Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction 2015
Making development sustainable: The future of disaster risk management


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Part II - Chapter 8
A Category 5 super-typhoon, it impacted the Eastern Visayas region and the city of Tacloban before moving to the South China Sea and affecting China, Taiwan (Province of China) and Viet Nam. To date, the death toll stands at 7,986,11 with more than 1,000 people still missing (NDRRMC, 2014

NDRRMC (National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council of the Philippines). 2014,NDRRMC Update on the Effects of Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), 17 April 2014.. .
) and 4.1 million people displaced (IFRC, 2014

IFRC (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies). 2014,Emergency appeal operation update Philippines: Typhoon Haiyan, Emergency appeal no. MDRPH014, GLIDE no. TC-2013-000139-PHL, Operation update no. 8, 4 September 2014.. .
). Total economic losses have been estimated at US$10 billion, over ten times the losses associated with Typhoon Bopha of 2012, known locally in the Philippines as Typhoon Pablo (EM-DAT, 2014; UNISDR, 2014b

UNISDR. 2014b,Annual Report 2013, Final Report on 2012-2013 Biennium Work Programme. Geneva, Switzerland: UNISDR.. .
).
Of the 4.1 million people displaced, little more than 100,000—or around 1 per cent—were able to move to shelters (DSWD et al., 2014

DSWD (Government of the Philippines, Department of Social Welfare and Development), IDMC (Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre), IOM (International Organization for Migration) and SAS. 2014,The Evolving Picture of Displacement in the Wake of Typhoon Haiyan, An Evidence-Based Overview. May 2014. Government of the Philippines, Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), International Organization for Migration (IOM).. .
). The remaining 4 million found lodging with host families or in other private, temporary accommodation (ibid.).
However, six months after the disaster, more than 2 million people were still living in temporary accommodation (ibid.). Apart from housing issues, access to education, health facilities, transport, markets and income as well as unclear tenure and property arrangements impeded the return of displaced people (ibid.).
It has long been recognized that new vulnerabilities can be generated in the gap between initial displacement and longer-term recovery and reconstruction (Berke et al., 1993

Berke, Philip R., Jack Kartez and Dennis Wenger. 1993,Recovery After Disaster: Achieving Sustainable Development, Mitigation and Equity, Disasters, Vol. 17, No. 2: 93-109.. .
; Ingram et al., 2006

Ingram, Jane, Guillermo Franco, Cristina Rumbaitis-del Rio and Bjian Khazai. 2006,Post-disaster recovery dilemmas: challenges in balancing short-term and long-term needs for vulnerability reduction, Environmental Science and Policy, Vol. 9, Issues 7-8: 607-613.. .
; Brookings, 2008

Brookings Institution. 2008,Protecting Internally Displaced Persons: A Manual for Law and Policy-makers, University of Bern. October 2008.. .
; IASC, 2009

IASC (Inter-Agency Standing Committee). 2009,Initial Strategy Paper: Meeting Humanitarian Challenges in Urban Areas, 11-13 November 2009, Conference Room 10, UN-HABITAT Headquarters. Nairobi.. .
). In the case of Haiyan, of the US$776 million requested for recovery, only 61 per cent of funding had been received by August 2014 (UNOCHA, 2014b

UNOCHA (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs). 2014b,Humanitarian Bulletin Philippines, Issue 27. 01 – 31 August 2014.. .
). While recovery receives more attention and funding than other disaster risk management strategies (Kellett and Caravani, 2013

Kellett, Jan and Alice Caravani. 2013,Financing Disaster Risk Reduction: A 20 year story of international aid, Overseas Development Institute and the Global Facility For Disaster Reduction and Recovery. September 2013.. .
; UNISDR, 2011a

UNISDR. 2011a,Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction: Revealing Risk, Redefining Development, Geneva, Switzerland: UNISDR.. .
), it remains underresourced, and this gap may even widen as the human and economic cost of disasters continues to increase (IDMC, 2014

IDMC (Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre). 2014,Global Estimates 2014: People displaced by disasters, September 2014. .
; Swiss Re, 2014a).
Despite the fact that recovery and reconstruction have always been described as an integral part of the disaster management cycle and of disaster risk reduction, the HFA does not emphasize this area heavily. Under Priority for Action 4 of the HFA, only one key activity specifically refers to recovery, namely:
(h) Incorporate disaster risk reduction measures into post-disaster recovery and rehabilitation processes and use opportunities during the recovery phase to develop capacities that reduce disaster risk in the long term, including through the sharing of expertise, knowledge and lessons learned.
In comparison to other areas of activity, global progress in this area has been limited (Figure 8.4).
As in the case of preparedness, while recovery was included in the HFA, its development has been influenced as much or more by other policy frameworks.
Figure 8.3 Typhoon Haiyan making landfall and the resulting destruction
(Source: Russell Watkins/ Department for International Development.)
(Source: NOAA, 2014.)
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