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.

This paper analyses the extent to which current wage and labour regulations can help reducing poverty levels in Vietnam. It begins with an overview of population and employment trends since 1990. It then discusses wage and labour regulation in Vietnam, particularly the 2002 amendments to the 1994 labour code, focusing on the minimum wage regulation in enterprises, farms labourers and female and junior labourers. The paper then analyses labour market imperfections and the provision of safety nets Vietnam, whilst linking with the poverty alleviation strategy. Next, the paper presents data analysis at the commune level, based on the Vietnam Living Standard Survey of 1998, comparing the northern and southern communes. The findings show significant gender differences within regions for daily agricultural wages, and significantly lower wages in the North. As for industrial wages in the state and private sector, we find that northern wages are below the legal minimum wage in the textile industry, and differ significantly between gender and regions, and where children under eighteen tend to earn as little as 25 percent of adults’ salaries. In the formulation of poverty alleviation policies, this paper highlights the importance of recognizing: the regional and sectoral related-characteristics of the labour market; the impact of gender differences in wage labour; and the implications on child labour.

Despite the fact that disasters have become more frequent and more costly in terms of economic losses throughout the world, most governments have yet to make a clear priority of addressing and managing risk reduction before disasters strike. According to the Annual Disaster Statistical Review 2012, in the last 10 years, the fi ve countries most hit by natural disasters were China, the United States, the Philippines, India and Indonesia. In 2012 alone, Asia accounted for nearly 65 % of global disaster victims, with hydrological events, such as fl oods, storm surge and landslides, accounting for 75 % of the disasters in Asia during that year (Guha-Sapir et al. 2012). Taking these factors into account, this chapter discusses current and proposed efforts to reduce natural disaster risk in countries across the Asia-Pacifi c. It also overviews how subsequent chapters address the issue from a public policy and governance perspective, with a focus on three broad themes: (1) emergency response and humanitarian relief, (2) recovery and resilience, and (3) improving preparedness.

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