People-centered disaster recovery: A comparison of long-term outcomes of housing reconstruction in Thailand, India, and Japan

Although scholars recognize the importance of long-term recovery outcomes for disaster risk reduction and community empowerment, even within the limited research on long-term housing recovery, cross-national and temporal comparisons of multiple reconstruction projects are rare. Drawing on a systematic literature review and case-study approach, this paper explores two case studies of post-disaster housing reconstruction projects, each from three countries in Asia– India, Thailand, and Japan. The cases are post-disaster housing reconstruction after the 2001 Gujarat Earthquake and 2008 Kosi River floods in Bihar in India, the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami and 2014 Chiang Rai Earthquake in Thailand, and the 1995 Great Hanshin Awaji (Kobe) Earthquake and 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan. Comparisons across cases found consistency as well as change in each country. Analysis of reconstruction policies, programs, and governance systems led to several key findings, identifying housing reconstruction processes that led to beneficial longer-term outcomes in social, economic, technical and environmental aspects in the three countries. In contrast to government-driven housing recovery programs in Japan, housing recovery programs in both India and Thailand included crucial support from Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) integrated with and complementing official support from the government. Able to translate government policies into practice in ways that community needs could be met in increasingly people-centered ways, CSOs played significant roles in the provision of needed housing units and beyond, in facilitating increased flexibility of housing recovery options, filling gaps as an intermediary between the government and the needs of the people.