Learning Lessons from Disaster Recovery: The Case of Bangladesh

This report summarizes the findings of a country case study on Bangladesh, which is part of a ProVention Consortium initiative aimed at learning lessons from recovery efforts following major natural disasters. The Disaster Risk Management Working Paper Series presents current research, policies and tools under development by the Bank on disaster management issues and practices. These papers reflect work in progress and some may appear in their final form at a later date as publications in the Bank s official Disaster Risk Management Series.This study is part of a five-country review of lessons learned from recovery after major natural disasters. The lesson learning review as a whole has analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of recovery assistance from governments, donors, and civil society following major natural disasters, with a focus on identifying replicable good practice. Bangladesh was selected as a case study as it is representative of a predominantly agricultural developing country with high levels of rural poverty; in addition, it is extremely susceptible to natural hazards, especially floods. A particular focus of this study has been on the recovery of poorer households, as these households are usually most in need of external support following major natural disasters.