The two day congress on Disaster Mitigation held on 1 & 2 April 2005 at Chennai, India, was attended by delegates from around the globe. The aim of the congress was to bring together International organizations and experts who have been active in Post Tsunami relief and recovery, in order to share experiences, and prepare and plan new ways of strengthening and co-coordinating humanitarian disaster assistance for more rapid recovery and rehabilitation of affected communities.

224 delegates registered for the congress including 62 delegates from Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Germany, Sweden, Canada and USA. There were representations from field staff, project managers, administrators and donor agencies.

The proceedings of the congress not only highlighted the generic lessons that have been learned from the Tsunami and other natural disasters, but also served as an eye-opener towards the realities of the tsunami’s aftermath. The success of the congress can be measured by the satisfaction expressed by the delegates, in the Book of Comments, and expressed in the Valedictory, of having had an enriching and learning experience.

Inaugurating the conference, Shri Surjit Singh Barnala, His Excellency the Governor of Tamilnadu expressed his empathy for those afflicted and his whole-hearted appreciation for the good work carried out by the relief agencies working in the field. He also emphasized the need to stand united during times of disasters in order that we might cope with them better.

The Relief Commissioner, Government of Tamilnadu, Mrs. C K Ghariyali lauded ADEPT’s international effort to deal with the challenge of preparation for and mitigation of natural disasters and stressed the need for documentation of all the relief and help activities in order to build capacity. Dr. K Rajarathnam, chairman of the National Lutheran Heath and Medical Board expressed his opinion that in order to face calamities such as the tsunami, not only is networking of donors and beneficiaries required but also development of ideologies.

A Handbook on “Disaster Psychosocial Response” published by ADEPT was released by His Excellency, the Governor.

The congress got off to good start with a Keynote address by Rolf Mueggenburg, Continental Director, CBM International on “ Need for Knowledge Management for Capacity Building”. The paper highlighted the fact that helping the survivors is one thing but knowing how to help them is quite another matter. Citing many examples, Mr. Mueggenburg pointed out that wastage of resources during disaster relief efforts is magnified many fold because relief agencies rush in without adequate knowledge about cultural, geographic, administrative and governance issues that are specific to that region. Mr. Mueggenburg proposed an organized effort at knowledge management for effective capacity building for disaster preparedness and mitigation.

This was followed by a second Keynote address on “Importance of Coordination and Control of efforts by relief agencies” by Dr. Gerard Jacobs, University of South Dakota, USA. Citing examples from recent disasters, Dr. Jacobs’ address stressed that without co-ordination, relief agencies would actually end up doing more harm than good. Dr. Jacobs proposed that in each country there needs to be an identified agency or NGO responsible for coordination of all relief efforts.

The pre-lunch documentary film “Re-establishing lives in the tsunami affected community” presented a moving account of how the Tsunami has affected the fishing communities in Cuddalore district of Tamilnadu, India, the efforts of ADEPT to provide Medical and Psycho-social relief in the immediate post impact phase, and the need for long term psycho-social intervention.

The afternoon session commenced with the presentation of country reports. A representative from each of the South East Asian countries - Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and India - came forward to share their insights on their country specific experience, and the innovative methods that they had devised to deal with the emergency. The session was an eye opener to many who, till then, had not viewed the Tsunami or their own efforts beyond their own limited geographic perspective.

This was followed by a session on “Networking for effective intervention” with a concept paper by Mrs. Gunawathy Fernandez, CBM SARO(S). Mrs. Fernandez stressed the need for networking of all resources for efficient response to any natural disaster. The paper raised a plethora of thought provoking questions that generated a lively discussion. The net outcome was the consensus that the post tsunami issues provide a window of opportunity to change the pre existing situation in favor of greater gender equity, equality and social inclusion, and the Recovery phase provides opportunity for sustainable development. It was agreed that both the above can be achieved through networking which is vital for ……

	effective lobbying
	encouraging civil societies to adapt to the most appropriate practices
	enhancing stakeholders participation
	advocacy, pressuring and harmonizing.
	Avoiding duplication and wastage of resources.
	improving negotiating skills and developing smart partnership

The day concluded with a panel discussion on post-tsunami livelihood issues chaired by Mr. William Stanley, of IRDWSI which focused on the problems of the coastal fisher folk who had lost everything in the tsunami’s onslaught.

The second day opened with a demonstration of ADEPT’s Educational and Knowledge Management Portal. Queries relating to the portal were handled and the type and nature of information that would be displayed on it explained. The delegates were requested to avail of the free on-line registration at www.ADEPTasia.org which will enable them to upload reports of their work to the site and share their experiences and views through on-line discussion forums.

Dr. Joseph O Prewitt, American Red Cross, then delivered a Keynote address on “Challenges and Lessons learned in the tsunami”. He pointed out that the main challenges were:

	Integration of existing technology to the ground reality
	Application of existing needs assessment tools, which are based on a deficit model, to measure individual and community resilience markers.
	Cultural, Linguistic, and Technical adaptation
	Capacity Building for community based mental health
	Development of high interest low content Instructional process
	Transference of a knowledge base
	Development of indicators that measure knowledge, behavioral and attitude change

The concept paper “Psycho-Social Engineering as a means of re-establishing lives in the Tsunami affected community” by Dr. U. Gauthamadas, Director, ADEPT, generated a lively discussion. The paper pointed out that one of the challenges of post-Tsunami long term psycho-social intervention was to deal with Disillusionment, Discontent, Communal jostling, Non-productive behavior, Rumors, misinformation, and social support deterioration that are rampant in the Tsunami affected communities. This requires an intervention model that differs significantly from the traditional psychosocial model. Such a model can be found in the concept of Social Engineering. The discussion was spearheaded by a heated debate on the negative light that has been thrown on the concept of social engineering in the last three decades predominantly by political events in the USA and software hacking also originating in USA. The plenary then discussed the usefulness of the concept in deterring / dealing with social support deterioration in the Tsunami affected communities. The Chairperson for the session, Dr. Mishra, WHO, concluded that the process was most applicable and worth exploring irrespective of terminology.

The pre-lunch session on “Medical Relief Experiences”, chaired by Dr. Paul Francis, WHO, provided interesting insights into advanced relief work carried out by various organizations including UNICEF, and the Government of Tamilnadu, India. Much interest was generated by the innovative mass burial system developed by the Directorate of Health, Nagapatinam, preventing the outbreak of major epidemics that were predicted in the aftermath of the Tsunami.

The post-lunch session was opened by a concept paper on “Co-ordination of relief activities” by Sujatha Bordoloi, American Red Cross. The paper laid out the need for coordination, the sectors that need to be coordinated, and the various factors that govern coordination. Many of the delegates welcomed the paper and its relevance to capacity building.

The session on “Disaster Preparedness” saw an elaborate presentation by K. G. Mathaikutty, Lutheran World Service, on the issue of rural preparedness.

The panel discussion on “Community Dynamics, Psycho-Social Engineering, and Rights Issues” with a panel comprising of representatives from the visually challenged, psychiatrists, media and communication specialists, donor agencies, field workers, consultants to the government and people from the affected fishing community demonstrated the success of the congress with a full house and a stimulating and lively discussion that had to be brought to a close due to time constraint. The sum of the discussion was that rights issues and community dynamics are very complex and have to be studied, and that community engineering is necessary to deal with such dynamics.

The congress was brought to a close by a valedictory ceremony with feedback from a representative from each participating country. The common thread through the comments was the learning generated by the congress and the need to have similar programs at a local level in each of the affected countries so that more people in the field can be benefited.