Beskrivning

This research project’s aim is to strengthen
MSB’s growing input to early recovery (ER) by
introducing a structured application of ER within
Sweden’s international humanitarian assistance. In
Practice, the problem of bridging between
humanitarian operations and sustainable recovery
has been recognized by International Organizations
for a long time. The EU introduced the concept of
“linking relief, rehabilitation and development”
or LRRD. UNDP introduced the concept of Early
Recovery and the Cluster Approach to overcome this
problem as an attempt to bridge the gap between
humanitarian disaster relief and long term
sustainable development. In spite of the efforts
made so far, this has created more debate and less
practical impact. Challenges are greater in urban
disaster settings where post-disaster response and
early recovery interventions are ‘wicked problems’
in nature. The physical symptoms of disaster
impacts in urban areas are merely the consequence
of complex issues in which the solutions to
address them cannot be found through linear
processes and go beyond the scope of a single
discipline. Since, post-disaster response and
recovery operations are about city-re-organizing
its multifaceted and interconnected layers to
function better, thus urban planning knowledge is
the point of departure of this research to
untangle the complexities of urban disaster
problems. The work grew from a blending between
academic research and practice to better tackle
the complexity of ER from a number of
perspectives. It covers analytical review of the
architecture of early recovery interventions
within key international humanitarian
organisations, the relevancy of collaborative
planning model. It includes as well field
investigations in post-tsunami of 2004 in
Thailand, review of post-Katrina of 2005 and
post-Sandy of 2012 in the USA to extract lessons
learned, and practicing in real cases to test the
relevancy of urban planning knowledge in two
humanitarian response operations: post-war of 2006
in Lebanon and post-Yolanda of 2012 in the
Philippines. This research suggests the
introduction of an additional dimension to the
existing early recovery approaches (ER and LRRD)
that is process-driven, utilizes geography-based
plan and is governed by collaborative principles
termed ‘Early Recovery Road Map (ERRoMap). The
operational framework of ERRoMap is built up of
three main working components: time-sensitive,
integrated and area-based planning to identify
vital areas for early recovery;
inter-organizational interaction; and leadership
of collaborative type. It is guided by five core
principles: collaborative, dynamic, inclusiveness,
accountability and should be applied at both, pre-
and post-disaster. The process of ERRoMap planning
is according to three stages: getting in, getting
on, and getting out. It works with local and
national authorities, key organizations already
in-country, local NGOs and affected people on the
same basis as it work with international
humanitarian organizations. The operations of
ERRoMap begins onset of a disaster and continue to
work in accordance to, and provide inputs to
different requirements specified in the
Humanitarian Program cycle identified by IASC with
a period that varies between 3-6 months depending
on the scale of the disaster and areas coverage.
ERRoMap is a knowledge-based mission with a
well-defined aim, role and output. MSB can build
on its competences to fill a very significant gap,
which is linking relief with recovery within the
Humanitarian Program Cycle developed by IASC. In
this context, this research proposes a modality of
MSB to support ERRoMap and recommends building on
the knowledge obtained and carrying out number of
studies for capacity building and operational
ERRoMap purposes.