The recent Indian Ocean Tsunami, saw an unprecedented flow of support in all forms from all over the world. After the immediate relief and response, a number of agencies have stayed back and are continuing to help the communities and the different governments in the recovery and rehabilitation process. Restoration of livelihoods has emerged as one on the key areas of focus for most of the organizations supporting national recovery efforts. Here we showcase a few of the tsunami recovery initiatives in the affected countries by different organizations. 

http://www.fao.org/tsunami/  
As the lead UN standard bearer in agriculture, fisheries and forestry, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) faces the challenge of rebuilding the livelihoods of millions of coastal inhabitants, mostly depending on agriculture and fisheries. The rapid assessments done immediately after the tsunami, confirmed that the fisheries section sector was the worst hit from the disaster. Crops and livestock as well as coastal ecosystems, including mangroves and tree crops, also suffered serious damage. FAO’s reconstruction efforts is to restore livelihoods and rehabilitate ecosystems to better than pre-tsunami levels. Its comparative technical advantage is being brought to bear in a holistic and integrated manner, thus ensuring the food security and livelihoods of the vulnerable farmers and fishers whose interests the Organization serves. In the coastal agriculture sector, agriculture and home gardening are major activities, which are being integrated into a multi-sector approach thus balancing increased productivity and resource preservation. In the fisheries sector FAO is advocating the protection of fisheries related ecosystems such as mangroves, coral reef and seagrass beds through zoning (restricted-use and non-use) and through fisheries management tools to prevent over fishing. The Organization is also encouraging use of resources through certain types of mari-culture such as fish pens/cages and seaweed culture. Furthermore, fishing gear and practices must be compatible with responsible fisheries, thus avoiding overcapacity and ensuring sustainable long-term fisheries production. In the forestry sector efforts to rehabilitate mangrove forests, to plant coastal shelterbelts, and to replant timber and fruit trees are being used to protect human lives and inland assets, and improve household economies are being considered. With support from many NOGs large scale mangrove afforestation is also being planned.

http://www.undp.org/bcpr/disred/tsunami/  
The overall approach to the UNDP post-tsunami recovery framework, in all the countries of operation is based on common principles such as: recovery should be nationally and local driven, short-term rehabilitation must not hinge on long-term reconstruction packages, an adequate balance between governance and participation be maintained, respect for cultural diversity and specificities, seek greater equity in access rights and the distribution of productive assets and transparent and effective monitoring of the recovery process. It was also conceived to be cutting across issues such as moving from post-disaster relief to recovery, restoration of livelihoods and upgrading of infrastructure, inclusion of risk reduction measures. This approach is designed to lead to both recovery and the expansion of opportunities for sustainable development. In Indonesia, the recovery process involves building the communities from the scratch as the entire province was reduced to rubbles. UNDP recovery assistance to Aceh includes rebuilding local governments, clearing debris, providing housing, restoring legal documents, and starting up the local economies through cash for work, micro-finance and restoration of assets and operations of self-employed. In the Maldives, UNDP has been working closely with the government and other international agencies in the post-tsunami assessments of damage and needs. One of the highlights of the recovery program is the promotion of the “adopt-an-island” program to private sector entities and provides resources with reconstruction. Other support will include rebuilding homes and providing livelihood opportunities for the fishing industry and food-farms. Support is also being extended to rebuild harbors, jetties and navigational systems, an effort that will also allow inter-island sea transport to resume. Much of the work will be conducted as part of a Cash-for-Work program that will also provide temporary livelihood assistance to tsunami-unemployed islanders. In Sri Lanka too assistance is being extended to clearing debris, rebuilding infrastructure, providing housing and providing livelihood opportunities for the local fishing economy, providing replacement fishing boats etc. to rebuild the infrastructure of the fishing industry. Mobile units have also been set up to help survivors free of charge to restore legal documents.
In Thailand, a number of programs have been proposed for environmental recovery, livelihood and ecology restoration in nine tsunami affected coastal sub-districts, province, livelihood restoration of fisheries communities, coral reef clean-up, rehabilitation and protection, indigenous livelihood restoration, sustainable eco-tourism development, support to tsunami early warning system, disaster prevention and preparedness etc to name a few.

http://worldbank.org/
The World Bank is supporting post-tsunami recovery in all the affected countries. The support net is cast based on the needs assessment done for each country. Reconstruction financing has been approved for India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and Indonesia.

