Disaster Recovery Planning in the Caribbean: Revisiting the Challenge

Even though the number of disasters and their catastrophic consequences increase, few governments are well prepared to undertake the recovery efforts necessary to bring affected areas and communities back to normal [as quickly as possible] in the aftermath of a disaster. The economic and social losses associated with disasters remain substantial. The average annual losses from earthquakes, tsunamis, tropical cyclones and river flooding are estimated at US$ 314 billion in the built environment alone.

One of the four pillars of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, 2015-2030 highlights that building effective recovery governance before a disaster occurs represents a critical opportunity to "Build Back Better". One way of advancing this is to plan for recovery before disasters happen. The International Recovery Platform, 2012 noted that much can be done pre-disaster to alleviate recovery planning demands after the disaster.

There is consensus among the global DRM community that Pre-disaster recovery planning (PDRP) is a catalyst to effectively address the challenges of planning and implementing successful disaster recovery to ensure long-term social and economic sustainability after a disaster. There are several documented benefits of PDRP in the literature including expediting the recovery process when appropriate structures, policies, plans are prepared and understood prior to a disaster, provides Build back better as a "window of opportunity", inclusive as it fosters engagement and participation of multiple stakeholders including communities and reduces recovery costs. Notwithstanding these benefits, the wide scale adoption and implementation of PDRP is still incipient and not common practice.