May 25, 2005—Five months ago tomorrow, the devastating undersea earthquake and ensuing tsunami destroyed lives across East Asia and parts of Africa, leaving shattered communities and a huge recovery and reconstruction agenda. In the hours and days after the tragedy, the Bank Group mobilized, both at a corporate level and through individual staff and family actions, to help those in need. Since then, Bank Group assistance has continued in many forms. Reconstruction financing has been approved for India (see news release), Sri Lanka (see news release), the Maldives (see news release), and Indonesia (see country Web site). (See also World Bank Response to the Tsunami Disaster). Indonesia suffered the greatest loss of life, concentrated in the province of Aceh. The reconstruction effort in the province is moving into high gear now that the multi-donor trust fund created to manage recovery funds in Indonesia has approved project concepts for $250 million in grants (see news release). “After the preparation of the master plan, we are ready to accelerate recovery,” says Sri Mulyani Indrawati, State Minister for Development Planning and Chairperson of National Development Planning Agency. “This multi-donor trust fund will be a central element in the process.”  |
Earlier this month the trust fund – which has pooled more than $500 million from donors and is managed by the Bank – gave the green light for the development of projects to provide housing, land rights, and community housing for the tsunami-affected communities in Indonesia. The four project concepts that the trust fund approved are: - Housing for a Thousand Villages ($150 million) – as part of the Government’s larger settlement reconstruction strategy, this two-year program would finance the construction of 20,000 new houses and rehabilitation of 30,000 damaged houses along with related infrastructure in one thousand communities;
- Recovery of Property Rights ($28 million) – this project will help to sort out land ownership through urgent recovery of land records, establishment of a land occupancy databases and rehabilitation of the land administration system throughout Aceh (up to 300,000 parcels of land);
- Community Recovery in Rural Areas ($54 million) – this addition to the Kecamatan Development Program will support full restoration of community infrastructure in 200 kecamatan (up to 3,000 villages), recapitalization of up to 6000 micro-enterprises, and training of thousands of villagers;
- Community Recovery in Urban Areas ($18 million) – this addition to the Urban Poverty Program will rehabilitate and develop community-based infrastructure in 352 kelurahan (communities) through the construction of roads and bridges, schools, water supply and sanitation, community buildings, and drainage.
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Andrew Steer, Country Director for Indonesia and co-chair of the trust fund’s steering committee, said that the decisions being made “will reach to every corner of the devastated areas through a thousand community facilitators, building houses in a thousand communities, and assisting 6,000 small businesses get back on their feet.” Teams of government officials and other experts will now work with stakeholders in Aceh and North Sumatra to finalize these projects. At the same time, the Recovery Agency and others are exploring how to speed up the flow of grant funds to affected communities. The Trust Fund Steering Committee expects the grant approval process to significantly speed up the disbursal of grants. More information on Tsunami recovery in Aceh:  Rebuilding Aceh
Creating a Vision for the Future
Aceh Widows Begin the Task of Rebuilding
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