Guiding Principles for PCR
1. Support and empower communities to recover, rebuild and become resilient.
2. In particular, invest in training, of communities, local builders and local authorities. Where possible,
use local training colleges and build their capacity to provide and continue the training, to prepare for
future disasters.
3. Work with affected communities to plan their rebuilding and coordinate the response effectively
according to the expressed needs of the communities, and the resources available.
4. Ensure the active participation of all the most vulnerable groups and people in community recovery
and give special attention to the needs of people who were tenants or squatters, have lost family
members or are disabled.
5. Be firm and realistic about commitments to time-scale. Donors, governments and the media often
have unrealistic expectations to get results quickly. This creates pressure for rapid centralised capital
expenditure and reduces popular participation.
6. Base the reconstruction plan on a thorough assessment of risks, damage, needs and resources with
active community participation.
7. Adopt or improve indigenous construction technologies that have proven to resist the disaster
reasonably well, as these are well known and would need less capacity building. Provide adequate
technical support to ensure appropriate construction quality.
8. Ensure that communities have the capacity to maintain buildings and infrastructure as well as
institutions established by the reconstruction process in the future.
9. Avoid relocating households or settlements unless there are critical safety risks, as this moves people
away from where they make a living, and may slow down reconstruction as land may be hard to find
and the provision of trunk infrastructure can be costly and lengthy.
10. Minimise duration and distance of displacement, when relocation is essential, and ensure transport
services.
11. Ensure security of tenure and property rights for affected people, and in particular women.
12. Support the affected population to make informed choices on recovery and reconstruction, recognising
the important roles of NGOs and CBOs in promoting information sharing and community-based
learning.
13. Prioritise reducing vulnerability and mitigation of potential future disasters through reconstruction.
14. Use reconstruction as an opportunity to rebuild livelihoods and local markets.
15. Where needed, integrate productive or commercial activities in house designs (e.g., grain storage or
livestock rearing in rural areas, or small shops or home-based enterprises in urban areas).
16. Ensure fair and transparent distribution of government and agency money and resources for
reconstruction, according to needs.
17. Strengthen the resilience of the affected population to future potential disaster risks through
awareness raising and participation in contingency and preparedness plans.
18. Prioritise environmental sustainability in recovery and reconstruction because degradation of the
environment is quite often and important contributory factor in the occurrence of a disaster.
19. Ensure compliance with reconstruction standards that reduce vulnerability to future disasters,
adopting local building regulations and codes that are relevant. Do not set standards too high, as
that would make compliance difficult, once reconstruction aid dries up. Consider incremental and
affordable housing standards.
20. Advocate for government recognition and support for People-Centred Reconstruction, particularly
through enabling policies, strategies, laws and regulations.
21. Monitor achievement of the plans together with affected populations and amend if necessary; build in
the flexibility in the reconstruction processes to make changes if they are needed.
22. Evaluate the reconstruction process comprehensively and effectively, together with communities who
undertook the rebuilding; use the evaluation to learn lessons, improve processes and change policies.
23. Insist on an independent ombudsman or monitoring unit, to which individual households can take
grievances.
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