Links between relief, rehabilitation and development in the tsunami response: A review of the debate

 According to the IFRC half of natural disasters occur in countries with a medium human development index (HDI) but two-thirds of the deaths occur in countries with a low HDI (IFRC, 2001). The link to underdevelopment is clear. Over time a number of writers have sought to highlight the links between the political economic context and the impact of natural hazards, beginning with Hewitt in 1983 who demonstrated that ‘most natural disasters... are characteristic rather than accidental features of the places and societies where they occur’ (as quoted in Fordham, 2003). More recently, a body of research has identified how some of the dynamics associated with globalisation are increasing the vulnerability of poor people, for example rapid urbanisation resulting in impoverished settlements being located in marginal and hazard prone areas such as flood plains and unprotected coastlines12. Specifically related to the tsunami, UNDP-BCPR (2005) sketches out how global tourism (as well as the absence of an early warning system) has increased the vulnerability of the population across many areas affected by the tsunami.