Lessons from disaster relief in the Asia Pacific

This volume presents a wide range of practices and experiences of disaster relief in the Asia-Pacific region. We have highlighted the diversity of the region, its notable vulnerabilities, and often less notable resilience, to various types of catastrophes (both natural and human-induced), and the complicated roles that various stakeholders play in disaster rescue, mitigation and recovery processes. Our case studies provide ample opportunity for cross-country and cross-sector comparison, which can further enrich and problematize our understanding of some of the key concepts, agendas and policy practices in disaster relief within and beyond the region. The aim of this concluding chapter is to highlight some of the key themes that lie beneath and run across the various chapters in this book, and place them in the context of some of the broader debates in disaster studies. We will also extrapolate a few policy implications from our studies.