This Working Paper is the first research contribution to a new research and training project launched in Geneva in June 2006, dealing with post-disaster economic rehabilitation through micro-entrepreneurship and micro-finance in three tsunami-affected countries (India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka), and in Northern Pakistan in relation to the October 2005 earthquake. This project will be conducted during 2006-2008 by the Geneva-based Centre for Asian Studies (a unit founded in 1971 and co-sponsored by the Graduate Institute of International Studies and the Graduate Institute of Development Studies), in cooperation with the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Swiss Red Cross and the International Federation Terre des Hommes (IFTDH).
