Rapid Assessment for Resilient Recovery and ... - GFDRR

Collaboration between government, private sector, civil and academic society. Work
with NGOs and academic personnel to act as facilitators to communities (female and male
facilitators, to be able to communicate well with all). As in most countries, NGOs are critical
and put pressure on government policies. However, in this condition where the scale of
services delivery is far beyond the capacity of regular government apparatus, collaboration
is the only choice. Inclusive approach to the many parties will even develop mutual understanding
and become a practice that is beneficial in the long run. There are always irregularities
and sometimes tendencies to “use” or coerce villagers. This needs to be controlled
by:
• Entrusting responsibilities to communities: Let communities make the
decisions, and allowing their representatives deal with the government through
the regular tambon–amphor mechanism; the community planning & programming
processes should provide ample opportunity for every social group to contribute
solutions, including the vulnerable and poorer families, men as well as women. It is
part of the tasks of facilitating organizations to ensure that this process happens 110 .
• Strengthening local governance through effective coordination and
facilitation: Maintaining a forum at each local government level among facilitators
(NGOs, university staff and students, private sector CSR units), led by an
intermediary institution like CODI. Ideally at amphor as well as tambon level.
Short-term
• Identification of damage should actively involve the communities. Careful reporting
of the house-by-house damage cannot depend on small, appointed teams only. On
the other hand, the number of significantly damaged houses will be relatively low,
although initially many individual owners of intact houses have reported theirs as
“heavily destroyed” and applied for the THB 20,000. The amount of funds needed
to support “totally damaged” houses is estimated at about THB 1 billion for not
more than 19,000 units, while the majority of funds may be used by medium
damaged houses – about THB 2.6 billion. The real needs in the field after
assessments may be much less, as estimates were based on the satellite map
calculation of flood coverage areas.
• Clear instructions regarding criteria of handing out of compensation grants (THB
10–20,000, or 30,000 111 ), and dissemination of the information. If possible in
printed form, posters etc.
• The grants themselves should be part of a specific program to be decided by the
government, where recipients (especially owners of the totally damaged houses)
are given the choice to change the basic structure of their houses, or even find
a better place to settle. In the latter case, loans may be considered (CODI for low
incomes, NHA for medium-high incomes).
110 Special women’s, youth, and also special interest groups of farmers or renters meetings to be explicitly scheduled.
111
As THB 30,000 will not be sufficient to rebuild a house from scratch, an amount of THB 50,000 is proposed (Annex
15). There will be only a small number of houses that are really totally damaged (= needing to be rebuilt from zero or from
the foundation up); as for all grants, the selection of recipients need to be transparent and verified by a third party (probably
the community facilitators), and announced in written form.
THAI FLOOD 2011 RAPID ASSESSMENT FOR RESILIENT RECOVERY AND RECONSTRUCTION PLANNING
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