TSUNAMI GLOBAL LESSONS LEARNED

1. TSUNAMI GLOBAL LESSONS LEARNED

2. The 2004 Tsunami: A Mega Disaster

3. The Tsunami Legacy:Innovation, Breakthroughs and Change “Who Stops To Think?”The Challenges Of Leadership And Coordination Seeing Those Who Are ‘Invisible’ Achieving Equity In Recovery Creating A ‘Virtuous Loop’Embracing People’s Participation Countering Corruption And Ensuring Accountability What If It Happens Again?Innovations In Disaster Risk Management

4. “Who Stops To Think?”The Challenges Of Leadership And Coordination Dedicated disaster governance mechanism – BRR (Indonesia), National Disaster Management Agency (India), Ministry of National Disaster Management and Human Rights (Sri Lanka), National Disaster Management Centre (Maldives) • Complete authority to local administrators and coordination agencies – more responsive to local context Credible senior officials - familiar with affected communities, willing to consult widely and good communication skills to explain rationale for major decisions • Breakthrough initiatives to ‘build back better’ – Tim Terpadu, Blue Print, PCN and RAN (Indonesia), Equity in Recovery (India), Adopt-An-Island (Maldives)

5. “Who Stops To Think?”The Challenges Of Leadership And Coordination • Incentive to act - speedy, flexible, accountable coordination systems – with multi-sector expertise • Continuous sectoral stocktaking and evaluation - collecting relevant data for wider circulation - determining what has been implemented and what the future should be • Building local capacity to take over responsibilities – sustain recovery • Responsive field presence of government and coordination bodies - decentralisation of coordination promotes responsiveness and grassroots involvement • Strong global and regional support mechanisms - stand-by agreements on funding going past immediate disaster - smoother transition between humanitarian response and longer-term recovery

6. Seeing Those Who Are ‘Invisible’ Achieving Equity In Recovery • Access barriers to assistance - gender, age, ethnicity, class, religion, occupation • Human rights perspective - enabling environment for participation of key players across all social groups - joint housing rights for spouses, education and resettlement of girls (India); Unified Assistance Scheme for permanent housing for the conflict-affected (Sri Lanka) • Strong platform for community feedback to demand rights • Programmes based on detailed assessment - independent audits by Social Equity Audit Secretariat resulted in NGOs increasing budget percentage for the excluded from 10-12% to 60% (India)

7. Seeing Those Who Are ‘Invisible’ Achieving Equity In Recovery • Specific inputs, outputs and outcomes related to women and disadvantaged people in recovery programmes • Organisational anti-discrimination capacity - training staff - awareness of gender-sensitive international guidelines • “Untied” funds - flexibility to modify assistance packages – grievances by conflict-affected in Aceh and Sri Lanka • Inclusion of equity issues in the early planning stages • Opportunities offered by the recovery - tsunami recovery actors pushed the envelope on matters of equity and equality • Close partnership with civil society actors to benefit from their expertise and experience – in house gender advisor in BRR

8. Creating A ‘Virtuous Loop’Embracing People’s Participation • Participation of the affected - individual empowerment, ownership, coping capacity (Indonesia) • Consulting at all stages - planning, implementation and monitoring - Human Rights Commission conducted consultations in 1,100 tsunami-affected communities (Sri Lanka) • Credible and accessible communication - explain progress, outline plans, raise awareness – basic disaster risk management terminology translated to Dhivehi language (Maldives) • Overall community development - strengthening social capital (India) • Building capacity of existing community structures - restoration of indigenous livelihoods in Koh Lanta (Thailand)

9. Creating A ‘Virtuous Loop’Embracing People’s Participation • Soliciting input from community critical component of programmes - Help Desks to raise awareness and address grievances in each district by Human Rights Commission and United Nations (Sri Lanka) • Recovery partners need necessary tools and skills to work with communities - decentralized authority - CARE and World Vision field offices more aware of the needs of the affected implemented better participation • Key to success of ‘build back better’ - Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness

10. Countering Corruption And Ensuring Accountability • Corruption viewed as core threat to reconstruction • Ensuring accountability and reducing corruption - the impact of competitive remuneration • Opportunities for reform going beyond business as usual - autonomous Anti-Corruption Units set up in 2005 have received thousands of complaints that were dealt with decisively • Systems creating genuine transparency and access - tsunami recovery agencies required to set up an account on Recovery Aceh-Nias Database (RAND) and send regular updates on funds (Indonesia) • Client-oriented accountability mechanisms - governments and other partners contacted to identify useful products and information and RAND was modified

11. Countering Corruption And Ensuring Accountability • Strong community networks promoting equity - stronger voice for marginalized citizens • Availability of culturally sensitive information about activities -what the funds are being spent on, where, through whom, etc. • Empowering the affected to actively monitor reconstruction and articulate community claims – AidWatch • Strong complaints mechanism critical for reporting corruption - local Help Desks • Treating complaints as opportunities for improving project design, not “burdens”

12. What If It Happens Again?Innovations In Disaster Risk Management • Disasters not isolated events - social and economic factors affect situation • Disaster risk reduction in development policies - core feature in programming for vulnerable communities - pre-existing programmes saved lives and minimized danger in countries such as India • Building on local knowledge and strengthening capacity - natural defence barriers, healthy coastal ecosystems • Gender in risk communication - women well-placed to participate in risk assessment • Accessible disaster information management systems critical to policy making – ‘one-stop map server’ combining databases

13. What If It Happens Again?Innovations In Disaster RiskManagement • “Last-mile connectivity” - reaching isolated areas - early warning systems linked to loudspeakers in rural areas • Community participation - training community leaders, teachers, local disaster managers • Robust disaster response legislation - Disaster Management Act passed in May 2005 in Sri Lanka • Early warning systems across Indian Ocean rim - part of UNESCO-Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission - operational since 2006 • Hyogo Framework 2005-2015 - 168 governments pledged to reduce multi-hazard risks

14. Will We Do Better Next Time? • Rely – on the ingenuity of the indomitable human spirit • Innovate and replicate – encourage creativity and grass-roots planning among stakeholders for sustainable recovery • Reach out and communicate - documentary on tsunami recovery in partnership with Discovery Channel • Stay Prepared - partnership with Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) to develop comprehensive Recovery Tool Kit for Practitioners worldwide

15. Thank You