chapter 4 - DRK

Strictly under embargo until Wednesday 22 September at 00:01 GMT (02:01 Geneva time)26CHAPTER 1to share their grief and in their own time begin to participate in rebuilding. Theseresponses have to strengthen and support the survivors’ own organizations. They haveto keep women at the centre of these associations, even though this is often difficultas priorities and actions are dominated by more aggressive and well-connected groups.This is not easy. People have been affected in many different ways and may have differentpriorities; they may see other affected groups as competitors in seeking fundsor support from different external organizations. Good practice means involving localpeople right at the outset of any discussion of rebuilding and in managing the shiftfrom relief to reconstruction.The shift from immediate response to reconstruction in an urban environment is nevereasy. Rarely does this help those most affected with their two most pressing priorities:supporting the survivors to rebuild their homes and their livelihoods. After a disaster,the needs for medical treatment, healthcare, food and water, and often temporaryaccommodation are so obvious. But the disaster does not undo the often antagonisticrelationships between local governments and the urban poor and their informal communitiesand livelihoods. Disaster relief agencies cannot address the root causes of whyso much of a city’s population was so heavily impacted – because they lived in illegalsettlements with poor-quality homes on dangerous and disaster-prone sites to whichthe government had refused to provide infrastructure and services. Disaster relief agenciesoften fail to secure safer, well-located land sites for housing where those who losttheir homes in informal settlements can build; such sites are too valuable and thosein government and higher-income groups would not support this. All they can offerare sites far away that do not have good access to income-earning opportunities. So allthe inequalities and difficulties that faced the urban poor prior to the disaster remainto constrain post-disaster responses. As the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights hasnoted, unless disaster aid quickly learns to work with the untitled, the unregistered,the unlisted and the undocumented, it can support and even reinforce the inequalitiesthat existed prior to the disaster.Strengthening and supporting local action fordisaster risk reduction in urban areasGood development, good disaster risk reduction and good adaptation to climatechange are all intensely local with many links and complementarities between them.They need effective local institutions that are accountable to citizens including thoseliving in informal settlements. It all amounts to a difficult challenge for the internationalagencies that fund development and will be difficult for those assigned theresponsibilities of funding climate change adaptation. All such agencies are under pressureto keep down staff costs and to have exit strategies. All such funding agencies areonly as effective as the local intermediaries that they fund. The strong emphasis of thisyear’s World Disasters Report is on supporting community-level initiatives because inalmost all low-income and most middle-income nations, this is the only way to ensure