President Rajapaksa guides RADA to a new beginning

Speech by Shanti Fernando, the newly appointed Chief Operations Officer (COO) and Board Member of the Reconstruction and Development Agency (RADA), in Galle, at the launch of the Livelihood Development Plan for the six Tsunami affected Divisions of the Galle District.

DEVELOPMENT: The Divisional Livelihood Development Plans of the six tsunami affected divisions of the Galle district. While these plans have been developed by the district administration, the process was facilitated and coordinated by RADA, and supported by the Income Recovery Technical Assistance Programme, better known as the IRTAP Programme of ILO.

The process, as it unfolded itself at the grass roots, enjoyed the professional guidance of the Community Extension Centre of the Colombo University.

The malaise of over-centralisation in the past

The Reconstruction and Development Agency, or RADA as our institution is called, came into being with the structural change in post tsunami reconstruction and development work, that followed the advent of Mahinda Rajapaksa's Government.

Prior to the formation of RADA, the facilitation of post tsunami reconstruction on the one side, and even actual decision making with regard to district and divisional level activities on the other, was the responsibility of several centralised agencies headquartered in Colombo.

The period prior to the formation of the Rajapaksa Government was marked by the malaise of over-centralisation, in the planning and implementation of post-tsunami reconstruction work.

The district administration, the divisional secretariats, the affected communities and the local political leadership had, - if at all, - only a marginal role to play in that environment.

Structural change in post tsunami reconstruction approach

Coming as I do from a rural grass roots environment, I am proud to say that the Rajapaksa Government has given back these decision making powers to those who have to live with the consequences of their decisions; namely, to the affected communities themselves, the district and divisional administrators, and the local political leadership.

That they are the best persons to make these decisions, was borne out by the fact that in the immediate aftermath of the tsunami, it was they, together with the local temples, schools and churches, that came to the relief of the local communities, and not those decision makers who lived within the safety and comfort of distant Colombo.

RADA - its cardinal features

It was to facilitate and coordinate, guide, monitor and evaluate this bottom - up process of reconstruction that the President instituted one single agency - RADA - in place of the jumble of several centralised agencies that existed earlier. Let us therefore be clear of the two cardinal features of RADA, as defined by His Excellency:

* One: That RADA does not implement any activities on the ground, but has the responsibility to facilitate, coordinate and monitor the activities of post tsunami reconstruction.

* Two: That RADA is the one and only organization empowered to perform these tasks for the government, and no other agency or institution, - in whatever name of form, - will be called upon to replicate or duplicate these functions for the government.

Appointed very recently by the President to serve as the Chief Operations Officer of RADA, I am happy to participate in today's event where we focus on the issues and complexities of Livelihood Restoration in the Galle District.

Post tsunami reconstruction - an overview

Taking an overview of the whole gamut of post tsunami reconstruction in our country, we can notice some salient features. We proudly recognise that the government merits our commendation for having restored the physical infrastructure of the tsunami affected coast, - the roads, bridges, fishery harbours, railways, electricity, water supply and telecommunications, in double quick time following the tragedy.

The restoration of health services hardly lagged behind. The restoration of school buildings, we do admit, has been slower in some areas than we expected.

Housing reconstruction and its problems

Housing reconstruction and relocation - as we look back - has faced several problems that in turn have impeded progress.

Lack of land in certain districts; problems arising from inter-sectoral coordination necessary for developing new housing communities; failure on our side to finalise stable beneficiary lists in time; the difficulties of matching existing livelihoods with land availability for relocated housing - for example, the problematique of relocating fishermen where the only land available is several kilometers away from the sea; and finally the practice of several NGOs and INGOs of signing MOUs with pledges to construct large numbers of houses, and - to our disappointment - failing to live up to their grand promises, have been, in my view, the reasons for the gaping gap between target and achievement in the matter of housing reconstruction.

High living by some NGOs - unconscionable

On the matter of housing, communities are rightfully impatient, and often angry. And more so, when they see the NGOs and INGOs who have raised abundant funds from the developed countries for the tsunami affected, living it high, entertaining extravagantly, travelling in luxury vehicles,paying themselves astronomical salaries and lavish allowances, specially in the background of a hug human tragedy, and in the view of some observers, spending more than 40 per cent of tsunami funds on themselves, their travel and their administration.

I am only reflecting the perception, right or wrong, of the people living in the tsunami affected communities themselves.

Priority on housing

The silver lining, however, is that the President has declared that priority will be placed on Housing first, Housing second and Housing third. And I, as the COO of RADA together with my staff, join the district officials of the tsunami affected regions of our country, in pledging to the President and the people of the tsunami affected coast, that we will dedicate ourselves to ensure that all tsunami affected families entitled to housing replacement will be provided with houses, in time for the second anniversary of the tsunami, which falls on December 26 this year.

That is the task with which I was mandated when the President invited me to take the position of Chief Operations Officer (COO) of RADA hardly two weeks ago. And to help us achieve our target. The President announced a new policy that will hopefully expedite the re-housing of the tsunami victims of our tsunami ravaged coast.

Hallmarks of the President's new policy

The new policy that he has initiated, in keeping with the substance and spirit of Mahinda Chintana, replaces the older policy of directing the rehabilitation from Colombo in a rigid, bureaucratic manner through channels that were manned by persons, who were shockingly unfamiliar with rural life in our country and essentially alien to our country's cultural ethos.

