Learning from Recovery after Hurricane Mitch

What happens with post-disaster recovery after the humanitarian agencies have all gone home? This article in the journal Disasters, reviews how rural Nicaragua recovered in the years that have past since Hurricane Mitch in 1998. It examines the assumptions and claims that were made about the 'transformations' which were called for after the hurricane and contrasts these with the processes that actually occurred within rural communities.

The study found that changes in the wider political and economic context have had far more impact on the transformations that occurred than the plans and aid flows that followed the calls for transformation. The study found that the disaster did significantly influence rural development processes, created new forms of social networks and stimulated a far stronger commitment to reducing the risks of future disasters, but that these changes were the result of a gradual process where the most significant factors emerged in later development efforts and not through the recovery effort itself.

This study, funded by the ProVention Consortium, was led by DIIS Project Senior Researcher Ian Christoplos, together with Nitlapán, a rural development research institute at the University of Central America.

Link:
"Learning from Recovery after Hurricane Mitch", Disasters.