In India, the Bank and ADB signed an agreement with the Government of India to support emergency reconstruction of tsunami hit areas. The bank is providing financial support to the rural water supply rehabilitation in Kerala, livelihood restoration in Andhra Pradesh, and housing and transport infrastructure restoration in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry. The financing will also support studies for longer term coastal management. In Sri Lanka the post-disaster recovery will finance the housing; roads, water supply and other infrastructure; livelihood support and capacity building for implementation. While it is anticipated that the recovery and reconstruction needs for health and education will mostly be financed by other development partners, Bank funds will be used if gaps are identified. This cash grant money, both for housing and livelihoods, will help small local communities restart their enterprises. In Indonesia, the most affected country under the umbrella of a Multi-Donor Trust Fund has approved four project concepts. They include; housing for a thousand villages, recovery of property rights, community recovery in rural areas and community recovery in urban areas. Under these projects, run in collaboration with the Government of Indonesia, 20,000 new houses and rehabilitation of 30,000 damaged houses along with related infrastructure in one thousand communities will be build over a period of 2 years. The projects will help sort out land ownership through urgent recovery of land records, establishment of a land occupancy databases and rehabilitation of the land administration system throughout Aceh; recapitalization of up to 6000 micro-enterprises and training of thousands of villagers, community-based infrastructure through the construction of roads and bridges, schools, water supply and sanitation, community buildings, and drainage systems. The World Bank, under the Maldives Post-Tsunami Emergency Relief and Reconstruction Project, is assisting the government in its efforts to provide social services, restore lost livelihoods, and continue to build capacity to implement the reconstruction and rehabilitation program. The project has three components: restoration of livelihoods, increased school capacity and technical skills for implementing agencies. The Government of Maldives has set up a Tsunami Relief and Rehabilitation Fund (TRRF) to be implemented by the Ministry of Finance and Treasury. The activities under the three components will include restoration of income-generating assets for micro- and small-scale enterprises in the affected islands, assisting individuals restarting businesses and thereby restore economic activity. In Thailand too the Bank is responding to the needs of the affected communities by supporting long-term livelihood rehabilitation and coastal and marine resources restoration. Through the Country Development Partnership for Environment focused on the Government’s environmental priorities, the Bank will also assist with an environmental monitoring study on coastal resources, expected later this year.

http://www.e-aceh.org/  
e-Aceh.org is the Government of Indonesia's on-line portal for information sharing on the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Aceh and North Sumatra, was launched one month after the great tragedy, on 26 January 2005. A joint initiative of the Government of Indonesia, the AusAid, ADB, CIDA, Danida, DfID, GTZ, SIDA, UNDP, the World Bank and the USAID, the site supports the rapid and coordinated multi-actor response to restore the lives of the people of Aceh and North Sumatra. Information from all government agencies, international institutions, bilateral donors, international NGOs and local Lembaga Swadaya Masyakarat (LSM) participating in the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Aceh is available on the site. The site also provides mechanisms to track government budget resources, on-budget Official Development Assistance (ODA) as well as off-budget and private fund flows and link them to information on disbursements, outputs and outcomes to enable analysis of the effectiveness and efficiency of programs and projects in achieving their objectives. It supports community participation in the planning, implementation and monitoring of rehabilitation and reconstruction activities.

http://www.sarvodaya.org/  
Sarvodaya, a leading, non-governmental development organization in Sri Lanka has been at the forefront of providing humanitarian assistance both in the relief and the recovery stages in the tsunami affected areas in the country. It was actively involved in the distribution of food items and clothing to the survivors, organizing medical care for the needy and the management of several welfare camps set up for those who have lost their dwellings, during the response and relief stages. Apart from continuing these activities, it is now implementing several medium to long term programs for recovery and rehabilitation of the affected population as well as the restoration of economic activity in the area, based on the concept of Deshodaya or Reawakening of the Nation. Initially working with 226 villages, the organization plans to scale it up to 1000 villages communities in all surrounding them in the coming 5-6 years and finally to integrate these into the 15000 village development program, which is already being implemented by Sarvodaya. The development programs approaches are based on principles of community self-reliance and participation. 

Dr A T Ariyaratne laying the foundation stone for the Tsunami Housing Project in Vaddavan, Sri Lanka

The recovery project is planned for implementation under 12 sectors namely: women, children and orphans, water and sanitation, health and prevention care, camp / community management, environmental management and ecology, psychological and spiritual healing, housing and resettlement, livelihood support, trade and micro-finance, disaster management and mitigation, communication, documentation and legal assistance and lastly integrated village awakening. Sarvodaya is operational for over 50 years under the leadership of its founder Dr A T Ariyaratne, and is considered to be Sri Lanka’s largest people’s organization. It has a network of 15,000 villages, 345 divisional units, 34 district offices, and 10 specialist development education institutes.

www.unisdr.org  
The International Recovery Platform was born out of shared concerns related to promote a common vision and approach for post-disaster recovery. The initiative was first presented at the Second World Conference on Disaster Reduction; 18-22 January 2005, Kobe, Japan. Partners in the joint initiative include a number of UN, Bilateral, Donor agencies and Governments (UNDP, OCHA, ISDR, HABITAT, ILO, UNEP, IFRC, WHO, World Bank, JICA, and Government of Japan and ADRC to cite a few). The main vision of IRP is to support a more coordinated UN system approach and methodologies on disaster recovery, in order to transform disasters into opportunities for sustainable development. The Platform will promote shared vision, common approaches and standards, and strategies for its members through sharing of expertise, knowledge and lesson learned on recovery efforts from major and medium size disasters.

The three priority activities to be undertaken will be; advocacy and knowledge management, capacity building, and enhanced recovery operations. In an International Seminar on Recovery held to support the development of the platform, on 11-13 May 2005, in Kobe, Japan, the IRP was officially launched. During the seminar, a video conferencing that connected the World Bank and Asian Development Bank headquarters, JICA Ankara, JICA Hyogo, the World Bank's Delhi Distance Learning Center, ILO Rome, and the Tokyo Development Learning Center, demonstrated the effectiveness of TDLC’s Global Development Learning Network. The audience of three hundred in Kobe were thereby connected to a global discussion on "How can we transform disasters into Opportunities" and "How should IRP work for reducing the time lag from the disaster to recovery."