Abstract
This paper focuses on decision making and planning, primarily by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), for the provision of temporary housing following the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Data were obtained through interviews, observations, and document collection during four field trips to southeastern Haiti and Port-au-Prince between late January and the end of May 2010. Three sets of issues hindered decision making associated with rehousing: assessment, logistics, and governance and coordination—problems that are all too familiar in large-scale disaster settings around the world. Our findings highlight the challenges of decision making and planning during the immediate period following disasters and raise questions about the extent to which guidance on disaster-loss reduction measures is reaching societies and communities that need it most, about why approaches that have been shown to be counterproductive in other disasters continue to persist, and about the applicability of current recovery paradigms, policies, and practices in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake and other similar contexts.
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