MAY 2014

P.18 THE AQUINOINTERVIEW The things that are happening to my country and to other parts of the world are not in the norm. We now have to consider revising our idea of the norm. PHILIPPINES PRESIDENT BENIGNO AQUINO III

A publication of the ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK PLUS ADB’s TAKEHIKO NAKAO ON DISASTER PROOFING ASIA P.34

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ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK Inside

MAY 2014

P.18 SPECIAL REPORT THE AQUINOINTERVIEW The things that are happening to my country and to other parts of the world are not in the norm. We now have to consider revising our idea of the norm. PHILIPPINES PRESIDENT BENIGNO AQUINO III PLUS ADB’s TAKEHIKO NAKAO ON DISASTER PROOFING ASIA P.32 A publication of the ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK From Aceh to Tacloban 31 Aid Watch A rising tide of disasters has 8 What have we learned from a spurred a sharper focus on

FROM decade of disaster? how aid is used ACEH TO TACLOBAN 17 Taking Cover 34 Opinion: Asia needs more protection against Takehiko Nakao the financial cost of disaster ADB President LESSONS says disaster FROM A DECADE OF DISASTER Cover Photos : Gerhard Joren (Tacloban; color); Veejay Villafranca risk will check (Tacloban; black and white); Getty Images (Aquino) Asia’s growth

32 We cannot allow the cycle of destruction and reconstruction to continue by rebuilding communities in the exact same manner. —Philippines President Benigno Aquino III

31 AID WATCH 18 Q&A

May 2014 Development Asia 1 PUBLISHER’S NOTE

A publication of the ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK

PUBLISHER Satinder Bindra DIRECTOR, UNIT HEAD, EXTERNAL RELATIONS PUBLISHING RACE Omana Nair Matthew Howells EDITORIAL ADVISORS Charlotte Benson, Ramesh Subramaniam, WooChong Um

AGAINST TIME EDITOR IN CHIEF Andrew Perrin SENIOR EDITOR John Larkin NATURAL DISASTERS ARE frequent and unwelcome visitors to Asia. ASSOCIATE EDITOR Nowhere else does nature’s fury strike with such frightening regularity, Jenina Alli DESIGN wiping out families, destroying homes and livelihoods, and leaving broken Cleone Baradas communities in its wake. PRODUCTION MANAGER Miguel Paulino Disasters like Typhoon Haiyan, which hit the Philippines last November, COPY EDITORS radiate lasting hardship. More than 5,000 lives were tragically lost and Leo Magno, Tuesday Soriano many more people left homeless. But jobs were also lost; businesses went bankrupt; schooling missed; and vast national economic resources diverted Development Asia features development issues important to Asia and the Pacific. to the recovery effort. It can take years for communities and economies It is published twice a year by the Asian to rebuild. Development Bank (ADB). The views expressed in this magazine are those of the Reducing this toll is one of our region’s greatest challenges. Much has authors and do not reflect the views and policies of ADB. Use of the term “country” does not been done, since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, to integrate disaster imply any judgment by the authors or ADB as to safeguards into national economic plans. We’re privileged to have the legal or other status of any territorial entity. President Benigno Aquino III of the Philippines give his perspective on Advertising of any specific product, what else needs to happen to reduce risks in one of Asia’s most disaster- process, service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, in this publication affected countries. ADB President Takehiko Nakao also provides exclusive does not constitute or imply ADB’s insights into how the region’s economic growth could suffer unless it acts endorsement, recommendation, or favoring of the product or the entity thereof. collectively on disaster risk. Disaster does not discriminate among its victims. Increasingly, Asia’s poor WRITE TO US are in its path as they throng to the vulnerable margins of cities. Extreme Send your feedback to the editor at weather linked to climate change adds another risk factor. In this issue of [email protected] Development Asia, we show that Asia is in a race against time to deal with ADVERTISING To advertise in Development Asia, contact this threat. I hope you find our analysis illuminating and thought provoking. [email protected] SUBSCRIPTIONS Contact [email protected] REPRINTS Material published in Development Asia and on www.development.asia, including articles, photos, graphics, and other content, is copyrighted. Material may not be reproduced, republished, or redistributed without written permission of Development Asia. For reprint permission, please contact editor@ development.asia. Photographs not owned by ADB require permission from the copyright holder for reprinting. Satinder Bindra PUBLISHER Asian Development Bank 6 ADB Avenue, Mandaluyong City 1550 Metro Manila, Philippines www.adb.org Note: In this publication, "$" refers to US dollars Printed on recycled paper © 2014 Asian Development Bank ISSN 1998-7528

2 www.development.asia CONTRIBUTORS

SAAD HAMMADI is a Bangladeshi Inside journalist based in Dhaka who covers social, economic, and political developments for international publications including The Guardian and The Christian Science Monitor. Saad takes a special interest in covering the country’s progress on development 38 challenges. He is also an editor for the FEATURES weekend supplement of leading national daily, New Age. On p.38, Saad writes Bride Price about a cash transfer program to keep How girls in Bangladesh Bangladeshi girls in school. are studying harder and marrying later SUNSHINE LICHAUCO 44 47 Missing Links DE LEON Accounting for Nature Why Asia’s was one of the few Putting a price on the production chains international journalists need more women natural environment in the Philippines when Typhoon Haiyan hit last November. Her network of local DEPARTMENTS contacts proved invaluable as foreign news outlets clamored for news. Sunshine 4 Situation Report has worked for several years as a freelance 6 WebLog journalist in the Philippines, writing for 37 Review publications including The Guardian and 53 Development CNN.com, and producing for television Agenda and radio. Her story on the Philippines’ FAiTH initiative can be found on p.34.

