ABSTRACT
The key advocates of community-based disaster management (CBDM) focus primarily on risk reduction and disaster avoidance, but they note that the importance of community engagement is highlighted by experiences of disasters and community participation policies are put to the test in disaster recovery operations. Numerous studies have urged the need for community participation in disaster recovery work. However, many researchers have also noted that post-disaster community participation practices frequently fall short of the policy rhetoric, because it is much more difficult to work with complex, traumatised local communities than most practitioners imagine and very few of them have ever had any training in this work. While the core principles of community-based disaster management have been embraced by international relief and aid agencies, there is little evidence to suggest that the lessons of good practice are being documented and disseminated.
