Learning from disaster recovery: guidance for decision makers [executive summary]

This project aims to fill a major gap in international knowledge through the careful analysis of recovery operations following a diverse range of natural disasters that have occurred during the past twenty years. The intention is to learn vital lessons by understanding what constitutes an effective recovery operation and what can impede the process. Thus, evidence has been assembled from the analysis of approximately 70 accounts of recovery. This has been augmented through the addition of first hand experiences gained from visits made by the author and a research field team drawn from the International Recovery Platform to review recovery lessons from flooding, earthquake and tsunami impact in Mozambique, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Bangladesh. The results, summarised in this book, seek to provide practical help to key decision makers directing recovery actions to avoid them ‘re-inventing wheels’.