A ripple in development? - Channel Research

Although there is here a natural handover from emergency operators
to more perennial institutions, the problem of capacity is also
undoubtedly at play. Attitudes will have changed as the ability to deliver
on expectations has been tested, and often proven to be wanting. The
mismatch between limited civil society outreach, and the scale of the
disaster, will undoubtedly have contributed to the shift towards the state.
The state itself has also been highly affected by these issues of capacity.
In all three tsunami affected countries new structures were created
to manage the response, showing significant constraints in capacity. In
the case of Indonesia it was the Aceh-Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction
Agency – also known as BRR, the National Disaster Management
Centre, or NDMC, in the Maldives, and the Reconstruction &
Development Agency, or RADA, in Sri Lanka. While RADA, the earlier
Task Force for Rebuilding the Nation (TAFREN) and the NDMC
institutions have had national coverage, BRR’s mandate was circumscribed
to Aceh and Nias. Only in the Maldives will the state agency
(NDMC) be maintained into the medium term. In Sri Lanka RADA
and its predecessor TAFREN were dismantled. This has left a gap in
institutional memory, and a weakened sense of accountability at the
local level, with those affected less able to claim their rights. The closing
of RADA is, according to state representatives, a sign of on the one part
achievement, and on another, a desire to turn the page on the tsunami
and regain a sense of normalcy.
BRR was established after the tsunami to lead and manage reconstruction
activities in Aceh and Nias. It has an office in Aceh, and was
tasked to coordinate all the response, handing over implementation to
agencies and line ministries. Its mandate runs out in April 2009, at the
time when the operations and maintenance phase for many of the
projects is only beginning. The Governor and his administration
acknowledge that the government is ill prepared to manage the transfer
of large public assets as well as recovery projects created by BRR. These
bodies have been responsible for delivering the US$300 million funds
from central government for the revised Master Plan, ensuring that the
Multi Donor Fund (MDF) and other development programmes, valued
at more than US$ 400 million, are completed by 2012 (this includes
MDF, but also Asian Development Bank (ADB), Agence Française de
Développement (AFD) and Japan International Cooperation Agency
(JICA) loans). The provincial government has already been endowed
with an unprecedented US$ 1 billion as a share of annual oil and gas
revenues and additional Government autonomy funds.
In Sri Lanka the state is perceived as much as an employment provider
as a service provider. 7 The total number of employees in state
7
Findings from the Document Review and interviews in the field provide strong evidence in this
direction.
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