Regenerating sociocultural capacities and capabilities in disaster recovery

This chapter coins the term “regeneration” to describe the unique characteristics and processes involved in post-disaster capacity and capability development. Using the definition of regeneration to frame discussion, disaster survivors’ accounts of their disaster experiences are used to describe how post-disaster capacity and capability development arising from repurposing, emergent, and transformational learning processes is applied to how people cope with, adapt to, and learn from their experiences. Transformative learning is singled out as it is essential for ensuring that lessons learnt are encapsulated in sustained disaster risk reduction capacities and capabilities. The chapter adopts the Linking Relief, Rehabilitation, and Development framework to illustrate how government agencies and NGOs can support community-based capacity development. Finally, outcome evaluation, using quality of life as a generic process, is used to demonstrate how capacity development contributes to meaningful community outcomes in post-disaster resettlement settings.