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The Australian Development Gateway (ADG) strives to support members of the development community in their efforts to reduce poverty and enhance sustainable development in the Asia Pacific region. The site has been created with participation from members of government, private, academia and non-government organisations. User feedback mechanisms have been incorporated to guide future directions of the site. The site is optimised for low bandwidth access to enable the widest participation throughout the Asia Pacific region.

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Emergency response

Disaster resilience through local economic activity in Phuket (pdf 247kb)

This paper examines the interaction of the formal and informal economy post-tsunami in Phuket, Thailand.  

Despite an acknowledgement that the informal economy supports about 30 per cent of workers in the tsunami affected area, most of the post-disaster initiatives to rebuild the tourist industry have focused on the formal sector.

This paper suggests that maximum recovery would be gained by putting more effort into the informal sector of the economy.  The implications are that practitioners working in disaster recovery should concentrate on restoring local economic activity, especially rural areas,  considering the importance of the informal sector for local livelihoods.

 

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