Through its member firms, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, one of the world's leading professional services organizations, has begun providing 14,000 hours of pro bono advisory services to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to help ensure that tsunami reconstruction funds are used efficiently and transparently, UNDP announced today. The first Deloitte team recently began work in Indonesia and will review UNDP reconstruction operations in affected areas. The team will recommend methods to improve reporting, review existing control mechanisms, and seek to identify opportunities to strengthen accountability. Deloitte teams will also tour UNDP operations in the Maldives and Sri Lanka. Deloitte firms in Australia, Canada, China, India, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and the United States are participating in this landmark initiative. Deloitte teams will work with UNDP to review and advise on opportunities to strengthen financial systems, processes, and procedures. Donor governments have contributed more than US$112 million to UNDP for tsunami reconstruction programs.

More information // Deloitte Global Homepage

Using bare hands, shovels and barrows, tsunami survivors in Sri Lanka are cleaning the debris-strewn coast and getting paid for it under a United Nations Development Programme project funded by the Japanese government. Some 5,500 people affected by last December’s wave surge have participated in the cash-for-work project administered through UNDP, with more expected to participate in coming weeks. The workers, young and old, are paid Rs. 300 (about US $3) a day to sort through piles of rubble which have hindered the return to normalcy in these areas. The cash-for-work effort, costing a little under half a million dollars is providing much needed temporary employment and has speeded up the tedious task of sprucing up neighbourhoods in the north, east and the south, before the construction of permanent housing can begin.

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More information: Reducing Risks From Tsunamis: Disaster and Development // Global report - Reducing Disaster Risk // Relief web coverage // // UNDP Sri Lanka Country Office // DRU and Sri Lanka // Sri Lanka National Disaster Management Center // Sri Lanka Updates

It is almost four months since the tsunami washed away almost every home and building on Naalaafushi, but today, every home on the island has been rebuilt and every family has a roof over their head. As the community prepares for the monsoon season, people’s lives are slowly getting back to normality. After camping in the ruins of a neighbouring house since the tsunami, Haleemath Ali and her family have just moved into their rebuilt home. “When I saw what had happened, I wondered, how will I live?” she says. “How will I reside in this house anymore? What about my children? I didn't feel like leaving the island because this was my island and I've always been here. I'm just really happy that we are getting a new house. It's going to be a stronger house. It's going to be a new beginning,” she says. The homes on Naalaafushi were rebuilt through a partnership between Banyan Tree Resorts, which volunteered its services, time, man power and funding to work with the community of Naalaafushi and the United Nations Development Programme.

Full Story // "Adopt an Island" UNDP-Maldives Initiative //
	UNDP Video: Rebuilding the Island of Naalaafushi - Real Media File

More information: Reducing Risks From Tsunamis: Disaster and Development // Global report - Reducing Disaster Risk // Relief web coverage // UNDP Maldives Country Office // DRU and Maldives // Maldives Updates

Photographers took instant pictures while officials in makeshift bureaus hurriedly wrote out new certificates at mobile documentation centres for tsunami survivors in Ampara. Nearly 15,000 people queued up at schools and other locations in the Ampara district recently where public servants sifted through almost 50,000 requests for national identity cards, passports, birth and marriage certificates and other documents destroyed in the December disaster. Some 31,187 people were killed and nearly a million left homeless after tsunamis hit Sri Lanka’s shoreline on 26 December 2004. Three months later, hundreds of thousands are unable to claim their property or get back their livelihoods because their personal documents were swept away.

Full Story // UNDP Democratic Governance Programme

More information: Reducing Risks From Tsunamis: Disaster and Development // Global report - Reducing Disaster Risk // Relief web coverage // // UNDP Sri Lanka Country Office // DRU and Sri Lanka // Sri Lanka National Disaster Management Center // Sri Lanka Updates

UNDP launched a web site—Tsunami Recovery—today to track reconstruction efforts in Indian Ocean countries hit by the 26 December tsunami. Coming online as former US President Bill Clinton starts leading the UN post-tsunami operations in the region, the site provides up-to-date information about how government, non-government and private sector contributions and workers are helping communities rebuild their lives and livelihoods.