MOHAMMAD RAKIBUL HASAN is a documentary photographer based in Bangladesh. His work focuses on development, social, and environmental issues, and has appeared in numerous international magazines and been exhibited in several countries. He has been nominated for the UNICEF Photo of the Year, and shortlisted in the Sony World Photography Awards. Hasan studied film and video at the University of Sydney, and photojournalism on scholarship at the Konrad Adenauer Asian Center for Journalism, Ateneo De Manila University, in the Philippines. His work 54 appears on p.54. Black & White

May 2014 Development Asia 3 SITUATION REPORT

EMPOWERING MYANMAR Myanmar is in the early throes of are emerging. an economic transformation. The ADB extended a economy is growing, but electricity $60 million loan shortages are emerging as an to Myanmar last obstacle to further growth. September to Only 28% of Myanmar’s 60 million improve electricity people have access to electricity, distribution for with just one in five households nearly 500,000 linked to a leaky power grid. In residents. The Yangon, less than three-quarters of World Bank is residents have electricity. Blackouts supporting the are a fact of life, forcing many to rely construction of a modern power scale private power projects not on noisy power generators. plant at Mon State in the east. The connected to the national electricity Doubling electricity output government has invited foreign and grid. The measures may pave the way over the next 5 years would only local private firms to set up hydro for further vital reforms to enhance meet today’s needs, according and thermal power plants. the effectiveness of the power sector to New Energy Architecture: But perhaps the most far- such as unbundling of generation, Myanmar, a report by the World reaching shift is ADB’s partnering transmission, and distribution. Economic Forum in collaboration with the Government of Norway to Jong Inn Kim, ADB’s lead energy with Accenture and the Asian update electricity sector regulations specialist, says the new rules are Development Bank (ADB). This dating back to the 1980s. A draft of needed “to develop the industry would still fall far short of future the new law mandates an electricity and deliver electricity to the vast needs expected to rise by 12% a year. regulatory body to establish number of citizens who currently The needs are stark, but solutions clear policies, and permits small- go without.”

Ganga Kumari, 7, is scheduled for CROWDFUNDING CARE plastic surgery treatment of her severe burns after 32 donors donated Surgeons at Bayalpata Hospital $1,415. The successful foot surgery of in remote western Nepal are Dammara, a 26-year-old mother-of- busier than ever. They performed three, was made possible by a single nearly 100 extra surgeries last donor who contributed $965. year—all funded by clicks of a “Without doubt, this has been life- computer mouse. saving,” Nyaya’s executive director Bayalpata—a public hospital Mark Arnoldy tells Development managed since 2006 by Nyaya Asia. “Most patients for whom we Health, a nongovernment crowdfund care wouldn’t otherwise organization based in the United This approach is called have had access to treatment.” States (US)—treats 50,000 patients crowdfunding, and Nyaya (“justice” Even so, poor patients can annually; all of whom are residents of in Nepali) believes it is among the be reluctant to leave home for surrounding districts who sometimes first organizations to use such an treatment due to work or family travel long distances for treatment. approach for rural referral care. demands. Some die despite receiving Nyaya has partnered with the Through Watsi, 183 patients have care. Many survive, however, Government of Nepal to address been fully funded with a total of and the crowdfunding model has the country’s shortage of health care $178,840 (as of April 2014), while enabled Nyaya to build referral services. It has an intense focus on nearly $23,000 raised through relationships with several city innovation, and has teamed up with Kangu has provided safe births for hospitals across Nepal. US companies Watsi and Kangu 65 women. “We see enormous room for to fund rural referral treatment Patient profiles are placed online, growth in Nepal,” says Arnoldy. “And (where patients are sent to other and donors can give as little or as we’re sharing our experience with facilities for follow-up care) and safe much as they like—receiving e-mail other organizations so they can build pregnancy and delivery care. updates on their patient’s status. referral care in their countries. ” PHOTOS: GETTY (EMPOWERING MYANMAR), CORBIS (WEIGHTY ISSUES, CYCLE OF VIOLENCE) CORBIS (WEIGHTY OF VIOLENCE) ISSUES, CYCLE GETTY (EMPOWERING MYANMAR), PHOTOS: CLEONE BARADAS ILLUSTRATION:

