A literature review of the role of project management in post-disaster reconstruction

The number of natural disasters has increased sharply in the past few decades, threatening human lives, and the built environment. Recent disaster management paradigms have, arguably, shifted from disaster relief to disaster preparedness, hazard mitigation, and vulnerability reduction. Reconstruction activities are those activities in recovery and rehabilitation phase of disaster risk management; actions taken to restore and if possible improve pre-disaster living condition of affected communities. While emergency relief which by providing food, medical treatment, and shelter in immediate after disaster is considered effective, reconstruction as medium and long term recovery activity is usually slow, expensive, complex. If not addressed effectively, opportunities for community development are often lost. Based on a comprehensive literature review of reconstruction projects and processes in a few countries affected by natural disaster, this paper investigates and documents the roles of project management, and the roles of key stakeholders in reconstruction projects after disasters. It identifies and documents the key challenges in post-disaster reconstruction projects and the main procurement strategies that are available and currently in use in the reconstruction projects. It concludes with the important role that project management plays in post-disaster reconstruction projects and the importance of managing interface issues, communication and stakeholders as part of effective project management