From external support to municipal capability: Six design lessons for place-based recovery after disaster

Post-disaster programmes can restore services quickly while leaving municipal organisations dependent on external expertise. This Perspective reflects on the design and early implementation of a multi-municipality recovery programme in earthquake-affected Türkiye and asks how time-bound support can strengthen capabilities that municipalities can use after external assistance recedes. Drawing on programme needs assessments, technical-assistance concepts, investment-readiness materials and governance records, it argues that institutionalisation depends less on producing technically complete outputs than on how work is organised: whether municipal actors perform core tasks, responsibilities and knowledge are anchored across units, local priorities connect to statutory and financing systems, and participation influences repeated decisions. The analysis translates six design lessons into directions for commissioners and municipalities, with particular attention to trade-offs between urgency and learning, differentiated support and fairness, national alignment and local agency, and new responsibilities and resource access. Recovery support should therefore be judged by evidence of municipal use, repetition and adaptation, not by delivery alone.