4 www.development.asia between 1980 and 2008. Some paradox is due to rising incomes WEIGHTY ISSUES 20% of Asia’s adult population is in the developing world, greater Many Asians are going hungry; yet a overweight, up from 12% in 1980. availability of processed foods, and rising number are eating too much While this prevalence is lower less active lifestyles. for their own good. In fact, says the than that in the rest of the world, Keats says this trend is likely Overseas Development Institute the trends are worrying. “Indicators to continue unless governments (ODI), the number of overweight or of unhealthy eating—(being) take stronger measures against obese Asians tripled to 500 million overweight and obesity—are rising in unhealthy eating. Asia,” ODI research officer Sharada The sheer diversity of Asian Keats tells Development Asia. diets suggests a fatty future is In the People’s Republic of China not inevitable. (PRC), the daily food plate has more Thais eat more fruit than animal than doubled in size to 2,100 grams products. Most of India’s animal over the past 50 years, with a tenfold product consumption comes in increase in consumption of animal the form of milk rather than meat. products like meat. While this isn’t And in Southeast Asia, seafood all bad, since 1980, the incidence consumption has soared, says of overweight and obese people in Keats, owing not only to growth in the PRC has doubled to 25% of the capture fisheries, but also to the rise adult population. of aquaculture. In its Future Diets report released Keats counsels against in January, the ODI put the number complacency. “The numbers are of overweight and obese adults in almost certainly worse now than

PHOTOS: CORBIS (SOLAR STEPPE), AFP (SPOLIED HARVEST) PHOTOS: developing countries at more than they were 5 years ago. There are also 900 million—almost twice as many overweight and obese children not as in rich countries. This apparent included in these figures.”

ENDING THE CYCLE OF VIOLENCE Papua New Guinea (PNG) has Such violence has diverse reached a milestone in its campaign roots spanning culture, against domestic violence and rape, poverty, and governance, with a new law promising enhanced says PNG gender equality protection for victims and penalties consultant Orovu Sepoe: for perpetrators. “It is the culture of violence The Family Protection Act passed that needs to be addressed last September empowers victims, in PNG. To do that requires family members, and neighbors to awareness about rights and report domestic violence. It also responsibilities of citizens, Women at a protest men, and women.” against gender-based offers protection for complainants, violence in PNG counseling and mediation for all Attitudes are slowly parties, and fines and prison terms changing, a shift reflected in for perpetrators. the Family Protection Act, which “Citizens need to be informed Domestic violence and rape resulted from collaboration between about their rights and obligations,” are endemic problems in PNG. nongovernment organizations and says Sepoe. “Police must ensure Development agencies and the government’s Family and Sexual they have the mechanisms to academics say about two-thirds of Violence Action Committee. receive reports of domestic violence women have experienced violence Sepoe, who has worked and ensure protection from the at home, while half of women extensively on the issue, says the law perpetrators of violence. Awareness have experienced forced sex. Half is a step forward but real progress efforts should be mainstreamed the victims of reported rape were will come when it is embraced by in the education system. The under 15. all parts of society. momentum must be maintained.”

May 2014 Development Asia 5 WEBLOG

A roundup of stories from ADB’s development blog blogs.adb.org

green growth BRIDGING THE knowledge JARGON IDENTITY DIVIDE sharing social HURTS THE POOR Indu Bhushan, deputy director protection general at ADB’s Strategy and “If a development project was polluting Policy Department, has no birth development the river near their home, would [the poor] certificate. But he has school capacity know that they need to engage in building records and a passport, which globalization a stakeholder consultation?” empowerment is more than can be said for Floyd Whaley, an editorial consultant convergence hundreds of millions of Indians at the Asian Development Bank (ADB), without legal proof of their describes how the jargon of development existence. “There is a great divide agencies can end up further marginalizing the marginalized—the very in India between identity-haves people that they endeavor to help. Whaley opines that using jargon “makes and identity-have-nots,” writes international development information inaccessible to students, as well as Bhushan. “Those without an researchers who do not have expertise in the area. Jargon inhibits journalists identity are barred from exercising from understanding and sharing information about development…blocks basic rights and face severe information from girls and women in developing countries…. Jargon has the constraints in accessing productive effect of making search engines such asGoogle blind to information.” Whaley employment, social benefits, acknowledges that jargon thrives in all fields and that in the early days of development, organizations only had to coordinate with a small community of government officials, donors, and development professionals. But the role There is a great of development organizations has evolved—as have the expectations of beneficiaries who want to know more and be more involved in work done at divide in India their communities. This trend—along with the growth of the internet and the between identity- information it can provide at the touch of a button—means that “the task of communicating clearly has taken on greater urgency.” haves and identity- have-nots. and the justice system. It also URBAN FOOD denies them recognition as full citizens and the right to political SECURITY participation.” Bhushan points to “We all grew up around the promising signs in the shape of a stereotype that the farmers government initiative to provide grow the food and the cities an identity card containing unique consume the food. Can and biometric information to each of should city residents also produce its 1.2 billion citizens. More than the food that they consume?” 400 million people already have Lourdes Adriano, Agriculture, the card, called Aadhaar. It can Rural Development, and Food be used to open a bank account, Security unit head at the ADB, receive subsidies, and apply for examines urban farming as a way of securing stable food supply in the a job, among others. Aadhaar face of volatile prices, deteriorating natural resources, and exponentially faces huge logistical challenges, growing global demand. Technologies that enhance food security without but if successfully implemented, large demands on water, land, and labor—such as hydroponics (growing it would allow the government plants in water) and aquaponics (combining vegetable hydroponics with to improve current targeted aquaculture)—are being explored throughout Asia. welfare programs. PHOTO: AFP PHOTO:

