Rice crop in Nepal destroyed by flood and deluge of mud
inundated by the sea causing excessive soil
salinity
• Damage to and loss of stock such as animals,
seeds, and preserved food.
Economic assets (in this case, the inputs
required for a business or livelihood)
• Shortages and price increases of inputs: raw
materials, energy supplies and water
• Disrupted access to cash, for example, because
local banks close for a time or their buildings
were destroyed
• Lack of cash, so people are unable to pay for
some products and services
• Loss of customers because people from outside
the disaster-affected area go elsewhere. The
tourist industry, for example, can be very badly
affected.
• Loss of markets for products that local people
do not consider absolutely essential to their
immediate survival
• Disruption to supply chains, which are often
complex, and any break can disrupt the whole
chain. This relates both to infrastructure (such
as roads, bridges and harbours) but also to
suppliers themselves whose businesses may
have been destroyed.
Social / Political assets
• Death, injury or displacement of key people:
private/public suppliers, customers and
employees
• Loss of access to social networks due to large-
scale displacement of people to emergency
camps and transitional settlements
• Changes in regulatory mechanisms, or regulation
becoming ineffective
A PCR approach should also assess Policies,
Processes and Institutions by working with
communities to identify where these are restrictive,
and planning an advocacy strategy to achieve
change. It needs to consider how policies,
processes and institutions are part of what makes
people vulnerable. Examples of can include
barriers to entry for informal producers to markets;
complicated procedures for land registration and
allocation of building permits; laws and regulations
for environmental protection; policies on children’s
education and vocational studies for youths and
adults; and rules controlling access to formal
banking services.
Actions in supporting livelihoods recovery as
part of PCR
The points above illustrate the complexity of
supporting livelihoods recovery in a post-disaster
context. Each of these issues needs to be examined
during participatory damage and needs assessment
exercises in order to prioritise the problems and the
actions needed.
The section below on Housing reconstruction
outlines how this sector can contribute to
rebuilding livelihoods, and how it can also
contribute to rebuilding livelihoods in other sectors.
In terms of the SLF, these would be classified in
terms of economic and physical assets. Adopting a
PCR approach can also contribute to strengthening
other assets by:
• Social: Supporting people to keep their
communities intact, even if they have to be
moved to emergency camps and transitional
settlements. Social capital can be strengthened
by linking community groups together, especially
for community-based saving; and by linking
communities to organisations and institutions
that can support them in their recovery.
• Human: Providing training and capacity
building to enable people to rebuild and recover
better; supporting communities to participate
effectively in Community Action Planning;
helping people to learn as they discuss
reconstruction within their communities and
with external agencies; helping communities to
take control of their own information, of how it
is collected, compiled and used.
• Natural: Working together with communities to
recover natural assets damaged in the disaster;
implementing protective measures for natural
assets against future disasters; protecting the
community’s access to and ownership of natural
resources; and considering long term issues of
sustainability and environmental protection.
IFRC’s guidelines on owner-driven housing
reconstruction also offer a model for ways
of supporting livelihoods in post-disaster
reconstruction which incorporate some of these
issues in a simplified framework. We explore the
issues around resources (in particular around
cash payments) in the section headed Rebuilding
livelihoods beyond housing.
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