Skip to content
Log in
Report

Building Back Better: Achieving resilience through stronger, faster, and more inclusive post-disaster reconstruction

This report of the World Bank explores how countries can strengthen their resilience to natural shocks through a better reconstruction process.

Key points

The report highlights that reconstruction needs to be:

  • Strong, so that assets and livelihoods become less vulnerable to future shocks;
  • Fast, so that people can get back to their normal life as early as possible; and
  • Inclusive, so that nobody is left behind in the recovery process.

 

This report shows how the benefits of building back better could be very large – up to $173 billion per year – and that these benefits would be greatest among the communities and countries that are hit by disasters most intensely and frequently.

For a selection of small island states, the “Building Back Better” report shows that faster, stronger, and more inclusive recovery would lead to an average reduction in annual disaster-related well-being losses of 59%. In these countries and in the rest of the world, reconstruction offers an opportunity to learn from disasters and ensure that we break the cycle of repeated catastrophes.