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May 2014 Development Asia 7 SPECIAL REPORT

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HOW FAR HAVE WE COME? By John Larkin | TACLOBAN

May 2014 Development Asia 9 t the beautiful but IN THE DECADE since the developing countries. By land area, fragile islands of the Indian Ocean tsunami slammed the region has double the global central Philippines, into coastal areas from Aceh in average annual deaths by disaster, communities are Indonesia to faraway Somalia, around one person per 1,000 picking up the pieces resilience has gained traction square kilometers. afterA the worst storm in memory. In among policy makers. It holds that Moreover, Asia accounted a country battered by 20 typhoons good planning can soften the social for 40% of total reported a year, there is among locals an and economic impact of natural economic disaster losses in real acceptance of nature’s power and hazards by investing in natural and terms, which are growing at a the awful toll it can take. man-made safeguards. faster rate than regional gross “It might happen again, we “The need for greater domestic product growth—with cannot do anything,” says Francisco resilience has been highlighted alarming implications. “Prospects Colinaras, 85, as he surveys the by disaster risk management for continued strong economic smashed concrete porch of his specialists going back 35 years,” growth in Asia and the Pacific once-sturdy house. “It was nature.” says Charlotte Benson, a senior are in jeopardy if resilience is not Like most residents of Tacloban disaster risk specialist at the strengthened and, instead, the City, which bore the brunt of Asian Development Bank (ADB) growth in disaster losses continues Typhoon Haiyan’s fury last in Manila. “Governments have to outpace economic expansion,” November, Colinaras is focused on recently shown increased interest says ADB in a 2013 report, Investing simple survival. He grieves for his in planning for resilience, though in Resilience: Ensuring a Disaster- lost wife and wants to rebuild when certainly more attention needs to Resistant Future. he has the materials. Beyond that, be paid to this issue.” The case for resilience is he has no big plans. Haiyan has added a new note of underscored by climate change, This pragmatic approach urgency to the shift toward more which is expected to increase pervades Leyte and Samar islands resilient communities, businesses disaster risk— although precisely in the Eastern Visayas region, and households. “We cannot simply how is a matter of debate 6 months after Haiyan. Though allow the cycle of destruction among specialists. the rhythms of normal life are and reconstruction to continue “What I tell my national Red reasserting themselves, cities and by rebuilding communities in Cross offices is to be prepared for towns remain scarred by shattered the exact same manner, because greater uncertainty and higher homes, offices and factories, it naturally follows that this will risks,” says Maarten van Aalst, smashed cars and other debris lead to the same results,” said director of the International lining the streets. Building back Philippines President Benigno Federation of Red Cross and Red better—the notion of rebuilding Aquino III in an interview with Crescent Societies (IFRC) Climate stronger and safer through Development Asia (see In The Eye Centre. “What we see almost improved design and location—was Of The Storm, p.18) six months everywhere in the world is an popularized after the 2004 Indian after Haiyan, named Yolanda in increase in the risk of extremes.” Ocean tsunami but is a mystery the Philippines. “This is why we to many residents who lack the are making sure there are enough THE OUTLOOK WOULD be resources even to rebuild what resources—and sufficient strategic even more worrying if Asian they had. planning—to ensure that we rebuild governments had not heeded the “People are just looking to get in a resilient manner.” warning sounded by the Indian back on their feet,” says Kasper Nowhere is this more imperative Ocean tsunami, which killed more Engborg, head of the United than in Asia, which is more than 225,000 people in 11 countries. Nations Office for the Coordination exposed to natural hazards than The huge death toll triggered of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) anywhere else. Disasters happen an ongoing, albeit uneven, in Tacloban. when natural hazard events transition from reactive disaster But locals at hazard-plagued combine with man-made exposure management to minimizing impact cities like Tacloban know there will of people and assets to those events by cutting risks beforehand. be more disasters. At this and other without due action to strengthen Ideally, reconstruction was communities in the crosshairs of resilience, resulting in losses. to be linked to the long-term disaster across Asia and the Pacific, Asia accounted for just over half development needs of the affected there is a growing awareness that the global deaths from disasters country, helping to insulate it they must become more resilient to between 1970 and 2010, according from future calamities that could future shocks. to the ADB, most of them in derail growth. PHOTOS: ASSOCIATED PRESS (TOP), CORBIS (BOTTOM LEFT), GETTY LEFT), GETTY PRESS (TOP), CORBIS (BOTTOM ASSOCIATED PHOTOS:

10 www.development.asia Typhoon Haiyan devastated Tacloban and surrounding areas.

A man prays for his missing sister near Khao Lak, Thailand, in 2004. “What we see almost everywhere in the world is an increase in the risk of extremes.” — Maarten van Aalst, IFRC Climate Centre director

Japan’s 2011 Haiyan left earthquake and millions tsunami destroyed homeless. almost everything in its path.

May 2014 Development Asia 11 New laws have made it easier for disaster-hit countries to cope with an avalanche of foreign aid.

Building back better can promote inclusive economic growth.

