Helping businesses recover after a natural disaster: Hambantota Chamber's post-tsunami experience created by Tomek Mossakowski, Bill Davison and Azmi Thassim

In the wake of the 26 December 2004 tsunami, the Hambantota District Chamber of Commerce (HDCC) became the key player in a district-wide SME rehabilitation effort. The private sector was underserved in the wider relief effort; HDCC initiated one project and worked on a number of others to try and tackle this issue. This article describes the Chamber's experiences of these attempts to support the recovery of the private sector, and the limitations and successes of the efforts. Overall, the article argues that much more attention should have been given to the SME sector in the greater recovery efforts, and concludes that there is still much to be done; finally it offers some lessons from experience that could contribute to future challenges involving SME rehabilitation.