Reducing Risk in Recovery

Description

Building on the success of the earlier recovery studies with the World Bank, and the South Asia Earthquake Lessons papers with ALNAP, ProVention is supporting continued activities to investigate and synthesise the lessons learned in pursuing risk reduction recovery efforts following major natural disasters.

In particular ProVention is focused on examining more critically the types of inputs and learning that are most useful to change and improve recovery practice. While many people may be familiar with a wide set of risk reduction measures, such measures are too frequently traded-off against other needs that are perceived to be more pressing and immediate. In part this seems due to a lack of practical 'step-by-step' knowledge about how to implement recommended risk reduction measures. There also seems to be a lack of solid, clear evidence about the net benefits of investments in such measures.

To further the understanding of the effectiveness of various risk reduction measures and tools in both supporting recovery and broader development initiatives, ProVention has started preparations for a set of analytic studies on key topics in recovery, particularly looking at long-term impacts on risk reduction. Such studies would build on the earlier lessons learned studies carried out after Hurricane Mitch, the Gujarat and Turkey earthquakes, and the Bangladesh and Mozambique floods. To the greatest extent possible these studies will be carried out by local academic institutions or other research partners to maximise familiarity and understanding of the local political, social, cultural and economic contexts.

Key areas of interest for these studies include the impact of recovery on strengthening livelihoods and reducing vulnerability, use of microinsurance for providing risk transfer mechanisms particularly to the poor, cost-benefit analyses of the net benefits and effectiveness of risk reduction measures, and the social and political contexts and policy environments that enable (or hinder) the implementation of effective risk reduction measures.

Outputs & events

Outputs from previous related activities have included the 'Learning Lessons from Disaster Recovery' studies published by the World Bank and the South Asia Earthquake Lessons papers on relief and recover published together with ALNAP.

Next Steps

• Broader dissemination of the existing studies
• Development of an ongoing lessons learned process as a Sourcebook for Risk Reduction
• Additional follow-up studies of on-going recovery activities.