Building Back Better
Building Back Better, or more frequently termed Build Back Better, is a strategy aimed at reducing the risk to the people of nations and communities in the wake of future disasters and shocks. It is a conceptual strategy that has continued to evolve since its origination in May 2005. However, what continues is the overall goal of enabling countries and communities to be stronger and more resilient following a disaster by reducing vulnerability to future disasters. Building resilience entails addressing physical, social, environmental, and economic vulnerabilities and shocks.
The term BBB was first used in the World Bank's Preliminary Stocktake of the damage and destruction from the December 2004 tsunami to Aceh and Nias, that was published in May 2005. This stocktake included the early identification of key requirements for recovery and reconstruction. It was in the identification of these requirements that BBB had its roots in the improvement of land use, spatial planning and construction standards through the reconstruction and recovery process, as well as the protection and formalization of land rights. The concept has expanded to represent a broader opportunity by building greater resilience in recovery by systematically addressing the root causes of vulnerability. It was former United States President, Bill Clinton, in his role as United Nations Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery, who drew the attention of both the United Nations and the world, to the term BBB, in his address to the United Nations in July 2005.
Almost a decade later, BBB was described in the United Nations' Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction document, which was agreed on at the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction held on March 14–18, 2015, in Sendai, Japan. It was subsequently adopted by the UN member states at the UN General Assembly on June 3, 2015, as one of four priorities in the Sendai Framework for disaster recovery, risk reduction and sustainable development.
From its genesis in 2005 for the reconstruction of Aceh and Nias in Indonesia, and since the UN endorsement of the Sendai Framework in 2015, the concept of BBB has continued to evolve with its history of adoption in recovery and reconstruction operations following major disasters around the globe. These disasters have included Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast of the United States in August 2005, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake in Pakistan, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Super Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines in November 2013 and the April 2015 Nepal earthquake.
Origins of BBB - Aceh and Nias in Indonesia after the 2004 Tsunami
Conception
The magnitude of the devastation and loss of human life caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami to Aceh and Nias initiated a change to the mindset of post-disaster reconstruction. Typically, the response to a disaster would entail repairing and rebuilding the physical damage to houses, infrastructure and the built environment back to the pre-disaster status. However, in Indonesia it was seen that this would potentially expose people and communities to the similar risks and consequences should another major disaster strike. The government and international agencies concluded that reconstruction was an opportunity to address vulnerabilities of people and communities. It was understood, that although natural disasters were usually unavoidable, it was possible to reduce future losses through improved construction standards, better spatial planning, early warning and education. Thus, the term BBB was conceived in Indonesia by the World Bank, along with other international agencies, and the Badan Rehabilitasi dan Rekonstruksi Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam and Nias, i.e. the Agency for the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of Aceh and Nias, in the months following the tsunami as planning for recovery and reconstruction was undertaken.The term BBB was first published in the Preliminary Stocktake of May 2005, task managed by the World Bank's Wolfgang Fengler. An updated stocktake was prepared for the October 2005 Brief for the Coordination Forum Aceh and Nias, and this was also led by The World Bank.
The Preliminary Stocktake drew upon the Indonesian government's own Master Plan for the coordination and implementation of recovery programs in Aceh and Nias and the initial Damage and Loss Assessment. The Master Plan was prepared in consultation with international bodies including agencies of the United Nations, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. Although the Master Plan proposed sixteen core policies each with key broad strategies for implementation, it did not explicitly mention BBB. However, the Master Plan was explicit in the need for:
“Mitigation and preparedness in the event of future natural disasters was highlighted as integral to the reconstruction”.
It was the core policies and broad strategies in the Master Plan that enabled the thinking to establish the concept of BBB. For example, policies 9-11 were especially identified during the early considerations for recovery of land rights and titling commencing in February 2005 which led to the project preparation of the first major reconstruction project by the World Bank - the Reconstruction of Aceh Land Administration System project in April–June 2005. RALAS also addressed many of the other policies in the original Master Plan as relevant to the project context. The other reconstruction projects prepared by the World Bank that followed also addressed the Master Plan's policies.