Natural disasters can ruin livelihoods and deepen poverty.

Oliver Lacey-Hall, OCHA’s into a thoroughgoing disaster risk Indonesia was among the first regional director for Asia and the action plan. countries to formulate a national Pacific, describes the tsunami as Confronted with what has been action plan for risk reduction and “a huge provider of political described as “‘a second tsunami’ has significantly increased disaster impetus across the region.” of aid,” Indonesia gradually risk management budgets. That impetus galvanized came to grips with the sprawling “They’ve come a long way,” interest among governments in response effort. says OCHA’s Lacey-Hall. “And it’s a global conference on disaster A new agency dedicated to filtering down to the regional and risk management at Kobe, coordinating the response, the subregional level.” Japan scheduled for just a few Agency for Rehabilitation and weeks after the tsunami. With Reconstruction (BRR) was EVER SO GRADUALLY, the bodies still being recovered, formed, headed by Kuntoro roots of resilience are sinking the UN World Conference on Mangkusubroto, a minister-level deeper into Asia’s political and Disaster Reduction produced official with a time-bound mandate. economic superstructure. A slew an unprecedented political It performed well in trying of new initiatives—disaster risk commitment to curbing the impact circumstances (see Aid Watch, p.31) management laws and agencies, of calamity. and provided the launch pad for the flood control programs, relocation The Hyogo Framework larger risk reduction framework. schemes, evacuation drills, for Action 2005–2015 urged With BRR leading the way, climate-proofed infrastructure, governments to embrace five Indonesia moved quickly to ensure high-tech innovations, and social key actions: prioritize disaster that losses on the scale of the 2004 interventions—have helped make risk reduction, enhance early tsunami would not be repeated. the region safer. warning, build a culture of safety “Key ministers immediately started “Progress has been made, with and resilience at all levels, reduce focusing on boosting disaster many countries shifting from underlying risks, and strengthen risk resilience in the medium ex-post to ex-ante disaster risk preparedness and response to long-term,” recalls Ramesh management,” says Abhas Jha, across the board. Subramaniam, deputy director sector manager for Transport, Today, as the Hyogo Framework general of ADB’s Southeast Asia Urban and Disaster Risk nears its end, Asia’s report card Department, who was in Indonesia Management for East Asia and the is mixed though progress has when the tsunami struck. Pacific at the World Bank. been striking in some areas. In 2007, a disaster management Disaster risk management Indonesia, which bore half the law was passed, and the following agencies have mushroomed in tsunami death toll, has led the way year, the National Disaster India, the Maldives, Papua New with a path-breaking relief and Management Agency was formed Guinea, the Philippines, Thailand, reconstruction effort that evolved to handle disaster coordination. and Vanuatu, to name a few. This PHOTOS: GETTY (LEFT), ADB PHOTOS:

12 www.development.asia trend acknowledges the crucial role Assessment and Financing “If the next storm is as strong as of coordination and planning in Initiative has generated disaster Yolanda I’m not sure it will survive blunting the impact of disaster. risk profiles for 15 Pacific countries, it,” says Nilo. “But if it’s a normal It also reflects a shift from letting allowing policy makers to plan for storm I’m more confident. We civil defense agencies handle the worst. used to build haphazardly. Now disaster response. “Before, the Building back better—best we have a system.” His second staff was search and rescue people described as a subset of resilience— cousin Arrien Nola lives just a few mostly. Now there is multisectoral has gained traction. When driven meters away. Her house was rebuilt expertise,” says Sanny Jegillos, by community consultations it using the new techniques and with regional disaster reduction can redress social inequities, like a more brick. As captain of the San adviser at the United Nations 10-year housing insurance scheme Miguelay barangay, or ward, it’s Development Programme. in India covering residents against her job to make sure households New laws have made it easier disaster, giving joint ownership comply with the new building for disaster-hit countries to cope rights for women, and funding methods. “I explain that it’s for with an avalanche of foreign aid. the education and resettlement of their own protection.” “The IFRC’s international disaster orphaned and single females. For people living in more exposed response law project has done Sometimes this all-purpose areas near water, relocation may be enormous work to ensure disaster phrase can mean more dramatic the only option. Tedence Hobson, risk reduction legislation includes interventions, as in the Maldives an official at Tacloban’s city tenets on accepting international where the 2004 tsunami provided housing office, has written in felt assistance,” says Oliver Lacey-Hall, an opportunity not only to rebuild tip pen on his window the names of who notes that such clauses in the safer schools, but also to upgrade groups donating funds and staffing Philippines’ legislation enabled teaching methods and improve to build new free housing for a “carefully controlled” response internet access. Elsewhere, it relocated residents. to Haiyan. might be a micro-initiative, such as The new houses to be built this Regional cooperation, surely replacing a thatch roof with tin. year at a site 10 kilometers (km) a must-have given the region’s “Often (building back better) is from the city, he explains, will be multicountry and interlinked simply common sense,” explains concrete and able to withstand disaster profile, has advanced. Peter Struijf, Oxfam’s program 250 km/hr winds—comparable A web of early warning systems manager for Tacloban and Eastern with Haiyan. Fidensio Paranas, one is anchored by the pan-regional Leyte. “What it means varies from of the builders at the site, says he Deep-ocean Assessment and one place to the next.” would be moving there himself had Reporting of Tsunamis (DART) his Tacloban house not been built network of buoys placed in the AT TACLOBAN, BUILDING back of concrete and steel. “I knew my Indian Ocean to monitor seismic better has meaning for those with house wouldn’t collapse.” activity and pinpoint the height, the capacity to do it. But building new houses is only location, and timing of a tsunami. The rice-farming residents of half the battle. Often, people are DART is backed by national San Miguelay village, an hour’s reluctant to move away from the systems. Indonesia’s, implemented drive from Tacloban, are rebuilding only livelihoods they’ve ever known. in 2008, gives warnings of tsunami their simple huts stronger than Many of those relocated after threats within minutes. Thailand’s before, thanks to funding and Haiyan are fishing families who system can issue public warnings materials from global humanitarian lost their jobs after the storm through hundreds of radio stations, organization CARE International. destroyed the boats and reefs. Some millions of text messages, village Using materials, tools, and about will receive training in new skills loudspeakers, and more than 100 $65 in financial assistance per from organizations like Habitat coastal warning towers. household from CARE, Nilo Nola for Humanity, which teaches Quick action on good information rebuilt his wrecked house with construction skills to people is crucial, and here Asia has corrugated tin roofing for thatch, receiving its assistance. innovated. The Indonesian and coconut timber replacing “Over the next few years Scenario Assessment for bamboo flooring. A member of a construction will be booming Emergency allows users to analyze roving team of builders organized all over the Visayas (as people and share risk information on by CARE, he has been taught how rebuild),” says Dabs Liban of the an open source platform, and is to build stronger frames, brace group’s Philippines office. “So being expanded to the Philippines. joints with metal, and where not to it can be a source of income for The Pacific Catastrophe Risk build to avoid landslides. these families.”

