inside the glass house

Reconstruction, rehabilitation within cultural framework: WB
NEW YORK-- After returning from a tour of tsunami-devastated countries, World Bank President James Wolfensohn told reporters in Washington DC last week that the proposed reconstruction plans in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and the Maldives should take into account the cultural and social infrastructure of the battered communities.

In Sri Lanka, he said, there was a suggestion that displaced fishermen should be put into three-story apartments, perhaps a kilometer away from the beach, with hot and cold water showers.

"It sounds great," Mr. Wolfensohn said, "unless you're a fisherman" whose traditional lifestyle, he pointed out, was to live on or near the beach and maybe next to his boat.

Mr. Wolfensohn rightly made it clear that the World Bank cannot -- and will not -- invent a model city originating either in the boardrooms of Washington or Tokyo that's going to work for these fishermen.

So the two financial institutions that will be involved in the reconstruction -- the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank -- plan to work closely with the affected communities and governments before embarking on a major reconstruction of the devastated countries.

Of the 12 countries affected by the tsunami, India and Thailand have said they are capable of handling the reconstruction themselves and therefore do not need any international financial assistance.

Seychelles is seeking a debt moratorium, while Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania have said they are not appealing for assistance "at the moment" because their damages are minimal.

At the UN delegate's lounge last week, a West European diplomat was telling a group of journalists that even if the UN receives half of the estimated $8 billion in international pledges, he was skeptical how a small group of countries could effectively absorb so much of aid.

The bulk of the reconstruction aid will, after all, go to only three countries: Indonesia (with a population of about 215 million people), Sri Lanka (19 million) and the Maldives (300,000).

Since reconstruction will begin from ground zero in the devastated areas, there is obviously a need for a well-defined plan in the construction of new houses, tourist resorts, roads, bridges, railways and other basic infrastructure destroyed in the tidal wave. For Sri Lanka, it is an offer that can set the country on a path to a new development model.

A World Bank study released last week said the tsunami disaster has put about two million people in Asia at risk of sinking deeper into poverty -- about one million Indonesians, 435,000 Indians and 250,000 Sri Lankans. The figures for Sri Lanka included the destruction of about 100,000 homes and 150,000 vehicles.

Perhaps the only consolation was that the basic industrial infrastructure was left intact in virtually all of the 12 countries. The World Bank is in the process of estimating the total needs for the reconstruction of Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, which could run into billions of dollars. The Indonesian government has already estimated its requirements at over $3.0 billion.

But since Indonesia is a country where bribery and corruption are highly institutionalised -- and where a bureaucrat would offer a receipt in return for a bribe -- the donor community is facing a dilemma as to how it should handle the problem.

At a press conference in Jakarta last week, US Ambassador Lynn Pascoe admitted that "high level corruption" in Indonesia was "a very serious problem" for the donor community.

The problem was also highlighted at a one-day seminar on corruption held in Jakarta last week, which was jointly sponsored by the United Nations, the Indonesian government and humanitarian relief agencies.

The three panel discussions were appropriately titled "Eliminating corruption within the bureaucracy", "Eliminating corruption in the attorney general's office" and "Eliminating corruption within the police." The head of the Supreme Court, and the ministers of justice and finance also spoke on how they plan to root out corruption in their respective offices. Meanwhile, the United Nations, which has routinely come under fire for waste, mismanagement and corruption, has accepted the pro bono services of a major accounting firm, Price Waterhouse Coopers, to keep track of the billions of dollars coming in from donor nations.

The US firm will also assist the UN with prompt investigations into any allegations of fraud or abuse of donor funding. The Bonn-based watchdog group Transparency International (TI) has already warned of the risk of corruption in aid operations. TI Chief Executive David Nussbaum said that civil society participation is an essential first step towards full transparency and accountability.

In Jakarta, a non-governmental group calling itself "Indonesia Corruption Watch", is monitoring the flow of aid to Aceh. Is it time for a Sri Lankan group to follow suit?

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