Post-Disaster Rehabilitation and Reconstruction in Nepal: Bleak Future
ASIA--PACIFIC, 25 Apr 2016
Kedar Neupane – TRANSCEND Media Service
21 April 2016 – Nine months after the earthquake of April 2015, government of Nepal formally appointed a CEO of National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) but failed to attract other senior government bureaucrats in joining the work of the authority. The delayed appointment of CEO and poor staffing can be no excuse for government’s lack of effective action because earthquake victims have been waiting for a year to receive much publicised cash assistance promulgated by government soon after the disaster. Shallow promises do not build devastated community and peoples’ lives. Rather, it weakens fabrics of community and then of nation.
How can anyone have any degree of confidence without taking some serious subsidiary measures to prove it otherwise? So far, there is not a shred of hope that there would be accelerated rehabilitation efforts and rebuilding lives of people and reconstruction of homes, schools, health services, and restoration of essential services. How could a community be strong without restoration of normal life in physically and psychologically devastated situation? This situation does not make a nation strong and proud.
Government should have immediately taken extra-ordinary measures and provide comfort to the survivors. One year elapsed but the survivors are still languishing in dilapidated temporary makeshifts and tented accommodation. Survivors are losing hopes for better days ahead. Instead of finding alternative options to deal with the national tragedy government chose to blame India on its trade and transit blockade of Nepal. Lack of a plan of action for timely reconstruction and rebuilding the affected communities and government’s ambivalence in establishing an independent and strong National Reconstruction Authority appears lack of seriousness on this tragedy. Helping survivors and restoring lives in devastated communities were not seen as the top-most priority agenda of the government.
On the other hand, government launched an unsuccessful campaign to internationalize this national humanitarian tragedy with the intention of exerting diplomatic and moral pressure on India expecting to yield compromises on the disputed constitutional issues with Madhesis and India’s non-cooperation on bilateral matters. The Deputy Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister of Nepal blamed India’s economic blockade of Nepal at a Human Rights Council’s session in Geneva. Political dispute with Madhesis and disagreement with India have nothing to do with government of Nepal’s primary duty of helping victims of earthquakes. But, poor survivors became a convenient political tool for orchestrating bilateral political issues. Why a republican government had to use survivors of natural disaster as political pawn?
Government’s subsequent actions and its inability to-date in finding solutions show that it was in no mood to swiftly address earthquake survivors’ plight. Government was in high gear to humiliate India, at best, and galvanize public opinion in Nepal against India with over-dose of national patriotism, at home and abroad, as if Nepal was gearing for a war against India. Rhetoric was high, substance was missing. It was a diplomatic failure. No Nepalese ever doubted India’s economic hegemony that compounded government of Nepal’s challenges in handling domestic issues. Tactics used to pressurize India using national human tragedy was not prudent. It lacked road-map and yielded no results. Government also could not mobilize internal private resources due to lack of sincereity on its resolve to assist the survivors forthwith and failed to look for alternative solutions. This is morally unacceptable in a civilized world of democracy. Survivors of the earthquake deserve better treatment and government must provide an answer. Someone should be morally responsible and held accountable for the continuing misery of the unsuspecting fellow citizens.
From early phase of the disaster it was becoming clear that government and political parties wanted to have control over NRA’s management and functioning. The hidden agenda of political parties had, directly or indirectly, scuttled the process and delayed creation of independent authority for reconstruction. Intense parleys between political parties to have no less than equal roles in NRA program design to implementation supports perceived assertion that funds meant for post-disaster reconstruction could be diverted for other purposes. In a compromise, a powerless, toothless NRA was born. This political manoeuvrings by parties was seen by informed observers as obvious motivation for influencing future local elections, which is still pending. Politicization of earthquake tragedy for political party interest is perceived by observers a glaring example of attitude of government and political elites in Nepal and total absence of republican spirit. Unfortunately, political parties’ interest truncated the survivors’ needs.
The partisan political capriciousness, compounded by perceived corruption and bureaucratic paralysis have significantly eroded public and donor confidence in government’s sincerity and ability. Likewise, funding through the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund (known also as ‘black-hole’) became a blemish for lack of transparency on fund utilization and absence of accountability mechanism. As feared by observers, failure to plan and develop implementation strategy on rehabilitation and reconstruction, and mount effective action program appeared worse than failures elsewhere in Haiti and Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.