May 2014 Development Asia 13 Reconstruction efforts can continue for years after a disaster.

Tools of the trade, like these fishing boats near Banda Aceh, must be rebuilt after disaster. “Much development in Asia and the Pacific continues to occur with little regard to natural hazards, unintentionally exacerbating disaster risk as populations and capital assets expand.” — Stephen P. Groff, ADB Vice-President for East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific

Workers clear debris in Japan after the 2011 Aid deliveries tsunami, which save lives, but can devastated coastal cause problems if communities. badly coordinated. 14 www.development.asia But convincing people to start and provision of services and have reached so far inland if sea over won’t be easy. Cesar Padilla’s infrastructure— would be linked levels in the area had not already family has lived on the idyllic with solid risk information to guide risen due to climate change, says beaches of Tolosa, a short drive development into safe places with van Aalst of the IFRC’s Climate south of Tacloban, for generations. adequate standards and emergency Centre. But the greater danger He has no intention of relocating, procedures, says the World may lie in the unpredictability of despite the risk. “This is a fishing Bank’s Abhas Jha. future disasters. village, and we love it here because While progress had been made “With Haiyan, we knew it was an of all the fresh fish. I don’t want on some fronts, such a holistic issue in that area,” says van Aalst. to move.” approach to disaster risk reduction “The previous year we had a similar For others, it’s not so much a is generally lacking in Asia. “Much storm, but it hit Mindanao where case of starting over as thinking development in Asia and the Pacific we don’t see many of these bigger. Coconut farmers across the continues to occur with little regard storms at all. That’s something Visayas saw their crops devastated to natural hazards, unintentionally that complicates early warning by Haiyan. Boy Andrades lost most exacerbating disaster risk as systems.” But it makes such systems of his 8,000 trees but wants to use populations and capital assets even more imperative, says van post-Haiyan financial assistance expand,” says Stephen P. Groff, Aalst, especially as any action now to expand beyond marginally ADB vice-president for East Asia, to halt or reverse climate change profitable copra, or coco meat, into Southeast Asia, and the Pacific. won’t make much difference until furniture and coco sugar. “Investments in disaster risk the second half of this century. “Not that I’m happy Yolanda reduction have been woefully In Asia, climate stresses are happened, but at least it has given inadequate to counteract these risk- compounded by rapid urbanization, us an opportunity to make more insensitive development actions.” underinvestment in basic products,” says Andrades. Another problem is that good infrastructure, and dysfunctional disaster risk information often urban land markets pushing ALL TOO ACCUSTOMED to does not trickle down to local the poor to settle in the most disaster, many households across communities. And when it does, dangerous areas. These factors can Asia are inherently resilient, it may be in forms that are not turn cities into hotbeds of exposure at least in spirit. The challenge practical or user-friendly. to natural hazards. “This brings is to translate this individual “If you really want to talk about us back to the need for better durability into tangibly better resilience you have to talk from the development which is important physical resilience of people, bottom up,” says Aslam Perwaiz, for countries under any current or infrastructure, and livelihoods, head of disaster risk management future climate scenario,” says Jha as well as improved protection systems at the Asian Disaster of the World Bank. against the economic consequences Preparedness Center in Bangkok. That need is especially acute of disaster losses. “We have talked to many local given the rising threat of so-called This requires more governments, and many of them compound disasters. These can thoroughgoing change than ad don’t have the capacity ... to do it.” happen when disasters engulf hoc measures can generate, says Dollars are not as big an industrial stock, such as a power Peter Walker, a resilience specialist issue as political and social plant, prompting a chain reaction at Tufts University in the US. He consensus, says UN Economic of consequences beyond the initial says resilient societies promote and Social Commission for Asia disaster zone. This occurred in diversity in livelihoods and sources and the Pacific in a 2010 report, 2011 when the Japan earthquake of community leadership, social Protecting Development Gains. and tsunami triggered a nuclear inclusion, and backup systems that The report describes progress on accident at Fukushima Daiichi can flex with shocks. mainstreaming as “disappointingly Power Plant, spreading alarm “You can’t just build these little slow,” but points out that such a throughout the region. “Compound fortresses,” says Walker. “It can complex process will inevitably disaster is much harder to respond be quite difficult to take on board take time. to,” says ADB’s Groff. “Increasing but you have to change radically. regional integration has been a The economy has to completely TIME, HOWEVER, MAY BE in key driver of economic growth change. It involves a lot of planning short supply. Climate change is in the region, but it has also and unknowns.” ratcheting up Asia’s exposure in diffused the impact of disasters In this ideal world, everyday ways that are difficult to predict. across multiple provincial and development—urban planning, Haiyan’s storm surge might not international boundaries.” PHOTOS: GETTY (TOP LEFT), CORBIS PHOTOS:

