RAPID: The Response-Recovery Transition Phase and its Implications for Long-term Recovery: Case Study, Katmandu

Overview

Community recovery activities start while emergency response actions are in progress. While the priority actions are different, policy decisions made during the response phase have a direct influence on the subsequent community recovery. Unlike the response phase of an emergency, where all efforts tend to have a singular focus on rescuing and saving lives, the function of recovery is characterized by a complex set of issues that can have long lasting effects on the community. The recovery policy making starts to shape up during the later part of the response phase of a disaster, at which time the political landscape is fragmented and polarized by presence of a number of external aid organizations, specifically in developing countries. Undoubtedly, recovery is best achieved when the affected community exercises a high degree of self- determination. However, presence of multiple agencies, and organizations results in a contested political space wherein each of the actors’ try to influence the policy making process. This research proposal seeks to map the policy dialogue and identify political factors that are likely to influence community recovery in Katmandu one of the urban settlements impacted by the recent Nepal earthquakes. This data collection effort seeks to fill this gap in disaster research through systematic data collection during the response-recovery transitional phase, wherein these political factors are likely to be at their zenith.

Some of the key issues that this data collection effort seeks to explore include: 1) How do the external aid agencies influence emergence of local recovery policy and organizational framework during response-recovery transition; 2) How can the external aid agencies ensure meaningful national ownership of recovery planning frameworks during the period of response-recovery transition; 3) To what extent does pre-disaster planning and organizational frameworks influence policy formulation during response-recovery transition; 4) What are the challenges that local governments face to ensure that response aid is transitioned into development-focused assistance with local policy support while funding and international attention is sustained; and, 5) How can we ensure that local voices are heard in formulation of a recovery agenda during this transitional phase? Data gathering at this critical stage of disaster response will enable us to map the ongoing process of recovery policy formulation during the response-recovery transition, and help identify specific obstacles, and challenges that influence subsequent community recovery actions.