Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Foreword -- Avant-propos -- Prefacio -- Executive Summary -- Résumé analytique -- Resumen -- Acronyms and Abbreviations -- Glossary -- 1 Nature, Disaster, and Recovery -- Developing Countries and Natural Disasters -- Response, Recovery, and Reconstruction -- The World Bank and Natural Disasters -- The Evaluation -- Evaluative Instruments and Methods -- 2 The World Bank Responds -- The Bank's Natural Disaster "Portfolio" -- Analytic Work -- Concentrations in Lending Patterns -- Reallocations -- Project Performance -- Outputs and Outcomes of Projects -- Hazard Management in the Bank -- 3 Disasters and Bank Strategy -- Predictability of Disasters -- Planning Implications for the World Bank -- Disaster Planning in Poverty Reduction Strategies -- Disaster Planning in Country Assistance Strategies -- 4 Relevance of Bank Assistance -- Defining Relevance of Disaster Assistance -- Delivering Quick Support for the Immediate Response -- Delivering New Projects for the Recovery -- Reducing Vulnerability over the Longer Term -- Does the Bank Respond Quickly? -- Using a Long-Term View to Select Short-and Medium-Term Actions -- 5 Social Dimensions of Disaster -- Participation in Natural Disaster Response -- Shelter and Housing -- Relocation -- Vulnerable Groups -- 6 Bank Policy: Implementation and Implications -- Natural Disasters in Relation to Other Emergencies -- Emergency Recovery Lending Timeframe -- Relief and Consumption Expenditures -- Forms of Disaster Assistance -- Rebuilding Physical Assets and Restoring Economic and Social Activities -- Recurring Disaster Events -- Disaster-Resistant Construction Standards -- Emergency Preparedness Studies -- Technical Assistance on Prevention and Mitigation Measures -- Addressing Longer-Term Disaster Issues -- Procurement -- Donor Coordination -- Institutional Development.

7 Conclusions and Recommendations -- What Works in Developed Countries May Not Work Elsewhere -- When to Engage and How to Stay Engaged -- The Challenges Ahead: A Review of the Evidence -- Lessons -- Recommendations -- Appendixes -- A: Bank Policy and Products -- B: Study Methodology -- C: Supplemental Data-Chapter 2 -- D: Survey Results -- E: Supplemental Data-Chapter 3 -- F: Supplemental Data-Chapter 4 -- G: Cash Support -- H: Housing and Shelter -- I: External Advisory Panel Comments -- J: Management Response -- K: Chairman's Summary: Committee on Development Effectivess (CODE) -- Endnotes -- References -- Boxes -- 1.1 Why Do Natural Disasters Seem to Be Increasing in Number? -- 1.2 A Troubled Relief Effort Compromises the Ability to Recover -- 2.1 What Are Emergency Recovery Loans? -- 2.2 Other Organizations Have Institutional Structures for Disaster Risk Management -- 3.1 Disaster Damage Undermines Development Progress -- 3.2 To What Extent Do CASs Develop Disaster-Specific Strategies Appropriate to Prevailing Hazards? -- 4.1 Equipment Acquisition Can Be Particularly Problematic -- 4.2 A Sense of Urgency Can Lead to a Wasteful Response -- 4.3 Reducing Vulnerability May Also Reduce Poverty -- 4.4 Bank Helps Finance Insurance Scheme in Turkey -- 4.5 Damage Sustained Is a Function of a Community's Level of Vulnerability -- 4.6 Reducing Vulnerability Takes Time -- 4.7 Damage Assessments Are Useful But Have Some Shortcomings -- 5.1 The Poor Take the Heaviest Blow -- 5.2 Social Funds Can Be Part of a Rapid, Locally Based Response -- 6.1 Contingency Financing-A Learning Process -- 6.2 What Happens When the Bank Does Not Stay Engaged? -- Figures -- 1.1 The Cost of Disaster Damage Is Rising -- 2.1 The Number of Projects Related to Natural Disasters Has Been Rising, with Sharp Peaks in Lending about Every Five Years.

2.2 The Bank Has Most Often Provided Lending for Disasters in Africa and in Latin America and the Caribbean -- 2.3 Reallocations Peaked Following Each Policy Revision -- 2.4 Natural Disaster Portfolio Ratings: Projects Approved and Completed, 1984-2005 -- 4.1 Average Implementation and Extension Times for Projects Containing Disaster Activities: All Disaster Projects -- 4.2 How Long Do Projects Take? -- 5.1 Projects Are Increasingly Addressing Women's Vulnerabilities -- 6.1 The Use of ERLs Has Increased with Each Policy Revision -- 6.2 ERLs by Natural Disaster Type -- 6.3 Focus on Mitigation Has Increased with Each Successive Project in Turkey -- 6.4 The Bank Often Leads Coordination, But the Borrower Role Is Growing -- Tables -- 1.1 Key Provisions of Current Bank Policy Statement -- 2.1 Natural Disaster Portfolio Composition, 1984 to 2005 -- 2.2 Concentration of Lending in the Disaster Portfolio Compared with Overall Bank Lending -- 2.3 Ten Largest Loans for Disasters -- 2.4 A Dozen Lessons Learned from Natural Disaster Projects -- 3.1 Many CASs That Should Discuss Natural Disasters Do Not -- 3.2 Natural Disaster Risk Can Be Mainstreamed in the Bank's Lending -- 4.1 The 10 Most Frequently Pursued Activities -- 5.1 Some Projects in the Portfolio Have Been Designed to Reach the Poor -- 5.2 Projects Often Exceeded Expected Impact on the Poor, But Data Are Incomplete -- 6.1 Project Performance Drops Sharply with More Than Three Partners.