for sustainable recovery

• Reach out and communicate - documentary on tsunami recovery in partnership with Discovery Channel

• Stay Prepared - partnership with Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) to develop comprehensive Recovery Tool Kit for Practitioners worldwide

Will We Do Better Next Time?

Thank You