Disaster Recovery Planning and Implementation
Disaster recovery planning is one of the core services of the Centre for Disaster Preparedness, Recovery & Research (CDPRR). We help governments, organisations and communities plan and carry out recovery after a disaster.
We work closely with stakeholders to develop disaster recovery plans that cover rebuilding infrastructure, restoring essential services such as water, electricity and communication networks, supporting the livelihoods of affected people and addressing psychosocial needs after a disaster.
The process begins with a thorough assessment of the post-disaster situation, including damage assessments and needs analyses. Based on these findings, we work with clients to prepare recovery strategies and action plans that are realistic, sustainable and in line with international good practice in disaster recovery management. Our article on Building Back Better and Building Forward Better looks at these principles in more detail.
CDPRR supports the implementation of these plans by coordinating with the relevant agencies, mobilising resources and providing technical expertise throughout recovery. Our work goes beyond physical reconstruction to include social and economic recovery, so that communities come back stronger and more resilient than before. Clients gain a joined-up approach, timely support and a roadmap for long-term recovery and resilience.
The stages of disaster recovery planning
Recovery planning begins with an assessment that goes beyond counting damaged buildings. It asks why the losses happened, which groups were worst affected, and whether the hazard conditions that caused them are likely to change. A damage assessment that stops at a list of assets tends to produce a reconstruction plan that rebuilds the same weaknesses.
From there we work with clients on recovery strategies and action plans: what gets rebuilt, where, to what standard, in what order, and who pays for it. Plans have to be realistic about capacity and finance, and flexible enough to be revised as conditions change over a long reconstruction.
Recovery is about people, not only buildings
A community has not recovered simply because the structures are back up. People may have lost jobs, livestock, crops, savings and access to markets. Children may have missed months of school. Health needs continue long after the emergency response ends.
Our work therefore connects physical reconstruction with livelihood restoration, social protection, public health, education and access to finance. Recovery finance needs to reach low-income households and small businesses quickly, and the spending needs to be visible to the people it is meant to help.
Building back without rebuilding the risk
The pressure to rebuild quickly is real, and it creates difficult trade-offs. Homes get rebuilt on floodplains, roads restored without accounting for changed drainage, and decisions taken in the first weeks lock in risk for decades. Rapid recovery should not mean unplanned recovery.
Land-use decisions should be informed by multi-hazard risk maps. Critical facilities should be designed for continuity of service rather than bare survival. Where ecosystem restoration can do part of the job, it should be considered alongside engineered protection. Our article on Building Back Better and Building Forward Better examines these choices in more detail.
The most useful preparation is to plan for recovery before a disaster happens, with responsibilities, financing arrangements, reconstruction standards and trained local teams agreed in advance. This work connects closely with risk assessment and mapping and community-based preparedness. To discuss recovery planning, contact us.
The international definition of this approach is set out by UNDRR.