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by Nicola Palmer

Perhaps the single strongest driving factor in Sri Lanka's current process toward peace is the marked determination by both sides to reap the economic benefits of "no war". The well-used term 'peace dividend' has ensured abroad expectation of tangible, measurable improvements in economic well-being, creating an expectation that humanitarian assistance can provide an important peace-building force.

While this approach to building a sustainable peace is fraught with problems, its momentum, impact and the international involvement it brings is unlikely to diminish. Donor driven aid and political dialogue seem inextricably linked, transforming humanitarian concerns felt on the ground into the language of global economics.

The impact of this proliferation of stakeholders in both the Sri Lankan peace process and the country's long-term development on local actors could be seen as a double-edged sword. Civil society has been at once invigorating and alienated from some of the initiatives that promise to shape Sri Lanka's future. Given the rationalization of sustainable peace through development, what are the challenges and opportunities for civil society to collaborate in the reconstruction and development of the NE?

Assessing the NE

The Needs Assessment carried out by the UN, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank (WB) concentrated on a pre-formulated matrix of key subjects for assessment. Each subject was agency specific. For example, the ADB assessed heavy infrastructure, the World Bank, housing; and UNICEF and the WB, education. The frantic process saw each agency group formulating specific terms of reference for their area of assessment as well as attempting an overall adherence to generic terms for the project in its entirety.

The basic tenet of this generic understanding of the needs assessment was to draw on existing knowledge at local level through fieldwork, in collaboration with local GoSL, LTTE, Muslim community leaders, civil society and private stakeholders.

Undoubtedly the process of assessment by multi-lateral agencies was expansive, ambitious in scope and limited in its ability to measure the dynamics at work in the NE. It also, necessarily had to spring from the overall economic vision espoused by these agencies in order to serve as a pledging document for the much-touted Tokyo Donor's Conference in June. As such the Needs Assessment of the NE sought consultation around this vision, which limited the space for alternative voices in this process.

Opportunities

Seen in this light, it is not surprising that the assessment appears to fall short of being satisfactory in several areas. In initial validation exercises any emphasis on cross-cutting themes is fragmented in its concentration on sectoral assessment. Attention to gender dynamics is at best tokenistic. Concentration on a commitment to fundamental civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights is markedly lacking. And an overall appreciation of the complex dynamics of Sri Lanka's conflict does not appear in many of the technical assessments.

Similarly reconciliation as a theme is not mainstreamed through the ideology surrounding humanitarian assistance, whilst ideal of building local capacity for sustainable development is also ill-served. The question of SIHRN's capacity to both implement humanitarian assistance and function as a feedback and accountability mechanism for the World Bank begs more questions than the Needs Assessment was mandated to answer.

Yet the delivery of donor pledged money undoubtedly requires a radical shake-up of existing, centralized structures and a radical approach to bridging the gap between all political stakeholders. Tackling and debating question on implementation of humanitarian assistance through building structures of local governance demand much more attention from all key actors.

It is on these cross-cutting themes that undercut the development of health, agriculture, water and sanitation, housing, and heavy infrastructure that civil society actors have particular added value. These themes also ultimately inform the resettlement and protection of vulnerable groups and the development of livelihoods. Without attention by local stakeholders at both a micro and macro-development level the humanitarian consequences for Sri Lanka of this kind of development driven peace remain insufficiently explored. Assessing needs may have begun in earnest but it is essential that it continue, with a view to developing a socio-economic vision for a federal Sri Lanka through a negotiated settlement.

The Needs Assessment of the NE has brought to the forefront the politicisation of the entire process of providing relief to, and rehabilitation and reconstruction of the NE. It has effectively highlighted some of the wider concerns in developing a socio-economic vision to help ensure Sri Lanka's peaceful future.

The meeting point at which the views of the multilateral agencies, the bi-lateral donors and the different political ideologies of the negotiating parties come together ahead of Tokyo, holds the potential for one of the hardest challenges the peace process has yet to face, whilst also providing an opportunity to break new ground in the search for negotiated settlement.

The dynamics of the current peace process has provided an inextricable link between the political and the humanitarian, multiplying the stakeholders involved and insisting that global economic reality be faced.

The space and need for this process to contain the voice of civil society is without question. Sri Lanka, in its steps towards sustainable peace, remains in need.

Please send your comments to Malathi Thalgodapitiya on [email protected].

[Nicola Plamer is a Programme Officer at the Berghot Foundation for Conflict Studies Sri Lanka Office. The views expressed in this articles are those of the author] (Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies).

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