Aceh rebuilding too clumsy, uncoordinated

Aceh rebuilding too clumsy, uncoordinated

Aguswandi, Banda Aceh

Ten months after the tsunami, and six months after the
Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency (BRR) was established,
the reconstruction of Aceh is still in trouble. I am not talking
here about the pace of reconstruction. Frequent complaints around
this issue only beg the question "Compared to what?" My concern
here is rather about information and coordination. Both are very
weak areas, and something needs to be done urgently to address
these and save the reconstruction.

On the information front, for agencies working to coordinate
their reconstruction work, including many UN agencies, there is
simply no accurate, reliable information about many things in
Aceh -- despite it being already 10 months since the tsunami.
Some limited data is available, but it is limited in reliability,
often differs between agencies, or is simply inadequate.

This inevitably impacts on coordination between groups working
in Aceh at the moment. Do we know how a house, a school or other
services are built in selected locations at the moment? No one
here seems to. If there are proper assessments and planning and
coordination it must be internal, because from the outside it
looks very much like organizations' simply think "we should build
this here", and then do it.

Regarding information needed by the affected population, the
picture is even worse. Recent Public Information Working Group-
UNDP research showed that of 82 communities surveyed across 12
districts, just 7 percent of the community felt very informed,
and a further 15 percent "sufficiently" informed. The majority
are simply confused about, for example, why certain projects
stop, who they should talk to about housing, and what BRR is and
what it does.

Quick action to reconstruct the infrastructure and services of
Aceh is absolutely necessary; people need it. But many Acehnese
need a sense of certainty first; an understanding of what the
future holds. If they can have this certainty people are far more
willing to wait for the results. And this certainty can only come
from information.

With regards to BRR, it did -- in the days of its initial
establishment -- try to gather information, and it tried to get
groups to coordinate. It asked organizations to register what
they were doing in Aceh, and where. It asked about budgets and
timeliness. But, as a director of one funding agency explained to
me, he and his staff spent three full days filling in the forms,
submitted them to the BRR, and then heard nothing whatsoever back
from the BRR. There was no feedback, no permission or refusal,
and no information about whether their projected projects were
overlapping with other organizations.

Coordination and information are key in any reconstruction
process, and critical in the Aceh context. With such a massive
geographical area, such logistical and communication challenges,
and with so many hundreds of actors here, how on earth are you
going to reconstruct Aceh without coordination and information?
Without being provocative, I would like to suggest that everyone
stop working and building for, say, a single month to solve these
two critical issues before they continue their work. This might
be extreme, but in the long term it would be worth it. The worst
of the emergency is over, and with food and basic shelter in
place, the focus has to be on sustainable rebuilding.

Looking at the numbers of the reconstruction process and the
situation seems quite positive. We have 10,119 housing units
built, 13,804 houses under (re)construction, 119 schools built
and 132 health facilities completed. But this figure only shows
the quantity of the reconstruction, and does not necessarily
reflect quality. Quality will be seen in coverage that is in line
with population needs, other organizations' work areas, and in a
harmonious working relationship between reconstruction actors and
their beneficiaries, and this will not happen until coordination
and information flows are visible and functional.

The BRR is in a position to improve this situation by actively
pursuing information. Not only for its own purposes, but so that
it can be drawn on by the public at large, agencies working in
reconstruction and rehabilitation, and the relevant government
bodies. So far the BRR has instead become increasingly weak,
functioning as a consultative agency more than as a coordinating
agency. Given that the BRR holds ministerial level authority, and
has the capacity to eliminate bureaucratic or organizational
laziness and undertake autonomous planning and delivery, this is
a potentially tragic waste.

But is it really the only one to blame? I think all of us are
responsible here. Regardless, the most important question here is
rather how can we improve the current situation? Kuntoro, the
chairman of the BRR, has said that the reconstruction of Aceh is
in all our hands, and I agree. It is time now for the Indonesian
government, the UN and many other agencies working in Aceh to
improve their work.

The writer is a human rights advocate. He is currently based
in Aceh and can be contacted at agus_smur@hotmail.com.