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city in the US to its knees, is surely a glimpse of the future in developing countries if adaptation measures do not succeed in increasing resilience. Reconstruction: building it better
Increasing resilience with climate-proof infrastructure is essential, but it will never entirely alleviate the risks of catastrophe. When disasters strike, the rebuilding of infrastructure will play a large part in reconstruction efforts. The objective of post-disaster adaptation must be to ‘build back better’, in order to resist the increased risks inherent in climate change. A bold illustration of the ‘build back better’ approach was the reconstruction of the Macedonian capital of Skopje after it was destroyed by an earthquake in 1963. Not only was all the infrastructure rebuilt so as to be earthquake-resistant, but city planning also ensured that the river Vardar was routed in order to control future flooding.32 An achievement of this scale requires strong governance and management, and transparent sectoral and local administrations. In cases in which there were weak and fallible institutions before a disaster, they are likely to be weaker to the point of ineffectiveness in the aftermath, when sound planning and reconstruction are needed. Without adequate and consistent measures against corruption, failed reconstruction will further weaken vulnerability to subsequent extremes, and corruption risks will be as great as those that contributed to the original destruction. In the post-conflict reconstruction in Iraq, large portions of construction budgets disappeared entirely as a result of corruption.33 The close parallels between corruption reduction and disaster reduction have been observed by the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, but little progress has been made to mainstream disaster risk reduction into social, economic, environmental and infrastructure planning and development.34 Conclusions: anti-corruption strategies
Taking a step back from questions of accountability and corruption, one could ask why a major emphasis of adaptation efforts is on large-scale construction projects, and whether there are any lower-cost alternatives that might actually be more effective in protecting vulnerable populations. The answer to the first question may be because many donors and development agencies tend to distribute funds quickly and need to show tangible results, lack the capacity and willingness to oversee many small projects and are perhaps unaware of lower-cost options. The answer to the second question may well lie in improved strategic thinking and better and more participatory planning processes. What is
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