The Nepal Earthquake Housing Reconstruction Project,
supported with $700 million in financing from the International Development
Association (IDA), is working to help more than 330,000 homeowners from poor
rural households in 32 affected districts of Nepal rebuild their homes using
disaster resilient construction techniques and materials. The project has also
introduced a culture of resilient construction in the country through policies,
strengthening institutional capacity, and training engineers and masons.
Challenge
On April 25, 2015, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck central
Nepal followed less than one month later by 7.3 magnitude earthquake. Together,
these earthquakes caused more than 8,700 deaths and some 25,000 injuries. A Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA),
supported by the World Bank and other development partners, estimated the physical
damage from the earthquake to be around $7 billion, with total recovery
financing needs of about $6.7 billion.
The
largest need identified in the PDNA was housing, accounting for $3.27 billion
or almost half of the total reconstruction needs. The Government of Nepal
secured $4.1 billion in pledges at the International Conference on Nepal’s
Reconstruction for post-earthquake recovery and reconstruction. The World Bank
pledged $500 million for Nepal’s housing reconstruction and immediately
processed $200 million Earthquake Housing Reconstruction Project in 2015.
The World Bank approved additional financing of $300 million in December 2017
and a second round of additional financing of $200 million in January 2020 from
the International Development Association (IDA).
Approach
The Earthquake Housing Reconstruction Project
(EHRP) takes an owner-driven approach to housing reconstruction – homeowners
themselves make any decisions related to the reconstruction of their homes. The
project provides technical assistance to ensure that homeowners know about
resilient reconstruction methods that can withstand natural disasters to ensure
that the reconstructed houses comply with technical reconstruction
specifications and guidelines. The EHRP project has also helped to establish a
culture of resilient construction practices by building capacity of engineers
and masons.
The project provides housing grants to
homeowners of Nepalese Rupees (NPR) 300,000 (about $3,000) in three tranches.
The first tranche of NPR 50,000 is released to eligible homeowners upon signing
a participation agreement. The second tranche of NPR 150,000 and third tranche
of NPR 100,000 are released upon satisfactory completion of first level of the
home and the roof of the home, respectively, when they are deemed to comply
with technical construction guidelines upon inspection and certification of
field engineers.
Technology has been successfully embedded
throughout the project activities to ensure efficiency, transparency and
accountability. For example, the initial Earthquake Housing Damage
Characteristics Survey was conducted using a tablet-based application and the
data set was used to identify eligible beneficiaries. During implementation,
the participation agreement signed by each eligible beneficiary is digitized
and uploaded to a digital management information system (MIS). Inspection of
rehabilitated houses by field engineers is carried-out on a mobile/tablet-based
inspection application and the physical inspection sheets are signed off by both
beneficiaries and engineers and then digitized. The MIS also maintains the
banking information to facilitate the payment of grants to project
beneficiaries, as well as a grievance redress function.
Results
The Earthquake Housing Reconstruction Project,
which focused on promoting resilient construction practices, empowering women,
leaving no one behind, promoting good governance, and supporting overall
economic development, has helped achieve the following results between
2015-2020:
·
As of September 2020,
211,985 resilient houses (out of the project target of 335,700) have been
reconstructed with full/partial housing grant support from IDA credits.
Similarly, 3,766 houses have been reconstructed with support from a Multi-Donor
Trust Fund (MDTF) grant.
·
The project has
introduced a culture of resilient construction in the country by building
institutions and policies and by strengthening institutional capacity and the
capacity of government officials, engineers and masons. And as the project is
owner-driven, project beneficiaries are now aware of safety parameters of
houses in rural communities.
·
Of the 755 masons
employed by the project, 20 percent are women. Nationwide, 8 percent of the
more than 3,000 engineers employed for housing reconstruction are women. This
is notable as masonry is seen as a predominantly male occupation.
·
More than 70 percent
of project beneficiaries opened bank accounts to receive project grants. Most
had never had a bank account before and of these accounts, 30 percent were
opened by women.
·
In the 11
most-affected districts, housing reconstruction has generated an estimated
economic value equivalent to NPR 454 billion ($3.76 billion), illustrating the
contribution of project to stimulating economic activities and creating jobs.
Bank Group
Contribution
At the request of the Government of Nepal, the
International Development Association (IDA) provided $200 million in emergency
financing in 2015 for reconstruction of private houses through the Earthquake Housing
Reconstruction Project. This financing also supported the design of an overall
umbrella housing reconstruction program. The government subsequently
requested an additional $500 million in additional financing in 2018, bringing
the total IDA financing for the project to $700 million.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown,
the project was restructured to allow substantial cashflow to respond to
COVID-19 recovery needs. This enabled the project to disburse about $116
million in June 2020, which significantly contributed to the government’s
Treasury. The World Bank is also administering a $34.4 million Multi Donor
Trust Fund of which $15 million is provided through a grant that the government
is managing.
Partners
The Earthquake Housing Reconstruction Project
is implemented by the Government of Nepal, through its National Reconstruction
Authority. The World Bank also administers a multi-donor trust fund, which
enabled other development partners to pool resources for foundational works
such as the Earthquake Housing Damage Characteristics survey. The MDTF includes
contributions from the governments of Canada ($11.59 million), Switzerland
($7.24 million), the United Kingdom ($6.05 million), and the United States
($9.60 million). The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has provided
parallel financing of $100 million and India is providing parallel financing of
$150 million – both development partners are following the EHRP project design.
Moving Forward
The Project aims to enhance the government’s
ability to improve long-term disaster resilience through a number of additional
activities under both IDA and MDTF financing. To support the Government of
Nepal’s transition to federalism, the project is planning to build the disaster
risk management capacity of 282 local governments in 32 earthquake-affected
districts and transfer the records of the EHRP project to local governments by
December 2021 so that the project can be administered at the local level. Through
a MDTF grant the project aims to strengthen the institutional capacity of
National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA), which was
established in early 2020. NDRRMA is a permanent institution responsible for
coordinating Disaster Risk Reduction and Management.
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