The new policy orientation directs us to work side by side with the tsunami victims to re-build their lives, with empathy and concern for those affected.

This policy change also means that, unlike in the past period, we will strengthen and empower the lower levels of the administration that interface between the government and the tsunami affected people, in particular the district and divisional level officers of the government.

It also means that, unlike in the past period, we will welcome the local political leadership to be active stakeholders in the post tsunami process of rehabilitation.

A change in vision, a change in direction, a change in attitude, a change in perspective and a radical change in the organisational culture of the relevant institutions, a total change in the orientation of post tsunami rehabilitation activity, is what His Excellency the President has directed.

New Options

Many are the changes in post tsunami rehabilitation policy that the President has made in concrete terms. Let me confine myself to mention just one or two of them.

For those living in the protected buffer zone, the policy was for the government to provide them with land and houses. Progress, in some districts was painfully slow.

This was either in districts where land was not available; or where people were offered land and houses far away from their sources of livelihood.

It is also no secret that in some areas, the houses constructed for the affected families by certain NGOs, InGOs and individual donors were of such poor quality or of unacceptable design that the affected families were not interested in occupying them.

On the directive the President, RADA will now be offering two more options for families living in the protected buffer zone of the Colombo and Ampara Districts.

They can now either buy land at any place of their choice for which they will be given Rs. 250,000 by the government in the case of Colombo and Rs. 150,000 in the case of Ampara, and then build their own house on their own design, for which they will get another Rs. 250,000 from the government and a further minimum sum of Rs. 250,000 from a non governmental agency.

Or else they could design and build their own house for which they will be provided with not less than Rs. 500,000 as above, on a land provided to them by the government.

Learning from Hambantota

I think it is pertinent to recount that this particular policy orientation flows out of the President's own experience when he was Prime Minister, with post tsunami rehabilitation in his own Hambantota District.

Within months of the tsunami in that district, affected families in the tsunami ravaged village of Mawella were invited to design and build their own houses on lands identified by them, in a very popular and successful project supported by the Italian Government through Italian Cooperation (IC).

It was in the Hambantota District that I too cut my teeth in post tsunami rehabilitation work under the guidance of the then Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on the one side, and of my husband Sunimal, the then Prime Minister's Advisor on the other.

Colombo District - re-location

I am proud to announce that on the basis of these new options framed by the President, in the months of August and September 2006, we will be re-settling 1189 families of the Colombo District where non availability of land for re-locating the affected families is most acute.

While this step constitutes a new beginning in the post tsunami buffer zone re-location drive of RADA, it is also pertinent to mention that under the guidance of the President, parallel steps are being taken to address what remains of the problem in the other districts as well, with immediate focus on the Ampara and Trincomalee Districts.

Restoration of livelihoods

Housing and Livelihoods are closely connected. What is the point of a house if the family has no proper income? True, the economic mainstay of the area, namely the small scale fishery, has been more or less fully restored largely by government, and also with the help of non government agencies who helped especially in the provision of boats and gear - through quite often of doubtful quality.

But what about those whose livelihood was based on providing services to the tourist sector? What about the large numbers of small enterprises that were swept away by the waves? What about the small scale cinnamon growers? What about the women coir producers who were badly affected? How about the large number of women whose livelihood derived from the processing of fish, were destroyed?

Then, what about the women lace producers and those who derived an income from stitching clothes for tourists and running small tourist boutiques? And what about the micro, mini and small scale services that once dotted the coastal landscape?

The restoration where possible, and re-mapping where necessary, of this vast mosaic of coastal livelihoods is the function of the Livelihood Development Plans that are being presented this morning.

The Plans have 'come up' from the grassroots with the participation of the affected communities and the collaboration of the relevant district and divisional level stakeholders.

An agreed livelihood strategy

I look forward to seeing the Plans you are presenting today. As anyone familiar with our coastal districts will confirm. Livelihood Development outside the fisheries sector is at best an uphill task. It is not a simile task of replacing equipment destroyed by the tsunami, as some would believe.

Markets that were there before the tsunami for the goods and services that were offered by the tsunami affected households, have changed with the tsunami.

In many cases, the complex channels through which raw materials and working capital were accessed, too, have been socially disrupted. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Unfortunately a Livelihood Development Strategy outside the marine fishery has not yet been developed in our country. A role if any for credit institutions has hardly been addressed. In the absence of a clear policy and strategy agreed by all, well intentioned INGOs and NGOs have had free play to intervene in this sector with a 'patch work' of activities and interventions.

Some of these interventions - interesting by themselves - have been in contradiction with one another. All in all, they have borne few results and in some areas have made the ground situation even more complicated than before.

The call for support

It is against this background that I look forward to seeing the Plans as we sit together - communities, government officers, professionals, donors, NGOs, INGOs, the Corporate Sector including the Chambers of Commerce and banks, and facilitators like ourselves in RADA, to support and complement each other in trying to transform the 'Plans' into 'Action'.

So let us share responsibilities, pool our skills and resources, join hands and complement each other, to help the affected people of the six tsunami affected divisions of the district to realise the Livelihood Development Plans that they have prepared through this participatory process of planning.