ABSTRACT
Ownership is a critical issue in post-disaster housing reconstruction. Research on post-disaster housing reconstruction deals extensively with the issue of ownership. The tsunami that hit the Acehnese coast in December 2004 took about 120,000 lives and left immense destruction. The reconstruction process needed to take place in a situation of massive destruction, lack of social cohesion, and, in a context of a civil war. The majority of the house owners preferred to give the responsibility of building their house to the TPK, which thus ended up managing the reconstruction of most houses. The national nongovernmental organization that assisted people in Lam Guron pursued an approach that enabled the house owners to make a choice between building their houses themselves or giving this responsibility to the TPK. This NGO was supported through a south–south partnership by an experienced Indian NGO that had a leading role in promoting owner-driven reconstruction after the Gujarat earthquake of 2001.