Similar tragedies of no less proportion struck Aceh (Indonesia) in 2004 by Tsunami. Major earthquakes shook Kashmir region of Pakistan in 2004 and Sichuan (China} in 2008. These were tackled well because the respective governments were pro-active and organized and were decisive in dealing with national tragedies. In Haiti and the Philippines, the respective governments were blamed for either lack of effective coordination or inadequate response from power centre to the needs of people but international community provided substantial assistance filling the gaps. In Nepal, there is neither a credible programme of action or coordination mechanism nor any partnership with donor community in any meaningful way.
It is of no use blaming others for government’s inability to speed up the reconstruction process. Blaming on India’s economic blockade in Nepal and failure of government bureaucracy is not going to absolve its primary responsibility. Based on international experience it was not impossible to find a workable solution to Nepal’s humanitarian tragedy for there were times when assistance were provided to the needy, even in war zones, by establishing humanitarian corridors between the warring parties. Survivors of the earthquakes in Nepal are not at war with any one and they need not suffer for another year otherwise more people will die in hunger, malnutrition and disease.
Recently both the Prime Minister and the Vice-President of Nepal lambasted NRA and bureaucracy on slow work progress. Yet again, blame game appears to have taken another turn by the government to distant itself from own responsibilities. But, the fact of the matter is they are the ones at the top helms of the government seat. Why are they blaming others and for what? Notably, this new shift comes after PM’s visit to India and China and after an open and frank criticism from a friendly European donor country. Has the government finally woken-up?
In retrospect, the government should have been able to capitalize pledges of support announced by neighbouring countries China and India without delays for these countries are traditionally Nepal’s largest donors. Both countries were not only ready with financial package to jump in for help but are capable of mounting large-scale operations. Unfortunately, political parties and government of Nepal ignored the plight of earthquake survivors and remained engaged in party political manoeuvrings for own advantages. Humanitarian issue is not a partisan issue and it should not have been politicized. Therefore, government in power, chosen by the people who are holding public offices should be investigated by the CIAA (Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority) and their actions measured against the democratic and republican norms described in relevant provisions of the constitution.
In view of government and political parties’ lackadaisical performance in handling post disaster in Nepal there is little hope to assume that rehabilitation and reconstruction will commence early and with speed. National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) is like any other government bureaucracy that is unable to come up with strategies that would accelerate rehabilitation of communities and reconstruction of devastated areas. NRA is focussed on creation of process-oriented bureaucratic jumbles and layers of hurdles. This will not address the needs of the survivors any time soon.
Post disaster set-up and strategies should be delivery-orientated results-focussed. NRA needs to mobilize resources and implementing partners for speedy delivery of services and create robust institutional structure for effective coordination. Delayed action, ineffective response and poor handling of post disaster situation have created an extra-ordinary situation in the affected areas and precarious situation of survivors. This is an extraordinary situation requiring bold initiatives and exceptional measures. Responsible government should mobilize both internal and external resources, develop a plan of action and then move on with program implementation in partnerships with relevant actors in multiple fronts. In challenging situation like this response mechanism and activities are carefully analysed, prioritized, planned and managed so that no more time is lost and resources are best utilized. Basic requirements of the survivors and rehabilitation activities are uploaded up-front while planning for reconstruction and, in parallel, rebuilding activities for people’s livelihood would continue. This calls for a delivery of results-oriented response mechanism. Process-oriented response to post disaster situation will end-up in failure.
There is still time if government is committed to rehabilitate the devastated areas. It must now come out of ‘silo-thinking’ mid-set and seriously consider following decisions to speed up the functioning of National Reconstruction Authority:
(1) Immediately replace the CEO and appoint a senior retired civil servant (no less than at the Secretary level) with proven management, coordination and supervisory competency, and who commands respect from bureaucracy and can deal with confidence with donors and partners;
(2) Create a small Policy Advisory and Implementation Coordination Group with a maximum of nine persons comprising four from government departments (housing, construction, health and local government), one from Planning Commission, one from donor representatives and one from consortium of international organization (United Nations System and Multi-later organizations). This group should be co-chaired by CEO of NRA and Chief Secretary. Coordination is critical involving multiple players (government, donors, NGOs) to remain focussed and to avoid overlaps and unnecessary loss of resources;
(3) Abolish the jumbo Advisory Council and Steering Committee headed by Prime Minister with large number of members from political parties and parliamentarians. National Reconstruction Authority is not a political institution. It is a technical body for the management of post-disaster situation and does not require a jamboree of politicians. Reconstruction and rebuilding program of NRA should be guided by the findings of the disaster assessment report presented last year at the donor conference in Kathmandu.
