@article{fb32acfce46f43b384740fc15567128e,
title = "When participation entrenches authoritarian practice: Ethnographic investigations of post-disaster governance",
abstract = "How does everyday politics of participation manifest in post-disaster contexts? Can disaster prompt a political system to shift to more inclusive, open, and participatory governance of disaster? In this article, we draw on our ethnographic work in the Philippines in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 and Nepal after the Gorkha Earthquake in 2015 to explore these questions. Our comparative ethnographic analysis shows that attempts at institutionalising participation served to further entrench authoritarian practices rather than promote citizen voice and government accountability. Post-disaster policies that invoke people's participation, we argue, tend to (a) control rather than democratise information; (b) silence rather than promote citizen voice; (c) distort rather than respond to grievances. Our findings call for a reorientation of understanding of participation and accountability in post-disaster governance. Decision-makers, not merely disaster-affected communities, deserve to be the focus area of scholarly attention and policy reform, if community-led reconstruction agenda is to be realised in practice. Our conclusion has implications for the study and practice of democratic governance of disasters in unequal societies prone to disasters.",
keywords = "Disaster, Ethnography, Governance, Nepal, Participation, The Philippines",
author = "Nimesh Dhungana and Nicole Curato",
note = "Funding Information: Ethnographic evidence from Sankhu (Nepal) came in the form of fieldnotes from participant observation of government-induced public hearings, reconstruction-related workshops, together with attendance of meetings organised by the Housing Reconstruction and Recovery Platform (HRRP) in Kathmandu. The meetings were observed in their natural context, and the researcher had no control over the agenda or the proceeding of the meetings. In addition, semi-structured interviews, comprising 13 policymakers, high-level public officials, or politicians in Kathmandu, and 8 local level officials and community members from Sankhu, were conducted. Interviewees were recruited using a combination of purposive and referential sampling techniques. Interview transcripts and field notes were complemented by documentary evidence, including recovery and reconstruction-related policy and legislative measures, select minutes from some of the reconstruction meetings organised by HRRP, government and donor reports published after the earthquake, and participation and accountability-related documents retrieved from the local government bodies. The LSE Research Ethics Committee granted the ethical approval for the Nepal study. Interviews were conducted after providing background information about the project and upon securing the informed consent.Ethnographic evidence from Sankhu in Nepal reveals a similar experience with the Philippines' in terms of unequal and controlled flow of information. As part of the immediate response to the disaster, the Government of Nepal conducted ?rapid needs assessment? of the situation that, in turn, tried to assure the public of accountable and participatory approach to post-disaster governance [47]. This, among other things, involved commitment towards participation of women and marginalised groups in housing reconstruction, together with ?setting up grievance redress forums at the local level, which will allow citizens to lodge their complaints formally and get a satisfying response and redress? [47]. As talks of long-term reconstruction took root, under the auspices of the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA), a national body set up in December 2015 to oversee the reconstruction efforts, the focus shifted back to the top-down model of reconstruction that was devoid of transparency and participation. A key manifestation of such opaque and top-down mode of reconstruction was the NRA's declaration of 200,000 Nepali Rupees (NPR) (approximately 1800 USD),1 to be distributed to qualified households as a form of housing grant.In Sankhu (Nepal), unlike in Tacloban (the Philippines), the issue was further compounded by lack of elected representatives at the local level. Their absence meant that affected communities had to rely on either local government officials or unelected political leaders for information about the NRA's decisions. Amidst the growing centralisation of post-disaster reconstruction, the local authorities and political leaders, in turn, had little to no formal authority in influencing policy decisions. In the wake of the disaster, Sankhu also saw the emergence of new civil society actors claiming to represent and defend the interest of Sankhu. Several of these civil society actors were insistent on pressuring the NRA to adopt a community-based model of reconstruction, which would uphold the ?historical and cultural identity? of Sankhu, as one activist put it. Like in Tacloban, some activists in Sankhu were able to organise what was called ?interaction programmes? at the local level that often saw participation of the senior NRA officials, together with local authorities and politicians. While such meetings were well-intended and vital in drawing the NRA officials and local authorities' attention to the urgent and longer-term reconstruction needs of Sankhu, they were hardly successful in securing clear-cut commitment frm the NRA regarding housing reconstruction that was responsive to the needs of the local communities. In fact, the NRA officials would use such meetings to share prior decisions surrounding eligibility determination for individual housing assistance, or to secure community ownership and support to the vision of ?Integrated Reconstruction?.In Nepal, one idea that the authorities sought to implement was the uniformity and standardisation in delivery of cash assistance for housing reconstruction. Both the NRA, and the donor communities providing much-needed funds for the reconstruction concurred that the cash assistance of NPR 15,000 per household, given as an immediate cash assistance to build temporary shelters, was widely misused by the ?fake? households. A new Census, therefore, was to be carried out, to ensure an evidence-based and standardised model of housing assistance. It was particularly aimed at tackling the risk of ?inflated households?, together with strong attention to self-monitoring of the grant, whereby the financial discipline in the use of grants is secured. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 Elsevier Ltd Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.",
year = "2021",
month = jun,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102159",
language = "English",
volume = "59",
pages = "1--11",
journal = "International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction",
issn = "2212-4209",
publisher = "Elsevier Limited",
}