Priority Given to Quick Action

February 2, 2005 - One of the first priorities in the reconstruction of countries devastated by December’s tsunami will be “quick-action” solutions to put money into the pockets of those people left without a source of income.

Alastair McKechnie, the World Bank’s coordinator in the reconstruction process, says the next three months should also see some restoration of public services in many of the affected countries.

While he cautioned the process would vary from country to country, McKechnie predicted the next few months would see some medical and health services restored as well as telecommunications and power back up and running.

McKechnie says the process has already begun – in the Maldives for example, every school in the country has re-opened, albeit two weeks after the official start of the school year.

And he says it should “only be a matter of weeks” before there’s some money in the pockets of people who lost their livelihoods as a result of the tsunami.

	"I would hope to see results on the ground for repairs - for things that could be fixed fairly quickly, within the next month or two."

“There are good models for doing this. For example, the cash for work programs,” McKechnie says.

“There’s a lot of cleaning up needed in these areas. Paying people for work done puts cash in the hands of families and it enables people to rebuild their lives.

“One of the first steps will be to look at the kinds of things where small amounts of money can lead to quick repairs to bring things back to the way they were before,” he says.

The quick-action concept, McKechnie says, could be applied to some of the damaged buildings or schools without textbooks.

“I think damaged houses would probably be repaired quickly – within months – and the simplest solution may be to simply give cash grants to people and let them buy the materials or engage a local contractor to fix their house,” he says.

But McKechnie cautioned it would take longer to deal with the issue of housing, particularly in the case of villages completely washed away by the massive walls of water.

“We don’t want to rebuild poverty. The first principle will be to ensure the communities themselves are not only consulted, but that they are actually driving the reconstruction process.

“So this will require more thought as to how the construction should proceed. Starting new houses from the ground up in places which are not vulnerable to disaster, is going to take a little longer.

“There have also been bridges over quite wide rivers which were washed away. It’s simply not possible to build a bridge in months. It’s going to take maybe a year, maybe longer.”

The Bank, along with other international organizations, has been working on initial damage and needs assessments of the affected countries, as part of the first phase of the reconstruction process.

Alastair McKechnie, Country Director for Afghanistan, Bhutan and Maldives, talks about the Tsunami reconstruction efforts.

McKechnie says with the substantial work on those assessments now complete, the next step will be talks with the international community to firm up financing for the reconstruction programs, which would then allow the money to start flowing

He says a key priority for the Bank is “country ownership” of the reconstruction process.

“The number one issue is for the country to be very much in the driver’s seat on this. The second is the importance of coordination among all of us who are going to help these countries,” he says.

“The outpouring of assistance has simply been staggering. This is a disaster that has really struck the hearts of the world. From the point of view of the recipient countries, trying to coordinate and manage the flood of offers of assistance is a huge challenge.

“So therefore any mechanisms which enable donors to pool resources, to simplify the costs of transaction, are very important, because there’s a real risk the administrative burden of this aid could slow results on the ground.”

McKechnie also warned that unless funds for reconstruction were distributed equitably, it would exacerbate some political tensions within countries affected by the tsunami.

But he says the international community is well aware too of the hardest hit areas – Aceh and Sri Lanka’s north east – have been the subject of conflict.

“The first principle is to make sure the resources are flowing equitably to all communities and that can be done in several ways. The first is to get the agreement of all the various factions in these conflicts and they can be brought into the decision making structure on how these resources will be used.

“Another possibility that’s being used in some countries is to have a trust fund for the reconstruction resources to flow into, and the decision on the use of those funds would be taken by a committee mandated to ensure that all the various groups are considered.”

	"Transparency and accountability are extremely important and also very important to the Bank, because we want to ensure our funds go to the intended purpose."

McKechnie says from the talks to date, the countries affected by the tsunami had made it clear they want to see accountability and transparency with funds.

Among the ideas being discussed is the use of a donor trust fund and setting up a management structure for those funds with government and non government representatives.

Another idea is the employment of outside financial management accounting firms to independently audit funds for the reconstruction process.

“Shining the light of transparency on the process is being discussed,”McKechnie says.