UNICEF's response in Thailand to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was among one of the most ambitious responses to a natural disaster in a middle income country. There has been very little systematic evaluation of the response in Thailand, especially of the recovery and early development phases. This evaluation is intended to fill this gap by assessing UNICEF‘s response in Thailand during 2005-2008 using standard evaluation criteria and contributing to the building of organizational knowledge and learning linking emergency response to longer- term recovery and development. The focus of the evaluation is on building back better child protection systems, building back a better education environment, and building back better local capacity to enhance the rights of children; programme areas which were central to UNICEF‘s response during the recovery phase in Thailand.