May 2014 Development Asia 15 FACED WITH A WORSENING “There is no single bullet to doing million vulnerable people by 2021. disaster profile, Asia could do this all,” Governor Salceda said in It also aims to leverage about $1 worse than learn from Legazpi City a recent interview with Citiscope billion in investments from public, in the Philippines. magazine. “The only secret is private, and municipal sources. Looming over this charming port common sense.” These are laudable advances. city is Mt. Mayon, an 8,000-foot But with climate change and urban active volcano that has erupted four COMMON SENSE CAN save lives. stresses making Asia even more times since 1999. Just 400 km north Early warning systems triggered vulnerable, boldness in policy of Tacloban, Legazpi also suffers mass evacuations before Haiyan, making will be needed to secure a regular cyclones and is exposed to resulting in a lower death toll than resilient future. earthquakes and tsunamis. the storm’s severity would have An even tougher stance on risk These vulnerabilities persuaded suggested, according to Oxfam. reduction under the successor to Joey Salceda, the Governor of Albay Japan’s systematic investments the Hyogo Framework, due to be Province of which Legazpi is the in seismic safety “saved countless unveiled next year, would set the capital, to take action when he won lives” during the 2011 earthquake right tone. But to implement its office in 2007, after a year in which and tsunami, says Jha of the World directives, governments will need two cyclones killed 1,000 locals. Bank. More than a million people to show resilience themselves His “Zero Casualty” policy is a on India’s east coast were evacuated as the process will inevitably manifesto for disaster resilience. from the path of Cyclone Phailin involve trial and error and Upgraded hazard maps clearly last October, leaving far fewer ensuing criticism. show places under threat, a radar people dead than a similar storm in “When you’re doing something monitors typhoons, efforts are 1999 that killed 10,000. like this, it’s an experiment, and made to predict volcanic eruptions, With budgets an issue for that means not everything is people in high-risk areas are many cities seeking resilience, going to work,” says Walker of given free rice if they participate a new fund formed by ADB, the Tufts University. “You’ve got to be in evacuations, more than 5,000 United Kingdom’s Department upfront about that from the start.” families have been relocated from for International Development, Francisco Colinaras of Tacloban around Albay to safer locations, and The Rockefeller Foundation, City faces a similarly altered future. and a local volunteer corps is will finance urban resilience plans “I’ll be able to take my coffee trained to respond quickly to across the region. here in the morning,” he says, a disaster. Under the Urban Climate Change gazing at the now placid, sun- Moreover, climate adaptation is Resilience Partnership, funds will drenched ocean from where his central to government planning. be available to 25 cities in disaster- verandah used to be. He will honor The province spends 9% of its prone parts of Asia and the Pacific the past by building afresh on the budget on activities like mangrove for infrastructure projects and foundations of the home he shared regeneration as a buffer against other resilience measures to protect with his wife. The rest, he says, he storm surges and tsunamis. around 1 million poor and another 1 will leave to fate.

