ABSTRACT
Our review of post-disaster reconstruction in 10 countries has demonstrated some of the weaknesses in currently dominant approaches, e.g. donor-driven reconstruction and owner-driven reconstruction. They have often been top-down and exclusionary, focusing on people with existing title to land and housing, and failing to reach the marginalized, especially in urban areas. Since they aim for safer dwellings, they rarely tackle peoples underlying vulnerabilities. This paper argues that an inclusive and participatory approach, people-centred reconstruction, should be central to housing and livelihoods after disasters. Reconstruction programmes need to make people more resilient to future risks. That requires not just making their buildings safer, but also making people more capable to adapt to risk. As to housing, many agencies interpret building back is better, as reconstructed houses are safer than pre-disaster types. That concern for quality leads them to set high standards, engage architects and engineers to produce designs, and use contractors to construct. The end product is often inappropriate, difficult to maintain and too expensive to replicate. Damage assessments after disasters often point at vernacular technologies such as timber frames that have performed much better than others. Provided if any weaknesses are addressed, they can be incorporated in reconstruction strategeies because they are well known to local residents and builders and use mainly local resources, they require less support, thus they are cheaper and quicker. The reduction of people’s vulnerabilities, however, requires more than better housing; programmes also need to rebuild people’s livelihoods, restore local markets and social networks. To strengthen their capabilities to cope, survivors should play key roles in decision-making and resource management. Forty years ago, John Turner concluded that the process of housing matters as much as its end product, as it empowers people. Reconstruction is not different: putting people at its centre empowers them and strengthens their capabilities and resilience.
