 Â Â | The world community commemorated the first anniversary of the sad events of December 26th 2004, when the tsunami hit parts of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, the Maldives, Somalia and Tanzania. The World Bank has been collaborating with civil society in the damage and needs' assessment process as well as in the reconstruction efforts over the past 12 months. |
Following the tsunami, World Bank announced an immediate grant of US$25 million for Indonesia and has since committed an additional $39 million. To help India, WB has so far committed US$526 million. The commitment to support programs in Sri Lanka reached US$150 million. As the generous outpouring of international support reached substantial proportions, the Bank brought together 15 donors under a US$532 million Multi-Donor Fund for Aceh and Nias, which became active in May 2005. The Trust Fund is guided by a steering committee consisting of donors, the Government of Indonesia and CSOs, with participation by the UN and the international NGO communities. The World Bank also manages two grants for reconstruction efforts in Thailand, provided by the Government of Japan's Social Development Fund. Working closely with the Government of Thailand, the Bank will partner with the Population and Community Development Association (PDA), the Chumchon Thai Foundation, World Vision and the Local Development Institute to provide assistance to citizens in a number of provinces. International NGOs and organizations such as the Red Cross/Red Crescent, CARE, CARDI, Catholic Relief Services, MercyCorps, Oxfam, Save the Children, and World Vision have raised record funds to support ongoing relief and recovery efforts. There are many examples of World Bank partnerships with CSOs in the reconstruction process. For example the Multi-Donor Fund will finance Muslim Aid (a UK-based NGO) to drain areas of Banda Aceh which is a necessary precursor to being able to build houses or provide water and sanitation since much of the city is now regularly flooded every high tide. Part of this is because the tectonic plate shift lowered the coastal shelf of much of Aceh, and part is because all the debris and silt brought in by the tsunami has clogged up the pre-existing drainage system. Some of the drainage uses clever low-tech valves - which open and permit water to drain out of the urban areas at low tide, but close and don't allow sea-water in during high tides. The Multi-Donor Fund is also working to finance a US-based CSO (Catholic Relief Services) to make repairs to the temporary road along the worst-hit west coast of Aceh. This road was built quickly after the tsunami by the Indonesian military because the original road was washed away in many areas. The road is weak in many areas however, bridges have washed away and the high rains and seas during the monsoon period have washed away parts of the temporary road. A particularly important stretch of this - from Lamno to Calang - vitally needs repairs and upgrading so that 10 or even 20-ton trucks can ply the road up to Calang where lots of house building is needed. The only other alternative is using beach-landing crafts that can only unload about 1 hour per tide. It is a highly unusual undertaking for CRS, but they have got good experience in working with building contractors in this area and hence are well suited to the challenge. Perhaps one of the most significant partnerships, is in the land rights project funded by the Multi-Donor Trust Fund. In much of Aceh, the tsunami and debris obliterated all traces of property boundaries, so it is very unsafe to start building houses because people might come forward and claim rightful ownership of land on which someone else has built a house. The Reconstruction of Aceh Land Administration System project (RALAS) seeks to restore property rights using participatory processes. A number of CSOs (big international groups as well as Aceh-based ones) have been trained by this World Bank-administered program to conduct Community Mapping and Community Driven Adjudication (CDA) processes. The survivors of the community are brought together as a "human archive" to discuss and agree whose property was where, the shape of the property boundaries, etc. Then a map is drawn up and all survivors and community leaders sign the map - to say that this is indeed the record of the village. This is then posted for a defined period in a prominent place so that anyone who has a counter claim can lodge it. If they do, there is adjudication by the whole community but eventually the record is agreed to be true. The Land Agency, much of which was destroyed, then comes in and draws up highly detailed maps and marks out the property boundaries as the community indicated with surveyors poles. The next step is to give over legal title to that land, which is very important because most of these people, especially the poorest, have never had title deeds to their lands. Whether working with the World Bank or working alongside the Bank, CSOs have been and will continue to play a vital role in recovery and reconstruction efforts in all areas hit by the Tsunami in the months and years to come. More Information:
World Bank main page on Tsunami recovery
Tsunami Assistance - Outcomes in South Asia
East Asia - Tsunami Recovery January 2006 |
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