‘Building back better’ is neoliberal post-disaster reconstruction

To find answers that can truly lead to DRR instead of disaster risk (re)creation and the re-establishment of the status quo, this paper poses three important questions that needs to be considered first: what do we need to do better? Who decides what is better? And better for whom? This paper aims to demonstrate that in the context of neoliberalism, the definition of 'better' in the DRR slogan does not, however, always mean 'good for all'. 

The dominance of neoliberalism ensures that each iteration of BBB incorporates underlying assumptions about development, the necessity of rebuilding, and the criteria used to determine what constitutes "better." As a result, the reconstruction process not only reconfigures risks but also reproduces-and in some cases, exacerbates-existing inequalities.