[1] The term BBB was first used in the World Bank's Preliminary Stocktake of the damage and destruction from the December 2004 tsunami to Aceh and Nias, that was published in May 2005.
The concept has expanded to represent a broader opportunity by building greater resilience in recovery by systematically addressing the root causes of vulnerability.
It was subsequently adopted by the UN member states at the UN General Assembly on June 3, 2015, as one of four priorities in the Sendai Framework for disaster recovery, risk reduction and sustainable development.
The magnitude of the devastation and loss of human life caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami to Aceh and Nias initiated a change to the mindset of post-disaster reconstruction.
Typically, the response to a disaster would entail repairing and rebuilding the physical damage to houses, infrastructure and the built environment back to the pre-disaster status.
It was understood, that although natural disasters were usually unavoidable, it was possible to reduce future losses through improved construction standards, better spatial planning, early warning and education.
[5] The Preliminary Stocktake drew upon the Indonesian government's own Master Plan for the coordination and implementation of recovery programs in Aceh and Nias and the initial Damage and Loss Assessment.
Although the Master Plan proposed sixteen core policies each with key broad strategies for implementation, it did not explicitly mention BBB.
Although BBB was not mentioned, in the Master Plan, it was clear it was about “Mitigation and preparedness in the event of future natural disasters was highlighted as integral to the reconstruction”.
Contributory factors to needing to revise statistics on loss and damage were due to unreliable government records including periodic censuses, pursuit of haste driven by development agencies and civil society wanting to contribute aid, lack of expertise in damage assessment much of which was initially crowd-sourced, poor or inadequate mapping (geospatial information).
By way of comparison, the death toll in Aceh and Nias actually exceeded both atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined in World War 2.
[14][15][16] Global attention was drawn to the term BBB arising from the address by UN Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery Bill Clinton to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in July 2005.
Clinton specifically commented on RALAS after his first visit as the Special Envoy in May 2005: "I can think of nothing that will generate more income over the long run for average families in this region than actually having title to the land they own," he said.
At the time of Clinton’s first visit, it was reported in the media, including The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia), that just 25 people who lost their homes in Aceh could prove their title to land.
Aceh and Nias experienced the 2004 tsunami at a time when a maximum of only twenty percent of landowners had formally registered land ownership through title deeds.
The Aceh and Nias Master Plan established the importance of geospatial information and land tenure boundaries, and these considerations were embraced within BBB in the Preliminary Stocktake by the World Bank and prioritization of the first MDF approved reconstruction project RALAS.
In cases like Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the 2011 Christchurch earthquake the authoritative mapping of the respective government agencies was very reliable and very effectively supported the emergency response and the subsequent recovery and reconstruction operations.
[42][43][27][44][45][46][47][48][49] Building disaster-resilient infrastructure and early warning systems is costly, but typically yields benefits 4-36 times higher than initial outlay.
Thus, it’s especially important that post-disaster rebuilding adopts approaches and standards to help mitigate and reduce future disaster damage, i.e. build back better.
The United States Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has advised that disaster mitigation and building resilience, through what is deemed BBB, has three primary benefits to help reduce future costs: “ Breaking the disaster-rebuild-disaster cycle”; “Strengthening existing infrastructure” and “Reducing down time for businesses and critical public facilities and services”.
In Malaysia, the government did not only save an estimated cost of US$300,000/km by maintaining the mangrove swamps intact for storm protection and flood control, but also lowered the temperature in the area.
[58][59][60] Given that the declared motto of the reconstruction of Aceh and Nias was “build back better” following the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, it was something that should have resonated strongly with the Indonesia government and people.
However, on September 28, 2018, a powerful earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sulawesi on Friday caused a tsunami resulted in thousands of deaths and massive losses.
The Pakistan Government embraced the BBB concept where it identified the large-scale devastation as a “window of opportunity to improve the prevalent methods and quality of construction”.
Under RHRP, the seismic-resistant reconstruction was enabled through the development of appropriate construction standards and structural design options using local materials and knowledge.
Nepal has a long recurrent history of earthquakes, so reconstruction focused on ensuring seismic resistance to enable resilience to future shocks and stresses based on international standards.
Thus, Nepal through its biennially revised NDR, fosters principles of risk-informed development, and socially inclusive approaches for disaster management and risk reduction.
[71] International development agencies, including the World Bank, United Nations organizations, civil society and academe have continued to present views on the evolution, or extension, of BBB, beyond post-disaster rehabilitation and reconstruction.
Broader contexts for BBB have included the global covid pandemic, low carbon, climate change, green growth, the digital economy and addressing inequality.
[72][73] The topics of recovery, reconstruction and building resilience, which draw upon the BBB concepts and experienced around the globe have been reported by many academics and researchers.