The links between disasters, relief, rehabilitation and development

This capstone discusses the relations between disasters, disaster relief and rehabilitation, and development. Natural disasters frequency and severity has increased over the last few decades with greater impacts on developing countries further impeding achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This capstone uses the Bangladesh floods, 2004 and the Asian tsunami in Sri Lanka, 2004 as case studies to assess the disaster response and development efforts undertaken in promoting development. Three main recommendations are given; (1) Build capacity to implement and maintain disaster reduction systems (2) Include elements of disaster reduction in developments efforts (3) Include elements of development in disaster response efforts. Potential challenges for achieving these recommendations are also described.