Wolfgang Fengler of the World Bank says that the most remarkable achievementhas been to cut public debt from about 80% of GDP in 1999 to just over 30% atthe end of 2008.

Such close monitoring and communication are key to successful reconstruction, says Fengler. The effort requires on-the-ground tracking and skillful aggregation of data, he adds.

Past experience also shows that restoring livelihoods and creating jobs for the victims of disaster is a high priority and has become "automatically part of an early recovery period," says Fengler.