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Abstract In the last decade, housing has become one of the most prominent and best funded sectors in large-scale post-disaster reconstruction efforts. This has especially been the case in Asian developing countries where both official and private aid helped finance a significant amount of the housing reconstruction. Despite the emphasis upon community involvement, inclusive and participatory processes for housing reconstruction by international non-governmental organizations, recent experiences show that such ideas often do not readily translate in practice on the ground. This paper analyses the necessary conditions for successful involvement by local beneficiaries in rebuilding their homes following natural disasters. The analysis is situated within the context of community recovery, and the trade-off between centralized donor planning, and community driven initiatives, using primary and secondary data collected from post-tsunami Aceh, Indonesia. The paper also discusses how various stakeholders (including recipient government and donors) evaluate and make use of the practical capacities of affected persons and communities to be involved in planning, building and monitoring processes in the housing sector. Our research focused on the level and types of roles played by the aid beneficiaries in the housing reconstruction process in Aceh. In spite of considerable rhetoric about participation and inclusive reconstruction accompanying the post-tsunami reconstruction by various donors, a number of systemic barriers created considerable distance between beneficiaries and NGOs in Aceh in the housing sector. The drive for efficiency and need to produce tangible results quickly, mixed with the sheer number of stakeholders and resources involved, created a largely top-down environment in which decisions were centralized, and arbitrary standards imposed. This was exacerbated by an extensive chain of sub-contractors, a large supply of lower-cost imported labor, and highlighted the importance of local political affiliations, leading to weak accountability and reduced aid effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In the last decade, housing has become one of the most prominent and best funded sectors in large-scale post-disaster reconstruction efforts. This has especially been the case in Asian developing countries where both official and private aid helped finance a significant amount of the housing reconstruction. Despite the emphasis upon community involvement, inclusive and participatory processes for housing reconstruction by international non-governmental organizations, recent experiences show that such ideas often do not readily translate in practice on the ground. This paper analyses the necessary conditions for successful involvement by local beneficiaries in rebuilding their homes following natural disasters. The analysis is situated within the context of community recovery, and the trade-off between centralized donor planning, and community driven initiatives, using primary and secondary data collected from post-tsunami Aceh, Indonesia. The paper also discusses how various stakeholders (including recipient government and donors) evaluate and make use of the practical capacities of affected persons and communities to be involved in planning, building and monitoring processes in the housing sector. Our research focused on the level and types of roles played by the aid beneficiaries in the housing reconstruction process in Aceh. In spite of considerable rhetoric about participation and inclusive reconstruction accompanying the post-tsunami reconstruction by various donors, a number of systemic barriers created considerable distance between beneficiaries and NGOs in Aceh in the housing sector. The drive for efficiency and need to produce tangible results quickly, mixed with the sheer number of stakeholders and resources involved, created a largely top-down environment in which decisions were centralized, and arbitrary standards imposed. This was exacerbated by an extensive chain of sub-contractors, a large supply of lower-cost imported labor, and highlighted the importance of local political affiliations, leading to weak accountability and reduced aid effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Aceh, Indonesia is one of the few societies that have successfully navigated a post-disaster transition following simultaneous natural and man-made disasters. Since the August 2005 peace agreement, Aceh's road to recovery from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and 30 years of separatist war has been largely successful. However, key challenges remain to consolidate the success of Aceh's post-disaster transition and ensure sustainable peace in the province. Reconciliation is among the challenges that has to date been largely neglected. While significant political and economic change has occurred, prolonged armed conflict left behind a legacy of negative intergroup relations in Aceh that has yet to be addressed. As political realities have delayed implementation of mechanisms designed to promote reconciliation such as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Human Rights Court, this paper argues that peacebuilding practitioners should adopt complementary approaches to reconciliation such as intergroup contact programs that are being proven effective in various international contexts. It will explore an important, and largely neglected aspect of Aceh's post-disaster transition by providing an overview of the literature on reconciliation and intergroup contact, and highlighting key efforts to pilot these techniques and advance reconciliation in Aceh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The Tsunami disaster on the morning of December 26th, 2004 caused thousands of casualties and created enormous destruction in the twelve affected countries around the Indian Ocean. The hardest hit region was the conflict ridden province of Aceh in Indonesia, with an estimated 165,000 people dead or missing and around 15 percent of the surviving population made homeless (see BRR 2005). The Tsunami catastrophe was followed by - at least for developing countries - an unprecedented scale of relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction operations. A multitude of actors from all over the world took action in the affected areas and contributed to the rebuilding of the devastated areas, following a 'build back better' policy. In the light of the huge number of people made homeless, one of the most prominent aspects of the reconstruction process was housing, where about 130,000 reconstruction homes were built in Aceh alone after the disaster (see UNORC-IAS 2009). This paper discusses the housing reconstruction approach based on a case study in a Tsunami affected village on the north-east coast of Aceh. In conclusion this case demonstrates the benefits of more participation in reconstruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]