Exploring factors facilitating or constraining institutional reforms post disasters

What is it about?

In the aftermath of major natural disasters resulting in large scale death and property damage performance of public institutions responsible for mitigating disaster impact come under scrutiny. The paper explores why in developing countries even after catastrophic natural disasters often radical institutional reforms are not implemented aiming to improve public institutional performance.

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Why is it important?

This issue is pertinent for two reasons. First, natural disasters are a recurring phenomenon in many regions of the world, and are likely to increase as a result of climate change. Disaster literature insists that lessons must be learnt from past disasters, so that damage caused by future disasters can be mitigated. Second, this issue concerns not only the developing countries where institutional reforms are sought to be brought about, but also the international organizations and the developed countries as they often provide financial aid or technical expertise with the hope of assisting institutional reform in developing countries. The paper elaborates policy suggestions that may aid in mitigating the possibility of abnormal times (triggered by major natural disasters) repeatedly becoming missed opportunities. More specifically, this paper provides a starting point for exploring what might be done during normal times so that when disasters do occur in the future, these opportunities can be seized and used to bring about reforms to improve public institutional functioning.