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.