The current Review was conducted by a five-person SC Alliance team in the first two weeks of September, 2005. It will provide background analysis for a meeting of the Programme Strategy Group on 4-5th October 2005. The Review had to rely on only one week of field work and was able to visit only the Eastern and Southern regions, not the North. This report is the overview; each Team Member also produced a sector based report covering relief, shelter, livelihoods, education (basic and early childhood education), protection and disaster preparedness. The Review found that SCiSL should be commended for the exceptionally hard work that has gone into providing an effective response to the tsunami. This is in spite of having to cope with many complex external factors and some internal issues set out in the report.