Linking social capital and disaster response and recovery in Bangladesh’s coastal region

Abstract This paper explores how linking social capital (LSC) contributes to households’ response and recovery processes in the context of Cyclone Aila in Bangladesh. LSC refers to the resources households receive from non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Based on qualitative and quantitative data collected through observations, interviews, key informant interviews, focus group discussions and a household survey from two Cyclone Aila–affected villages, this paper shows that NGOs played no role in evacuations and search and rescue efforts. However, NGOs played a crucial role in helping affected households survive and recover. Various aid items such as livelihood support and houses and non-aid items like employment, training and microcredit programs from NGOs significantly contributed to survival and economic, housing and psychological recovery. Moreover, in the absence of long-term livelihood restoration due to ongoing flooding after the cyclone, affected households primarily relied on resources obtained through linking networks to survive and recover. Therefore, access to resources through NGOs is vital in disaster response and recovery. The paper recommends that NGOs should provide robust livelihood and housing support and focus on victims’ psychological recovery. They should also implement interventions using a bottom-up participatory approach, ensuring fairness in beneficiary selection and intervention delivery to achieve more effective and sustainable outcomes in their response and recovery efforts in Bangladesh and beyond. These findings will aid NGOs and relevant stakeholders in designing more effective and sustainable response and recovery strategies for future disasters in Bangladesh and other regions and thereby support the achievement of the relevant targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).