ectors – negotiations are currently underway.
The Tsunami, Aid, Debt Relief and Conditionality
Previously fragile local markets in many of the affected countries, made even more so by the tsunami, must not be forced open by economic conditions attached to aid and any subsequent debt cancellation.
Any aid and debt relief provided should not come with conditions related to trade liberalisation. Indonesia in particular has suffered from trade liberalisation conditionality attached to previous IMF programmes and this should not be repeated. Rural services and rural poverty, and therefore vulnerability, in Sri Lanka have also been detrimentally impacted from reductions in support to farmers and increasing charges on basic services.
Infrastructure and the provision of public utilities will have been devastated by the tsunami. Priority should be given to tackling these (supply-side) constraints to facilitate the trade of products and services onto local, national and international markets, where appropriate.
In 2003, the USA collected US$ 244 million from Sri Lanka's sales of textiles and clothing and US$426 million from Indonesia's. The figures for the EU are US$77 million and US$180 million respectively (Oxfam estimates).
14 July 2006
The Tsunami Evaluation Coalition (TEC) is critical of the international rebuilding effort that often weakened local capacities yet it confirmed that most of the immediate relief was provided by the local population.
Some press reports have highlighted these failings - e.g. the Guardian "Tsunami relief swept locals aside, study finds" http://www.guardian.co.uk/tsunami/story/0,,1820956,00.html and the Daily Telegraph "Tsunami charities 'swept locals aside in rush to spend cash' " http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/07/15/waid15.xml
This confirms what many have observed on the ground. These concerns were already being voiced by local coastal communities and their organisations within a few weeks of the disaster
and yet little was done about it
In April 2005, Civil Society Organisations and social movements presented the Colombo Statement on A People’s Process for Post-Tsunami Rebuilding: “ We reaffirm the fundamental principle for post-tsunami rebuilding: the need for people, particularly the affected people, to be the owners and therefore the designers and decision makers of the process of rebuilding." http://www.icsf.net/jsp/english/flashnews/rehabDocs/sta0101.pdf
The International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) meeting in Jan 2006 provided a useful summary of experiences especially as they related to coastal fisheries communities http://www.icsf.net/jsp/english/pubPages/proceedings/pros08.jsp . It concluded, among other points, that aid efforts must strengthen local institutions and their capacity.
There is still time and significant resources are still available to right some wrongs but, more so, to work with local coastal communities, artisanal fisherfolk and their organisations to secure a future that is better than before the tsunami struck.
Chair, UK Food Group
17 July 2006
The TEC secretariat is based in London. It is an international consortium managed by INGOs and UN organisations. There are links on the website to NGOs' own evaluations http://www.tsunami-evaluation.org/ . Below are selected quotes from the TEC report with links to relevant sections.
TEC REPORT – selected extracts
Foreword by Bill Clinton in which he summarises his reading of the report (my emphases)
“To my mind, the overriding messages of this report are three-fold:
First, we must do better at utilizing and working alongside local structures. With nothing but good intentions, the international community descends into crisis situations in enormous numbers and its activities too often leave the very communities we are there to help on the sidelines. Local structures are already in place and more often than not the 'first responders' to a crisis. The way the international community goes about providing relief and recovery assistance must actively strengthen, not undermine, these local act