More information: http://www.undp.org/tsunami/

Samiyarpettai village is a “living” example of how a community can survive the worst disaster if people are prepared and trained to deal with such crises. Providentially, in October 2004, barely a couple of months before the Tsunami struck on December 26, the villagers had been trained under the UNDP-GOI Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Programme with active support from the District Collector’s office. This one factor alone resulted in the saving of countless lives. Compared to many other neighboring worst affected villages, Samiyarpettai villagers lived to tell the tale. The training given to the Samiyarpettai villagers specifically in the areas of search, rescue and prevention from drowning, resulted in keeping the death toll down to 24. In the adjoining village of Pudupettai , a little less than 2 km away, the death toll was as high as 92. If basic training could save 68 precious lives in one small area, one can imagine the benefits of training on a more extensive scale. (...)

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More information: Reducing Risks From Tsunamis: Disaster and Development // Global report - Reducing Disaster Risk // Relief web coverage // UNDP India Country Office // DRU and India // More Situation Reports on India // Relief web coverage // UNOSAT Maps & Satellite Imagery on the Earthquakes & Tsunamis in Asia // OCHA Situation Reports

Former United States President Bill Clinton, stepping into his new role as special envoy to lead UN tsunami recovery operations, said that a successful UN tsunami reconstruction effort could serve as a model for rebuilding in other stricken areas recovering from future crises. “No one could be possibly be better qualified for this task than President Clinton,” said UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan as he introduced the special envoy. As the effects of the tragedy have largely faded from front pages and the nightly news, he said, it is “vitally important that we have someone with vision and commitment to ensure that, this time, the international community really does follow through and support the people and the transition from immediate relief to longer-term development.”

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More information: New York - Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his Special Envoy for Tsunami-affected countries, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, at press conference at UN Headquarters

The rapid response by United Nations agencies and other international organizations to the tsunami catastrophe, fuelled by a generous outpouring of public support, has helped victims to move beyond basic survival towards longer term development, according to a three-month review of tsunami-response efforts. The review, issued 100 days after the disaster, shows that contributions already received will be sufficient to continue relief for some five million tsunami survivors in seven countries until the end of the year. Still, plans are now needed for the transition to full reconstruction.(...)

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More information: Earthquakes & Tsunamis Flash Appeal 2005 // Reducing Risks From Tsunamis: Disaster and Development // Global report - Reducing Disaster Risk // Relief web coverage

COPE — Corporate Partnership in Emergencies — facilitates the matching of the private sector's voluntary contributions with the needs of communities hit by natural disasters or humanitarian crises. COPE enables corporations, with their efficient business approach and expertise, to play a vital part in crisis and disaster recovery throughout the world. The first challenge COPE is taking on is the tsunami catastrophe that struck Indian Ocean countries in late December. Coastal communities that suffered great loss of lives and damage need sustained help as well as immediate relief. There are not enough funds to rebuild homes, restore infrastructure and restart livelihoods. In many cases, businesses and other private sector organizations with specialized expertise can make a big difference. (...)

Full Press Release

More information: COPE website // UN Foundation // South-South Trust Fund

In response to the Tsunami that struck the Somali coastline on 26 December 2004, a Humanitarian Response Group meeting, chaired by the acting Humanitarian Coordinator, was convened in Nairobi on 28th December 2004. As a result, the HRG decided to develop a Tsunami Task Force to facilitate on daily basis, coordination of humanitarian response with interagency initiatives in Garowe and Bossaso (Puntland) in addition to sharing information with OCHA HQ for inclusion in the daily regional Tsunami situation reports issued by Geneva. Following the drafting of the Somalia section of the Regional Tsunami Flash Appeal, the activities of the Task Force came to an end. (...)

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More information: Relief web coverage // UNDP Somalia Country Office // DRU and Somalia