A ripple in development? - Channel Research

Executive summary
Introduction
Have the links between relief assistance, rehabilitation, and development
been less significant than other issues which have affected the lives
of the populations, in the recovery process after the Indian Ocean tsunami
of December 2004? The present evaluation indicates that unless
stronger synergies are made between the different interventions, they
could be considered to create only a ripple in longer term structural
dynamics in the region.
This evaluation was commissioned by a group of governments
from the region, aid donors and other organisations to review the relevance
and the effectiveness of interactions between the interventions to
help the populations in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Maldives to recover
from the 2004 tsunami.
The evaluation was carried out at the end of 2008 and early 2009
by a team of independent consultants, covering separately five sets of
issues: the roles of the states and civil society, livelihoods and poverty,
social relations, disaster risk mitigation, and capacity building. It was
composed of a review of some 600 documents and annotated bibliography,
a qualitative field research process, and a quantitative survey of
the affected populations. It covered the work of NGOs, UN agencies,
donor and national governments, but also civil society and community
initiatives.
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and the resulting tsunami
prompted exceptional expressions of human solidarity in the coastal
areas of these three countries, in which an estimated US$13 billion was
donated (a good part of which given directly by individuals), predominantly
in 2005–06. Over 225,000 lives had been lost in the space of a
few hours. This single event interacted with extremely different conditions
on the ground and provides important lessons for the future.
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