Early Recovery addresses recovery needs that arise during the humanitarian phase of an emergency, using humanitarian mechanisms that align with development principles. It enables people to use the benefits of humanitarian action to seize development opportunities, builds resilience, and establishes a sustainable process of recovery from crisis. Early recovery is a vital element of any effective humanitarian response. Planning for it should start when the crisis begins.

Early Recovery is both an approach to humanitarian response which, through enhanced coordination, focuses on strengthening resilience, re-building or strengthening capacity, and contributing to solving rather than exacerbating long standing problems which have contributed to a crisis; and also a set of specific programmatic actions to help people to move from dependence on humanitarian relief towards development. Early Recovery is never just a ‘phase’. It is a multidimensional process of recovery that begins in the early days of a humanitarian response.

UNDP co-leads the Early Recovery & Livelihoods Sector Working Group (ER&L SWG) in Nigeria with NEMA as a component of the 2016 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP). The SWG has identified four main “Pillars” of integrated programming in Nigeria;

1. Mine Action;
   
2. Debris & Waste Management;
   
3. Emergency Livelihoods; and
   
4. Recovery Shelter