Lessons from the Reconstruction of Post-Tsunami Aceh : Build Back Better Through Ensuring Women are at the Center of Reconstruction of Land and Property
On December 26 2004, a 9.3 magnitudeearthquake struck the Indian Ocean and unleashed a blast ofenergy, creating a tsunami three stories high. The disasterwhich claimed more than 228,000 lives had an impact on thelives of more than 2.5 million people causing close to US$11.4 billion of damage in 14 countries. The highest pricewas paid in Aceh, which had the greatest death toll of130,000 confirmed dead and a further 37,000 reportedmissing. In Banda Aceh, the capital of the province, thetsunami claimed more than one-third of the city'spopulation. An estimated 500,000 people were displaced bythe disaster and some 250,000 houses damaged or destroyed.More than 500 miles of coastline was affected, with anestimated 53,795 parcels of land permanently destroyedthrough erosion or submersion. Documentation of landownership was largely destroyed and physical evidence, suchas walls, fences and boundary markers were completelyeradicated. The tsunami and earthquake not only shatteredhousing and other coastal infrastructure, but it also shookthe very foundations of the Acehnese society and the socialcapital that had taken decades to build up, in the midst ofa thirty year civil war. As is usually the case during timesof disaster and emergency, women bore the greatest burden asthe tsunami deprived them of the existing safety netsoffered by their families, especially spouses or parents.This smart lesson describes the experience of the WorldBank's emergency response team who worked to supportthe reconstruction of post-tsunami Aceh and North Sumatraand how this served as important entry point to addresswomen's land and property rights.
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