Safer Homes, Stronger Communities : A
Handbook for Reconstructing after Natural Disasters

Safer homes, stronger communities: a
handbook for reconstructing after disasters was developed to
assist policy makers and project managers engaged in
large-scale post-disaster reconstruction programs make
decisions about how to reconstruct housing and communities
after natural disasters. As the handbook demonstrates,
post-disaster reconstruction begins with a series of
decisions that must be made almost immediately. Despite the
urgency with which these decisions are made, they have
long-term impacts, changing the lives of those affected by
the disaster for years to come. As a policy maker, you may
be responsible for establishing the policy framework for the
entire reconstruction process or for setting reconstruction
policy in only one sector. The handbook is emphatic about
the importance of establishing a policy to guide
reconstruction. Effective reconstruction is set in motion
only after the policy maker has evaluated his or her
alternatives, conferred with stakeholders, and established
the framework and the rules for reconstruction. As
international experience and the examples in the handbook
clearly demonstrate, reconstruction policy improves both the
efficiency and the effectiveness of the reconstruction
process. In addition to providing advice on the content of
such a policy, the handbook describes mechanisms for
managing communications with stakeholders about the policy,
for improving the consistency of the policy, and for
monitoring the policy's implementation and outcomes.