**4. People-centred approaches to recovery**

People-centred—or community-centred—approaches are considered 'the gold standard' in successful disaster recovery. This is emphasised regularly in research and also in policy of responding agencies. Gibbs et al. record that 'community-based approaches … are regarded as the optimal approach to sustainable disaster recovery, fostering self-reliance and self-determination' [14]. In Australia, the State-level agency Resilience NSW affirms that 'successful recovery is community-centred, responsive and flexible, engaging with community and supporting them to move forward' [15].

Taking a people/community-centred approach to recovery seeks to ensure that skills and abilities of affected people are used, built on, and not unduly eroded. This is emphasised because, too often, response actions can fail to adequately engage with affected populations, leading to wasted investments in relief and recovery, or worse still, actively damaging meaningful recovery actions. People themselves may find themselves excluded form decisions that affect them. Unfortunately, despite some recent advances (see below), an adequate people-centred approach can be lacking. Anderson *et al.'s* report, 'Time to listen', found that, of the 6000 or so people interviewed who were caught up in emergencies across the world, the overwhelming response was for humanitarian actors to listen better to what was actually needed [16]. Following the 2015 Nepal earthquakes, one survey of community satisfaction of response efforts found that 'almost half of respondents feel they are not heard at all'; also that 'When women were asked if their particular problems are being addressed, a resounding 73 per cent said "very little" or "not at all"' [17].

There is a wealth of literature on people-centred approaches emerging from development practice [18]. One popular approach is an asset/capital-based understanding. Assets/capital can be tangible (such goods and belongings), and intangible, such as skills (human assets) and friends and networks (social assets). Social capital is a particularly powerful and important asset for post-disaster relief and recovery (see e.g. Archer and Boonyabancha, 2011). Social capital can be understood as **relationships and acquaintances that people develop over time.** As the adage in disaster management goes, *it's your neighbours that pull you out of the rubble*. There has been considerable interest in the importance of social capital and its types. Three types of social capital often agreed on are bridging capital (creating new relationships), bonding

capital (existing relationships that deepen over time) and linking capital (building relationships with those who hold power). It therefore follows, broadly speaking, that the more social capital people and communities possess, the less vulnerable they are to disasters. Conversely, people and communities with lower social capital are at greater risk.