(4) Declare that NRA is the main government body for post-disaster response management and coordination. Reinforce that NRA is non-partisan independent authority with limited duration.
(5) NRA should have decision-making powers and draw plans, design programs, hire competent personnel and select implementing partners (including domestic or international, or both) and full administrative authority and give legal powers to discharge end-to-end responsibilities without political interference;
(6) Create a separate Post-Disaster Reconstruction Fund, managed by NRA. All donations for post-disaster support should be channelled into this. The fund should not be linked to national budget cycle. It should be managed “outside-regular budget” with International Public Sector Accounting System for high level of transparency and accountability demonstrating financial credibility. This is also to ensure rapid disbursement of funds for implementation of program. Separate budget planning cycle is required for accelerated implementation matching with needs of large-scale operations. This can only be done with “outside-regular budget” mechanism. Requiring rapid decisions and disbursement will not be feasible if financing is tied up with government budget and finance cycle because government structure is not designed for rapid response and actions. Reconstruction needs speed, flexibility and multiple actors to be effective. Given the government’s past record in project implementation and poor response to post-disaster tragedy front-loading of funds cannot be expected. Government must demonstrate it is serious about credibility and accountability, and demonstrate its resolve to do business with openness and in transparent manner;
(7) Induct consultative services of experienced individuals with relevant work background (national and international) to strengthen NRA’s capability in coordinating program sectors. This should enable NRA to quickly set-up effective program, budgeting, financial planning and management of operations planning. It must also establish a credible monitoring and evaluation system. In this process, government should involve stakeholders, remain open and seek voluntary services of Nepalese individuals (retired from UN Agencies, international and multi-lateral organizations);
(8) Appoint competent people (doers) with relevant work experience for effective and efficient functioning of NRA. Hiring and firing powers should be with NRA. Independent National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) is best suited in managing the reconstruction operations only with substantial powers and financial flexibility. Individuals should be hired with job descriptions for each position without ambiguity of responsibilities and define level of authority with accountability;
(9) To speed up the field work seriously consider assigning significant areas of operations responsibility to a single donor country for program implementation together with funding of sector activities. For example; assign construction and upgrade of schools and hospitals (including equipment, supplies and materials) to India; construction of roads and bridges to China; livelihood and income-generation to Japan or Switzerland; energy and water and sanitation to South Korea or any one from Nordic countries. Or, assign individual donor with one or more districts or areas for integrated development of all sector activities. This should be immediately possible based on the last year’s Needs Assessment Report. This approach to management of post disaster is now crucial given the government and bureaucracy’s failure to come up with any accelerated mechanism. This is practical for it assigns full responsibility to one single development partner or in cluster approach;
(10) Reconstruction needs significant scaling-up of speedy actions in areas where government agencies have no adequate presence and they do not have the necessary and relevant experience because they are set-up only for normal business of the government. Therefore, invite competent donors and International NGOs with matching required resources and technical expertise to work in collaboration with NRA and in partnerships with others;
(11) Declare Post-Disaster Emergency in earthquake affected-areas and co-opt Nepal Army to secure disaster-affected areas for program implementation and to back-up NRA operations. Nepal Army should assist partners in facilitation and coordination between government districts office, community and local bodies so that there will be no political interference, obstructions and violence. Nepal Army should be given legal powers to deal with unauthorized political demonstrations, obstructions, vandalism and any other misconduct which are likely to delay program. The objective is also to restore safety and dignity of the survivors of the disaster and some sense of security to local communities and in areas of operations. It is crucial objective to maintain conducive social order for unhindered implementation of program and timely completion of NRA’s mandate;
This is a list of actions the government should undertake with renewed determination. Decisions and actions should be aimed at instilling much desired credibility in the community of nations and build on citizens’ trust – which seems to have been fading away with its ambivalent action of the past.
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Mr Kedar Neupane is president of ‘We for Nepal’ association based in Geneva, Switzerland. He is a senior retired United Nations staff. His email is Neupanek1950@gmail.com
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 25 Apr 2016.
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