The Importance of Community Participation and Empowerment in Post-Tsunami Rehabilitation - A Case Study from the Hambantota District in Sri Lanka

A rapid assessment was undertaken in early 2005 on the impact of the Asian tsunami on the CBMS site in the Hambantota District on the southern coast of Sri Lanka. The site which comprises of two coastal lagoon systems – Kalametiya and Rekawa typically represents poor rural coastal communities that were badly impacted by the tsunami. For our rapid assessment, participatory research methods were adopted and included: focus group discussions (FGDs) and a household survey. Data collection was undertaken with the assistance of local field researchers who had been previously engaged in the CBMS study. These community members played a vital role in data collection and methodology development. In addition, the communities in both sites extended their utmost corporation and support during data collection, although these were very difficult times for them. This can be at least partly attributed to the involvement of local field researchers in the process, giving the communities a sense of ownership and empowerment. The FGDs were forward-looking and positive – getting the community’s perspective of how best rehabilitation and reconstruction should be undertaken in their area, taking their own priority needs into consideration. The household surveys revisited 210 households which have been the subject of ongoing research on factors affecting rural livelihoods since 2002. The fact that baseline data were available allowed us to assess the impact of the tsunami both on household and productive assets. The community’s views on the new coastal zone management policy issues that have emerged as a result of the tsunami (e.g., 100 metre no-build zone on the south coast) were also solicited. In addition the survey included questions on what coping strategies were used by the household immediately after the tsunami and how their sense of personal well-being and security was affected. Data analysis included investigating the differences in relation to the impact of the tsunami between households within and between villages in the two sites. The qualitative data was used to validate and triangulate results from the quantitative data as well as to obtain a more in-depth understanding of how individuals in the community were coping after the tsunami and how they felt rehabilitation should take place in their villages. As expected, results indicated that the resumption of their primary livelihood at the earliest opportunity was considered a priority by all the focus groups. The communities felt that overall preliminary rehabilitation work had taken place in a fairly uncoordinated manner and with a lack of transparency. Some donor organizations were accused of helping only certain groups within the community and not others, thus creating conflict within the community. Many indicated that these participatory discussions were the first time community members had been given the opportunity to express their own ideas on how rehabilitation and reconstruction should take place in their village. This study clearly illustrates that it is critical that community members engage in data collection alongside researchers, to ensure the validity of the data, especially in the post-tsunami scenario. Their role is also important if findings of the research are to be taken on in the rehabilitation efforts at the community-level. It is clear therefore that adopting the CBMS model, where community members play a crucial role alongside researchers is important in the post-tsunami disaster management and rehabilitation efforts in Sri Lanka. 1 Sonali Senaratna Sellamuttu is currently registered at Imperial College London for her PhD on “The sustainability of livelihood dynamics in a rural coastal community in Sri Lanka”. She is an IMCAP Associate (University of Colombo) and a member of the Sri Lanka CBMS group. 2 Dr E J Milner-Gulland is a reader in Conservation Science at Imperial College London.