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Page 4
“...observed and experi-
enced the difficulties people and organizations are facing
as they try to rebuild, and have spoken to several govern-
ment officials and NGOs that have been involved in the
reconstruction.
In this article, we discuss our perspectives on the reasons
why the reconstruction progress in Nepal has been slow;
we focus on how Nepalese government and non-govern-
mental organization actions have slowed the revitalization
process. We argue that the government’s inefficiency to
deliver funding and services to affected people, and its
lack of coordination with NGOs in the aftermath of the
earthquake, are among the main reasons why the recon-
struction progress has been impeded. This paper has
been written based on the observations we made during
our several trips, the discussions we had (as represen-
tatives of reconstruction projects) with government
officials and representatives of other NGOs, and our
first-hand experiences as members of an NGO involved
in reconstruction projects...”
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Page 8
“...but had changed their plans when negotiations
with the government broke down. One of the reasons
these negotiations halted was that this NGO was asked
to rebuild the entire district, but the NGO simply did not
have the ability to do so. The NGO was concerned about
handing over donations to the government. The NGO
officer pointed out that safe shelter for affected villagers
should be the top priority, but it was difficult to deal with
the bureaucracy. Finally, the decision was made to allocate
funding to less controversial reconstruction sectors, such
as education, health and water facilities. Five months later,
the officer told us that the MoU with the Nepali govern-
ment was finally signed. According to the MoU, the NGO
would provide financial support to 8,000 households in
four districts to rebuild their houses and the government
had the right to decide the beneficiaries and oversee
grant disbursement.
Under the equality principle, these 8,000 households would
receive the same housing grant...”
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Page 9
“...large humanitarian organizations was not forthcoming.
The events of the initial days following the earthquake
were discouraging for everyone in the village.
Despite these drawbacks, the community responded rather
quickly. In the first two months, by working together the
villagers managed to build a community center, a tempo-
rary school and over 100 temporary shelters. The initial
response of our organization after the earthquake was to
provide emergency relief, which included emergency cash,
funding for the new community building, rice and grain
distribution, emergency supplies and materials, such as
fertilizers, to ensure a normal planting season. These com-
bined efforts ensured that community members were safe
in such a way that they could have positive attitudes about
rebuilding their lives.
Moving Ahead in Uncertain Times
What became clear in the first few weeks after the earth-
quake was that it would be unlikely for large INGOs to offer
support to Katunge Village. At the same time...”
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Page 11
“...procedures, delays,
and negative responses from reconstruction authorities,
discouraged many NGOs like ours from continuing to con-
tribute to the post-earthquake revitalization effort.
Two years have now passed since the earthquake hit Nepal
and since we first started to contribute to its revitalization,
we have helped to build 27 earthquake resistant houses, one
temporary school, one community center, one multi-pur-
pose education center and seven earthquake resistant
classrooms. We still have funding left to build a few more
houses, but it is difficult to plan what further steps we can
take due to the lack of government support, complicated
bureaucratic processes and changing attitudes among the
villagers who are largely affected by the shifting sands of
the State’s policy. As a result, we also cannot do additional
fundraising because of our precarious position.
Most families who received the steel frames have now
completed their houses. In the meantime, many other
families have received...”
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