Building Back Better

This article is about the United Nations program. For the slogan used by the 46th president of the United States, see Joe Biden 2020 presidential campaign. For the proposed $7 trillion COVID-19 relief, future economic, and infrastructure package, see Build Back Better Plan. For the initiative by G7 countries, see Build Back Better World.

Building Back Better, or more frequently termed Build Back Better (BBB), is a strategy aimed at reducing the risk to the people of nations and communities in the wake of future disasters and shocks. It is a conceptual strategy that has continued to evolve since its origination in May 2005. However, what continues is the overall goal of enabling countries and communities to be stronger and more resilient following a disaster by reducing vulnerability to future disasters. Building resilience entails addressing physical, social, environmental, and economic vulnerabilities and shocks.[1]

The term BBB was first used in the World Bank's Preliminary Stocktake of the damage and destruction from the December 2004 tsunami to Aceh and Nias, that was published in May 2005. This stocktake included the early identification of key requirements for recovery and reconstruction. It was in the identification of these requirements that BBB had its roots in the improvement of land use, spatial planning and construction standards through the reconstruction and recovery process, as well as the protection and formalization of land rights. The concept has expanded to represent a broader opportunity by building greater resilience in recovery by systematically addressing the root causes of vulnerability. It was former United States President, Bill Clinton, in his role as United Nations Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery, who drew the attention of both the United Nations and the world, to the term BBB, in his address to the United Nations in July 2005.[2][3]

Almost a decade later, BBB was described in the United Nations' (UN) Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction document, which was agreed on at the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction held on March 14–18, 2015, in Sendai, Japan. It was subsequently adopted by the UN member states at the UN General Assembly on June 3, 2015, as one of four priorities in the Sendai Framework for disaster recovery, risk reduction and sustainable development.

From its genesis in 2005 for the reconstruction of Aceh and Nias in Indonesia, and since the UN endorsement of the Sendai Framework in 2015, the concept of BBB has continued to evolve with its history of adoption in recovery and reconstruction operations following major disasters around the globe. These disasters have included Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast of the United States in August 2005, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake in Pakistan, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Super Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines in November 2013 and the April 2015 Nepal earthquake (Gorkha earthquake).

  1. ^ "Building Back Better in Post-Disaster Recovery" (PDF). World Bank/GFDRR. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
  2. ^ World Bank (2005), Rebuilding a Better Aceh and Nias: Rebuilding a better Aceh and Nias : Preliminary Stocktaking of the Reconstruction Effort Six Months After the Earthquake and Tsunami, J. Clarke (Ed), Publication Number 32893, The World Bank, Washington, D.C., https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/295181468285599568/pdf/328930Replacement0aceh16months.pdf
  3. ^ Hallegatte, S, et al, (2018), World Bank GFDRR, 2018, Building Back Better: Achieving resilience through stronger, faster, and more inclusive post-disaster reconstruction, https://www.gfdrr.org/sites/default/files/publication/Building%20Back%20Better.pdf