When the deadly earthquake of April 25, 2015 struck Nepal, donors were willing to provide as much aid as Nepal needed despite their doubts about Nepal’s ability to spend. To address concerns of the donors, the  Nepal government offered to create a National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) that would be able to fast-track procurement and spending.

A year later, the worst fears of the donors have come true. Before holding the International Conference on Nepal’s Reconstruction on June 25, 2015, the government issued an ordinance to create the NRA.

The decision turned to be masterstroke in attracting as much as $4.1 billion assistance for reconstruction from various donors, making the pledged amount nearly two third of the required amount as envisioned by Post-Disaster Risk Assessment (PDNA).

Since holding the international event, things didn’t progress as expected as political parties maneuvered to have influence in the NRA and wanted their selection as chief executive officer of the NRA.

This resulted in an expiry of the ordinance, and it took months to agree on a bill forming the authority and a whole eight months for the authority to be formed; certainly not what the donors had expected when they committed generous amounts for reconstruction in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake.

After the formation of the authority, it went on to prepare necessary policies, legal procedures and directions. Delayed staffing in the NRA also didn’t help to initiate the process. Hence, it has only just started to distribute the first installment of promised grant distribution, nearly a year after the earthquake. 

“The progress towards reconstruction has been slow so far,” said Kenechi Yokoyama, ADB Country Director for Nepal. Even after the formation of the authority, the government body is still struggling to recruit staffing—with civil servants lacking an interest in working with the authority.  “The donors’ present concern is to make the NRA fully functional and to execute an early transfer of its budget to implementing agencies”

What went wrong?

Donors have blamed the delayed formation of the authority as the main reason behind the slow progress towards reconstruction. As a result, reconstruction process started much later than anticipated and at a slower pace.    

According to the NRA, only Rs 6 billion out of an allocated Rs 74 billion has so far been released to the implementing agencies, which leaves plenty of money to be spent within the next three months. Most of the resources allocated to the NRA have been allocated from the donor’s resources. The government already signed an agreement with donors for aid worth $1.3 billion, according to the Finance Ministry.

Former Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat blamed the lack of seriousness on the part of the government towards accelerating reconstruction work and stated that it has destroyed Nepal’s credibility in the international community. “Donors will rethink about providing more assistance to Nepal in the future if our performance remains similarly pathetic,” said Mahat.

Although the government has so far blamed the delayed formation of the authority and the Indian embargo as major factors behind the slow progress in reconstruction, the main opposition party-Nepali Congress sees lack of efficiency on the part of NRA as the culprit. 

“When we were in the government, designs for houses to be rebuilt were prepared adequately. But the NRA has been unable to give any designs yet,” Mahat said. He further stated that the option of mobilizing the army and the police, who were so efficient during the rescue and relief operation after the quake, was not considered.  

On the other hand, the NRA has also failed to provide available resources to the implementing agencies in time. Particularly, failure to provide recurrent expenditure to the newly established implementing units has also caused delay in spending.  

“In some cases, we had to use our own technical assistance for the survey and design of schools,” said Yokoyama. The ADB has been concentrating its assistance in the rebuilding of schools.

NRA officials say that it was initially envisioned that the entire budget allocated for the NRA would be spent for pure reconstruction work. “We had to adjust available budget into recurrent heading so that the budget could be sent to operate the newly established offices,” said Bhisma Kumar Bhusal, assistant spokesperson at NRA.

Donors also believe that Indian blockade didn’t help accelerate reconstruction work as it was initiated before the country had a chance to recover from the deadly quake. “From a recovery standpoint, the acute shortage of fuel and construction materials, along with the government’s preoccupation with managing another set of public hardships, presented logistical difficulties and delays,” said World Bank Country manager Takuya Kamata.  

However, Nepali officials say that donors have been consistently asking them to accelerate the reconstruction work. 

Silver lining

Despite the startup delay, there is room for optimism in reconstruction, according to donors.  World Bank finds that the way the NRA moved ahead with planning, albeit slowly, could lead to successful reconstruction. 

The government has prepared the 

Post Disaster Recovery Framework (PDRF), which will be a common framework for all parts and levels of the government, national and international partners, and other stakeholders, including the affected population and will guide the planning, financing, implementation and monitoring of recovery and reconstruction.

The main reconstruction body is also gradually expanding its presence in the 14 districts worst hit by the earthquakes and it is still staffing itself and streamlining procedures to carry out its role.  “The progress is in line with similar international experiences such as in Pakistan and in Indonesia,” said Kamata. 

According to Kamata, experiences such as Haiti demonstrate what can happen when international organizations, NGOs, private foundations and the government move ahead quickly without planning and coordination. 

Haiti had received foreign aid worth $13.5 billion in the aftermath of the catastrophe from donor nations and private charities. “The results are disparities in assistance received, exclusion of affected populations, and misuse of funds. Nepal is taking steps in the right direction to carry out a successful reconstruction process.”