RECOVERY
According to UNISDR (2009), recovery is defined as “the restoration, and improvement where appropriate, of facilities, livelihoods and living conditions of disaster-affected communities, including efforts to reduce disaster risk factors.”
• Recovery is the process by which society and the nation are supported in turning back to their appropriate level of working, ensuing disaster.
• The recovery process is a time taking process which takes almost 5 to 10 years or even more.
The Ground for Recovery Activity
The foundation for initiating early recovery efforts is based on the following key pillars:
Recognizing Essential Elements: Identifying critical aspects necessary for the recovery process.
Establishing a Comprehensive Strategy: Formulating an overarching recovery plan aligned with national development goals.
Defining Specific Recovery Programs: Designing distinct recovery initiatives within the broader strategy.
Executing Individual Programs: Implementing specific recovery programs as part of the overall recovery framework; and
• Fulfillment of individual programs and projects on a well supervised and coordinated basis.
Guiding Principles for Post-Disaster Recovery
• Mainstreaming disaster risk reduction in the recovery/ development process
•
Improving/maintaining coordination
• Promoting participatory approaches and decentralized planning and programming for recovery
• Enhancing safety standards and integrating risk reduction in reconstruction and development
• Improving the living conditions of the affected communities and sectors
• Building local and national capacities for increased resilience, risk management and sustainable development
• Taking advantage of ongoing initiatives
• Gender sensibility
• Demonstrative effects
• Monitoring, evaluating and learning
Recovery Process
The major steps/ processes of the recovery process and the processes involved are:
Figure: Process of Post-Disaster Recovery
Post-Disaster Needs Assessment and Credible Damage Assessment
• Initial evaluation reports to assess the impact of the disaster.
• Collection and communication of data related to damage and losses.
• Government-led disaster impact assessments with support from humanitarian response organizations, followed by detailed damage evaluations.
• Establishing both quantitative and qualitative baselines to measure damage, losses, and requirements across various sectors, administrative blocks (taluka), and districts.
• Developing a monitoring and evaluation framework to track recovery progress.
• Identifying the most suitable and feasible methods for conducting early and reliable assessments of damages and needs.
Developing a vision for Build-Back Better (BBB)
• High level meetings as well as broad-based, wider consultations with experts, civil society, and key stakeholders
• Build consensus among the range of stakeholders within and outside government
Ensure coherence of BBB with the development programs and goals
• Discussions at top level to align the recovery vision with the government’s broader, longer term development goals and growth and poverty reduction strategies
Incorporating resilience and BBB in recovery vision
Consultations and background studies on:
• Disaster resistant physical recovery
•
Options for fast economic recovery
• Gender and equity concerns
• Vulnerability reduction
• Natural resource conservation and environmental protection
• Social recovery
Balancing recovery across sectors
• Maintain a balanced approach between public and private sector BBB programs.
• Encourage fair and inclusive asset distribution among individuals and communities.
• Give precedence to rebuilding essential infrastructure.
• Focus on restoring the lives and livelihoods of disaster- affected populations.
• Be responsive to the expectations and specific needs of affected communities during the recovery process.
Prioritizing sectors for recovery
• Determine relative importance of various sectors such as housing, water and sanitation, governance, transport, power, communications, infrastructure, environment, livelihoods, tourism, social protection, health, and education.
Recovery Stages
Early, Mid and Long-term Recovery
Three recovery stages, in which appropriate policies and programmes tend to be planned and implemented are: a) Early, b) Mid-Term, and c) Long-Term.
The salient provisions of the recovery framework include the following:
• Institutional Framework: Establishing structured mechanisms at national, state, district and local levels (both urban and rural) with clearly defined roles and responsibilities for recovery efforts.
• Coordination: Strengthening collaboration among various stakeholders, including government agencies, international organizations, private sector entities and civil society groups, to achieve recovery objectives effectively.
• Public-Private Partnerships (PPP): Encouraging private sector participation for the greater public benefit, with PPP serving as a key mechanism to enhance private sector involvement in recovery initiatives.
• Information and Communication Technology (ICT): Utilizing ICT for efficient recovery planning, stakeholder communication and the dissemination of essential recovery-related information.
• Decision Support System (DSS): Developing a comprehensive DSS that integrates Management Information Systems (MIS), databases and spatial data management technologies.
• Expertise Pool: Consolidating specialized professional skills and knowledge across various fields to support recovery operations.
• Community Involvement: Promoting active participation of local communities, ensuring effective outreach, empowerment and gender inclusivity in both planning and implementation of recovery programs.
• Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E): Implementing M&E frameworks to enhance transparency in recovery processes, incorporating both technical and social audits.
Problems in Recovery Areas
Major problems in the area of recovery are necessary to be outlined. These are:
• The formulation of recovery programs has often been delayed due to insufficient integration of recovery planning within overall disaster management strategies.
• Extensive and severe damage may be so overwhelming that significant time is required to develop and assess effective recovery initiatives.
• A lack of adequate information presents challenges in designing recovery programs, sometimes necessitating resurveys to accurately determine post-disaster impacts.
• Recovery programs may place additional strain on government systems, potentially slowing down departmental functions and leading to inefficiencies in the recovery process.
•
The occurrence of another major disaster can lead to the diversion of resources and funds allocated for recovery efforts.
• Issues related to ministerial responsibilities may arise as recovery needs often span multiple government departments, leading to administrative challenges.
• The unavailability of sufficient financial resources can obstruct the effective formulation and implementation of recovery programs.
Disaster Recovery Solutions
• The impact of disaster is long lasting, however, psychosocial intervention in the aftermath of a disaster is associated with a period of recovery.
• This can broadly be defined as a time of returning to ‘normalcy,’ and characterized by such processes as rebuilding, allocating resources, finding housing, and repairing or re-establishing social and economic networks in the community.
• It is noted that people may benefit most from very concrete, explicit and directive assistance, which enables them to attain the tangible goods and services required to overcome the material losses of a disaster.
• Research has shown that the strains associated with restoring housing and patterns of life can have as much an impact upon the psychological well-being as acute and potentially traumatizing events.
• The development of Mental Health Care and need for mental health professionals to shift from a clinical to a public health focus;
• The development of training materials, case records, information systems and the availability of adequate numbers of mental health professionals to implement the plan.
There is a need for training particularly of Community Level Workers (CLWs) to implement an organized effort aimed at providing psychosocial relief has been well exemplified.