In April 2015, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Nepal, killing over 9,000 people, destroying or badly damaging more than 800,000 homes and displacing approximately 2.8 million people. Where shocks like earthquakes cannot easily be prevented, strengthening the ability to prepare, respond and recover is critical to maintaining development gains in spite of them. Mercy Corps explored what factors mattered most for short-term coping and long- term recovery in order to improve humanitarian response and design of recovery programs in the aftermath of acute disasters.