There were eleven World Bank projects funded under the Multi-Donor Trust Fund for Aceh and Nias, including RALAS, with approved funding of around US$500 million and all subscribing to BBB. Josef Lloyd Leitmann was the World Bank's initial program manager for MDF. Keith Clifford Bell was the World Bank's task manager for RALAS. Soon after the MDF's approval of RALAS, a few further projects were approved in August 2005, but implementation of these did not commence until 2006. These projects included the Urban Community Recovery program for restoring infrastructure in 352 urban villages, task managed by George Soraya, and the Rural Community Recovery program for assisting some 3,000 villages to develop community based infrastructure, under the task management of Scott Guggenheim. Also approved was the Tsunami Recovery Waste Management,.
Knowledge of the characteristics of the disaster and its impacts including deaths and injuries, destruction and damage to assets, infrastructure and land, as well as the impacts on the economy and livelihoods were essential to approach BBB. Social and cultural impacts were also important to assess. Although BBB was not mentioned, in the Master Plan, it was clear it was about “Mitigation and preparedness in the event of future natural disasters was highlighted as integral to the reconstruction”. Furthermore, the geographical locations and extents of impacts are essential and are aided by reliable and accessible pre- and post-disaster mapping and geospatial information. The preparation of the Preliminary Stocktake was cognizant of these factors, contributing to the formulation of the BBB concept.
In order to build back better, a reliable assessment of losses was clearly essential. Early estimates of the deaths and damage, drawing upon the initial World Bank Preliminary Stocktake of May 2005, actually put the death toll at around 150,000 dead, with 127,000 houses destroyed and 500,000 left homeless. Over time, as more detailed assessments were undertaken, the tolls rose. Contributory factors to needing to revise statistics on loss and damage were due to unreliable government records including periodic censuses, pursuit of haste driven by development agencies and civil society wanting to contribute aid, lack of expertise in damage assessment much of which was initially crowd-sourced, poor or inadequate mapping. It was subsequently estimated that of the estimated 230,000 tsunami deaths across fourteen countries, up to 220,000 deaths were in Aceh Province and the island of Nias alone. By way of comparison, the death toll in Aceh and Nias actually exceeded both atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined in World War 2. Other losses and damages in Aceh and Nias included more than 230 km of roads damaged or destroyed and 9 seaports damaged. Also, two hospitals were destroyed, and five hospitals were severely damaged along with 26 primary health care centers identified as being destroyed. There were 1,488 schools destroyed leaving around 150,000 children without access to education. The total value of damage and losses in Aceh and Nias was estimated at around US$4.45 billion, which was equivalent to Aceh's annual Gross Domestic Product.
To plan for building back better, it was important to have fully considered the cause and magnitude of the disaster itself. Geophysical experts have determined that the tsunami was caused by what has been named as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake which occurred on December 26, 2004, at 07:58:53 local time. This was a major earthquake with a magnitude of 9.1–9.3 Mw and its epicenter was around 240 kilometers off the coast of North Sumatra, Indonesia. The sheer magnitude of this earthquake was estimated to have generated an energy release equivalent to 23,000 Hiroshima-type atomic bombs, i.e. each being 15 kilotons of TNT. Banda Aceh was the urban location closest to the earthquake’s epicenter where tsunami waves soared to more than 30 meters and travelled across the Indian Ocean at more than 800 kilometers per hour.
Global attention was drawn to the term BBB arising from the address by UN Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery Bill Clinton to the United Nations Economic and Social Council in July 2005. Clinton first visited Aceh in May 2005 in his role as Special Envoy. However, he had earlier visited Aceh in February 2005 with former US President George H. W. Bush. Clinton's May 2005 visit included meetings with the World Bank, BRR, as well as multilaterals and civil society. Clinton's reporting drew heavily from his briefings from the World Bank and BRR and the aforementioned Preliminary Stocktaking Report published in May 2005 by the World Bank.
Twelve months after the tsunami struck, a Joint Report was published by BRR and development partners and released through the World Bank. The report has forewords by then Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and Special Envoy Clinton. However, the report reveals many of the challenges facing reconstruction and recovery across all sectors including land. Indirectly, it illustrates why recovery and reconstruction is so difficult unless a prior plan and system is in place. Recovery and reconstruction is more than just access to funds as it requires strong coordination as well as an effective monitoring and evaluation system which is location-based.