Earthquake Reconstruction

The unprecedented scale of recent earthquakes in Chile, Haiti and Japan underlines the importance of having the body of knowledge and best practices easily available for affected governments in order to assist them in making crucial decisions for post-earthquake recovery and reconstruction.

The World Bank, as one of the biggest financing source of post conflict and post disaster reconstruction, has accumulated vast experience through emergency operations on approaches, policies and strategies followed by national governments in post-disaster situations. These experiences and lessons learned were collected in so called Good Practice and Advisory Notes and offered to governments requesting assistance from the Bank, including the “Short-term Plan of Action following the Wenchuan Earthquake in May 2008, “Global Good Practice in Cyclone Disaster
Recovery and Reconstruction” for Myanmar in May, 2008, “Integrated Flood Risk Management: Key Lessons Learned and Recommendations” for China, August, 2010, and the “Haiti Earthquake Reconstruction and Recovery Knowledge Notes” in January 2010.

The Knowledge Notes prepared for the Government of Haiti covered a number of key areas in earthquake reconstruction, including among others Seismic Safety Assessment of Buildings; Debris Management; Environmental and Social Assessment; Experience with Post Disaster Income Support Programs; Land Tenure; Managing Post-Disaster Aid; Rebuild or Relocate; Transitional Shelter. The notes provided just-in-time advice by introducing options for disaster recovery.

Based on the proven usefulness of Good Practice Notes in formulating recovery framework, GFDRR has decided to develop Knowledge Notes for different disasters and make them available to policy makers and practitioners potentially facing post-disaster situations. The “Earthquake Reconstruction” is the first piece of the series.