Early Recovery is defined as recovery that begins early in a humanitarian setting.  It is a multi-dimensional process, guided by development principles. It aims to generate self-sustaining nationally owned and resilient processes for post-crisis recovery.  Early recovery encompasses the restoration of basic services, livelihoods, shelter, governance, security and the rule of law, environment and social dimensions, including the reintegration of displaced populations. It stabilizes human security and addresses underlying risks that contributed to the crisis.

The populations affected by the crisis require life saving support; their communities, institutions and livelihoods have often been physically destroyed and weakened.  Recovery programming works to restore services, livelihood opportunities and governance capacity. This must start as soon as possible in the humanitarian or emergency phase. While most attention initially will be given to life saving interventions, the sooner the planning and work on recovery begins, the sooner the affected areas are stabilized and the shorter and more effective the recovery process is likely to be, as national and regional institutions progress with providing basic services and assuming governance functions such as security, local administration and justice.

Early recovery occurs in parallel with humanitarian activities, but its objectives, mechanisms and expertise are different.  Early recovery aims to:

augment on-going humanitarian assistance operations;
support spontaneous recovery initiatives by affected communities; and
establish the foundations of longer-term recovery.