Asian Development Bank’s May issue of Development Asia features a special report ‘From Aceh to Tacloban’ which tackles the subject of learning from disaster and what has changed in the Asia-Pacific region’s resilience and preparedness in the decade between the Aceh Tsunami in Indonesia and Typhoon Haiyan in Tacloban City.

The notion of ‘building back better’ which was started from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami has often been thought of as forgotten for local people in the wake of many disasters, the article states. Aslam Perwaiz, Head of Disaster Risk Management Systems Department at ADPC, identifies that local resilience needs to be improved upon before any development can occur in particularly hazard-prone areas.

“If you really want to talk about resilience you have to talk from the bottom up”, says Mr. Perwaiz to Asian Development Bank, “We have talked to many local governments, and many of them don’t have the capacity … to do it.”

Read the full article in Development Asia.