From Post-Tsunami Emergency Assistance to Livelihood Recovery in South India
This paper is part of a research and training program dealing with post-disaster rehabilitation through microfinance and microentrepreneurship in tsunami-affected areas. It focuses on India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka, and parts of Northern Pakistan affected by the 2005 earthquake.
The paper discusses the shift from emergency relief to development reconstruction in tsunami-hit villages of Tamil Nadu, South India. It highlights challenges for spontaneous entrepreneurship in regions like the coast of Gulf of Mannar, and narrates how Peoples Action for Development (PAD), a local NGO, aided economic recovery by supporting self-help groups.
The paper emphasizes the need for diversifying traditional activities and starting up new alternative activities. It offers conclusions and observations addressing the following areas:
- Leadership role of public agencies in rehabilitation;
- Sectoral overconcentration of finance, with aid mostly limited to housing reconstruction and fishing;
- Lack of clear frontiers between emergency relief agencies and development aid institutions, livelihood restoration and developing sustainability etc.;
- Insufficient linkages between NGOs and local communities;
- Implementation of microcredit schemes in post-disaster management;
- Challenges in kick-starting new and alternative microeconomic initiatives.
