Interview: Govt should come up with concrete plans to rebuild the country
Prabin Manandhar is the country director of The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Nepal and a member of High-Level Disaster Management Committee (HLDMC) of the government. The Lutheran World Federation Nepal has been involved in relief works in various earthquake-hit districts.
Sujan Dhungana of Republica talked with Manandhar on relief works carried out by LWF Nepal and the role of donor agencies in rebuilding. Excerpts:
How have development agencies like LWF involved in relief works in Nepal?
Among 116 agencies associated with Association of International NGOs in Nepal (AIN), 83 are engaged in relief operations across the country. They have been delivering immediate relief packages to victims across all affected areas. I believe that the first phase of relief operation has almost come to an end and all of them are moving toward the second phase. All these agencies are working in coordination with District Disaster Relief Committees (DDRC) in the affected districts.
LWF has also completed first phase of relief distribution works and is moving to the next phase. In the second phase, we are helping to build emergency shelters and permanent shelters for the victims. We have already reached 55,000 households with immediate and temporary reliefs. Within next six months, we aim to build permanent shelter for almost 20,000 households in the affected areas.
As someone associated with AIN, how do you think development agencies can help the government to rebuild the country?
Development agencies are here to help Nepal. The need of the country at present is spending and we are here for that. However, there is lack of understanding among government officials that we all are parts of state mechanism. Though we are a part of state mechanism, the government takes us as a competitor. We are here to coordinate with the government and help develop the country.
The government has made it mandatory for development agencies to mobilize all relief funds through the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund (PMNRF). But the fact is the government lacks spending capacity. Though we are nearing fiscal year end, majority of development budget has not been spent yet.
We believe that the government should let development agencies mobilize resources on their own.
The government is organizing donor's conference later this month. What is your view on this?
As I mentioned earlier, that government takes us as its competitor. We have not been invited at the conference because the government doesn't take us as part of civil society. I believe most of the donor agencies participating in the conference want to spend relief funds through their own channels because they all have doubts on the government's spending capacity.
We have decided to hold a separate INGO conference on June 16 to plan post-disaster actions and participation with the government agencies for reconstruction works.
How do development agencies see post-disaster role of government?
I think the government should first plan proper ways to mobilize internal resources. Secondly, it should come up with concrete plans and projects to rebuild the country and accelerate development activities. Though the disaster was devastating, it also should be taken as an opportunity to transform the country from conflict to confidence and from disaster to development.
You are vying for AIN presidency in the upcoming election. What are your agendas?
Though INGOs are one of the major contributors of development, our works have never been recognized by the government as well as general public. My first work will be to profile works of all INGOs and improve partnerships with media outlets. Similarly, government directives to development agencies are much confusing as it has kept NGOs and INGOs within the same basket. I will work with the state mechanism to clarify the directive. There is also the need to improve coordination of INGOs at local level of the government.
Source: Republica
