The NDRF provides a model for governments to coordinate recovery and rebuild after disasters. It is based on eight "core principles" (stated on page 12), two of which are new to me in a government standard.
The first, "individual and family empowerment," means giving victims of disasters opportunities and tools to participate in their own recovery, and treating them with compassion. In other words: "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."
So a U.S. government document explicitly states that community recovery can only be successful if families and individuals also recover from their personal losses. You see that kind of verbiage in NGO (non-government organization) mission statements, but never before in a government disaster policy document. We are making progress.
The other novel principle is "unity of effort," which states that "shared priorities are built upon community consensus", and that "stakeholders coordinate and direct recovery resources to achieve recovery priorities". Wait, is that Kumbaya I hear in the background?
In emergency management's Incident Command System (ICS), you see plenty of emphasis on "unity of command" (only one boss) and "unified command" (only one org chart for all responders), but I've never seen a government policy document expressly state that all parties--victims, responders, volunteers, relief agencies--should all pull together in a direction that is set by the affected community, not by responders.
That phrase, "unity of effort", is just wonderful. And from FEMA? Change we can believe in, indeed.
I also saw this in the draft: "Local governments have primary responsibility for disaster recovery in their community." That reminded me of the immortal words of Congressman Thomas "Tip" O'Neill, U.S. House of Representatives majority leader in the 1980's, who famously said "all politics is local". Disasters, too, in my experience.