ABSTRACT
The International Relief/Development Project (IRDP) visited thirty projects in Asia, Africa, and Latin America that successfully linked short-term emergency relief with longer-term social and economic development Case histories of these projects describe their planning and implementation and examine their developmental impacts. From the start, the IRDP intended to provide practical lessons for agencies engaged in disaster response. Therefore, the project was designed not as a rigorous academic study, but as a careful examination of nongovernmental organization experiences from which a composite picture of the acquired wisdom in this field could be drawn. In order to write the case histories, case writers read project documents and conducted field interviews with agency staff, project participants, local and national officials, the staff of other agencies working in the area, and any other relevant persons with knowledge of the project and its effects. In some cases, agency headquarters staff or former field staff were also interviewed.
