Sustainable Relief and Reconstruction: Synopsis from World Urban Forum 2 ad 3

Introduction
1. For more than 10 years, UN-HABITAT has been operating in humanitarian and crisis situations, supporting efforts by national governments, local authorities and civil society to strengthen their capacities to manage and recover from human-made and natural disasters and mitigate future disasters. Having acknowledged the discontinuity within the international aid community between the short-term humanitarian imperative and longer- term reconstruction and development priorities, UN-HABITAT has offered its own specific perspectives on bridging this divide.
2. Conceptually, disaster management and reconstruction encompass many dimensions: exploring the roles of various institutions at civic, municipal, national and international levels, reducing the impacts of natural and human-caused disasters, and assisting in the sustainable reconstruction of settlements following disaster. The UN-HABITAT Disaster Management Programme focuses on the agency’s normative responsibilities, based on its experiences in the field, alliances with key partners and dialogue, with a view to refining and better defining the agency’s contribution to humanitarian response and vulnerability reduction.
3. When hazards turn into disasters, or a struggle for political and economic control turns into an armed conflict, it is always human settlements, people and property that are worst hit. The cornerstone of UN-HABITAT’s strategy is to leverage investment in the emergency and recovery phases into the longer term development of human settlements. Through UN-HABITAT participation at the earliest stages, we ensure that human settlements interventions, either in the immediate emergency or the transition/recovery phases, are linked to longer-term development strategies in disaster-hit countries.
4. Paradoxically, disaster can also be an opportunity. Recovery phases offer a unique chance to revisit past practices and rewrite those policies affecting future development in disaster-prone areas. A range of mitigation measures can be laid out during recovery to promote vulnerability reduction. Beyond the physical aspects of rehabilitation, the recovery period also offers an opportunity for society at large to strengthen local organizational capacities and to promote networks, awareness and political mechanisms that will facilitate economic, social and physical development long after a disaster – that is, an opportunity for a community to build its own sustainability.
5. UN-HABITAT is indeed in a strong position to act in a technical advisory function in two major areas: (1) the development of local capacities for disaster management and mitigation, and (2) supporting the capacities of external bodies to provide operational responses in a sustainable development perspective. In recognition of this contribution, in April 2004 UN-HABITAT was invited to outline before the UN Executive Committee for Humanitarian Affairs (ECHA) its own perspectives on, and support to, international interventions in the area of shelter and human settlements.
6. UN-HABITAT will use its operational experience to generate normative schemes to be recycled into future disaster response, including vulnerability reduction, preparedness and mitigation in general. UN-HABITAT will also continue to draw on practical experiences and any relevant lessons with a view to continuous learning, both internally as well as in support of sister agencies and humanitarian bodies. These normative schemes will be integrated in future response strategies for human settlements in crisis.
7. Through its involvement from the outset of a crisis as a supporting institutional partner in reconstruction, shelter, infrastructure and governance, UN-HABITAT is in a crucial position to assist humanitarian agencies, local and national governments and, most importantly, the affected and most vulnerable communities. Thanks to this approach, the agency’s recent emergency response activities have made their mark on the affected countries, and UN-HABITAT has amply demonstrated that short-term humanitarian support to human settlements in crisis can and should promote and facilitate longer-term benefits while reducing future risks.