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Policy responses to disaster risk215to foster trust and collaboration between stakeholders.• The criteria for identifying beneficiaries must be clear.In developmental approaches, consideration is given tosupporting those vulnerable households who were notaffected by the disaster.• Involving local participation in the selection of resettlementsites improves final choices and increasesacceptability.• Information dissemination systems can regularly reporton progress directly to affected families and individualsin order to reduce stress and tension.• Reconstruction is a prime opportunity to enhancewomen’s property rights. This has been done by givingnew ownership titles jointly to husband and wife or inthe name of the female head of household in singleparent families.• The best building design is flexible. Families use housesdifferently and have diverse traditions of design anduse. Those who will live in houses should be allowed tocontribute in the design stage in order to diversify andmake appropriate use of architectural styles. Wherevernacular housing design has proven resilient tohazards, this should be given preference.• Particularly when large contracting firms are used, themost successful projects have built-in mechanisms forcommunity oversight.• Reconstruction provides a great opportunity to supportthe local economy. Local craftspeople should beemployed or trained in preference over external firms.Traditional materials and technologies can be used.• The environmental impact assessment (EIA) ofreconstruction is seldom taken into account and, inlarge schemes, can be considerable, including thegeneration of local hazard (e.g. by felling mangrovestands or construction in low-lying places). The bestEIAs include not only damage onsite, but also thecarbon costs of sourcing and transporting materials.The following discussion analyses in greater detail the rolesthat can be played, in particular, by local authorities in prodevelopmentdisaster response and reconstruction.Disaster responseEffective disaster response rests on having a prepared andrehearsed plan with clearly identified responsibilities. Thestakeholders involved in response are broadly similar fornatural and human-made disasters. Initial response includesneighbours and community organizations, emergencyservices and civil defence. Emergency response can overlapwith development, so that, increasingly, development actors(including those with experience in urban planning andconstruction), along with international agencies such as UN-Habitat, become involved.In those cities and parts of cities where municipalresources are limited, self-organized and community-basedresponse plans can save many lives. Residents of LosManguitos, an informal settlement in the city of SantoDomingo (the Dominican Republic) did not receive governmentor NGO support for two weeks following HurricaneGeorges in 1998. Pre-disaster social organization enabledcommunity members to undertake social care, policing andhousing repairs during this period of uncertainty. 88More broadly, the state has responsibility formaintaining the rule of law and to protect property andpeople from looting and violent crime during disasters. Thisis a major task during reconstruction. There may be a role forcivil society groups or international observers to overseeactivities or work in partnership with security agencies, suchas the army, police or civil defence. This is particularly thecase in cities where the state or para-statal groups have had aviolent relationship with citizens pre-disaster.Some people are more at risk than others of being leftout of relief and response programmes. Women, childrenand orphans, the elderly and those who are marginalizedbecause of language, culture or social class are especiallyliable to not having their entitlements met during relief andresponse. The social pressures that create pre-disasterinequality underpin how people fare during disasterresponse. This is a particular challenge because it means thatit is not sufficient to follow local demands and directions onaid distribution. These must be questioned in light of theprevailing development context. Accounts from the SouthAsian earthquake in 2005 note that women were largelydependent upon men for access to relief. Few womenreceived tents or food or came forward to participate in foodor cash work programmes. Even when this gender disparitywas recognized by agencies, it was difficult to find skilledwomen, underlining the influence of pre-disaster inequalitieson post-disaster work that aims to build back better. 89Security is also a concern if temporary shelter isprovided in camps. Women are often most at risk fromviolence, but also suffer from a lack of privacy and frominadequate provision for personal hygiene. 90 In Sri Lanka,after the Indian Ocean Tsunami, women were seldom foundamong the managers of camps. Indeed, the Sri LankanParliament Select Committee on Natural Disasters,mandated to assess disaster preparedness and mitigation,had only 2 women out of its 22 members. Many tent villagesset up after the South Asian earthquake have been reportedto have little or no functional security. 91Careful coordination of response activities can helpfamilies to stay together, and to protect women, children andthe aged. But this relies on pre-disaster registration and onsafe record-keeping. Birth registration forms and formalidentification documents are often lost in disasters; but areessential tools for protecting individuals’ rights, includingaccess to relief and in reuniting families. 92 The best relief isa product of pre-disaster training and preparedness based onlocal decentralized control.Reconstruction for risk reductionStrong local government is needed to oversee reconstructionand to help control profiteering over land held for resettlement.93 Reconstruction is a period when urban land rightsare often contested or fought over by competing interests. Itis not uncommon for those with only usufruct or customaryReconstructionprovides a greatopportunity tosupport the localeconomy…where municipalresources arelimited,self-organised andcommunity-basedresponse plans cansave many lives