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16 www.development.asia TAKING COVER Asia needs more protection against the financial cost of disaster

Among the almost 6 million workers who lost their livelihoods in Typhoon Haiyan were the people of Coron, a cluster of idyllic islets sustained by Survivors of the 2005 Pakistan earthquake agriculture and tourism. Many are starting afresh await medical treatment. with carpentry and masonry courses arranged by the International Labour Organization and the Government of the Philippines, who aim to create 20,000 new jobs. Such initiatives are valuable. But they would be even more helpful, or perhaps unnecessary, if communities like Coron were better protected from the financial consequences of disasters. Disasters in Asia accounted for 40% of disaster A month’s worth of losses globally from 1970 to 2010 in real terms, rainfall fell in just hours when Typhoon according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Ondoy hit the Some of the worst losses have occurred in developing Philippines in 2009. Asia, where resilience to disasters is often lower. Yet less than 5% of disaster losses there are insured, Local insurers often avoid catastrophe insurance compared to 40% in developed countries. Insuring due to the challenge of generating a premium pool against these risks, and transferring the risk through big enough to cover the potentially huge losses. reinsurance, is within the capacity of most of the But international reinsurers are able to generate the region. But take-up has been slow. necessary scale and spread. “A general Asian culture of saving prevents the “So the key lies in creating a bridge between local community from recognizing insurance as a form markets and the abundant supply of global capacity of contingent capital,” explains Reto Brosi, chief keen to provide the cover,” says Neil Mathison, executive of Asia Capital Reinsurance Group. “There executive chair at AON Benfield Asia. also appears to be an assumption that risks can be Governments have a key role in developing legal and managed unilaterally.” regulatory frameworks needed to create a viable risk Asia’s threadbare coverage has compromised pool and make disaster cover a plausible option. its ability to bounce back from disaster. Disaster There are signs of progress. PT Asuransi MAIPARK risk financing tools such as emergency liquidity, Indonesia was established in 2004 to reinsure insurance cover, and capital market instruments earthquake-related risk, with every insurance such as catastrophe bonds remain underutilized. company in the market mandated by the government Reinsurance, which can minimize net losses, is to provide capital. A Pacific Catastrophe Risk struggling for a foothold. Brosi notes that Asia’s Insurance Pilot program was launched in 2013, reinsurance industry is “in its infant stage of pooling earthquake and tropical cyclone risk across 6 development” compared with developed regions countries in the Pacific. such as Europe and North America. Insurance pools are a key step, as they allow private Uncertainty over the nature, location, and severity insurers to underwrite new policies on catastrophe of risks deters insurers from venturing into Asia’s risk and transfer risk to international reinsurers. disaster risk financing market. “The mechanism works best with the active “Perhaps the number one difficulty in penetrating participation of all insurance companies in the developing Asia is the lack of understanding of the market to help both sourcing and sharing of risks,” full breadth and scale of what the risks they are says Clarence Wong, head of economic research exposed to are, and why it makes sense to insure and consulting at Asia-Pacific Swiss Reinsurance against them,” says Keith Thomas, chief executive Company. “Reinsurers can share part of the peak risk officer of Global Corporate in Asia-Pacific at whereas the government will take on any excesses.” Zurich Insurance. BY RUPERT WALKER PHOTOS: ASSOCIATED PRESS (TOP), ADB ASSOCIATED PHOTOS:

May 2014 Development Asia 17 Q&A

IN THE

OF THE

AN INTERVIEW WITH PHILIPPINES PRESIDENT BENIGNO AQUINO III

18 www.development.asia arely the focus of global attention, the Philippines grabbed world headlines last November when Typhoon Haiyan smashed through its central region. As a history buff, President Benigno S. Aquino III must have hoped for a different story line. Typhoon Haiyan, the strongest Rtropical storm to make landfall in recorded history, turned the world’s gaze toward this sprawling archipelago of 7,000 islands. Suddenly this relatively new leader was, quite literally, in the eye of the storm. His family history might have fortified him for the task. His father, after whom he was named, was an opposition leader assassinated on his return from exile in 1983. His mother, Corazon Aquino, was swept to the presidency by the “People Power Revolution” of 1986 and led the country for 6 years. Aquino was shot five times—one of the bullets remains in his neck to this day—during a 1987 coup attempt against his mother’s rule. Unbowed, Aquino chose to go into politics after a stint working in the private sector. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1998, where he became Deputy Speaker and served until 2007. He joined the Senate in the same year. In 2010, he won the presidency, and vowed to serve rather than rule the country’s nearly 100 million people. In conversation with Development Asia, President Aquino explains Typhoon Haiyan’s impact, his concerns about climate change, and outlines his vision of a resilient future for all Filipinos. PHOTOS: GETTY (SATELLITE IMAGE OF TYPHOON HAIYAN), ASSOCIATED PRESS (AQUINO) ASSOCIATED OF TYPHOON HAIYAN), IMAGE GETTY (SATELLITE PHOTOS:

May 2014 Development Asia 19 DEVELOPMENT ASIA: How has Typhoon Haiyan we are conducting more thorough assessments of risk, (known in the Philippines as Yolanda) changed and climate-proofing our development plans, as well as your view, if at all, of natural disasters and how to our infrastructure. respond to them? We know full well that inefficiency redounds to BENIGNO AQUINO III: When I came into office, lives lost, and we are doing our best to meet the the Philippines was already being hit by increasingly evolving demands of a world feeling the devastating powerful storms every year. Naturally, our approach to effects of climate change. these disasters—and how to respond to them—has been DA: As a national leader, can you please give us an steadily evolving: from being reactive, to being very insight into how priorities are established in the proactive. Even before Yolanda struck, we had already immediate aftermath of a natural disaster? improved our disaster response systems. We had massively updated our scientific capabilities, and on BA: The ultimate priority is to be able to the basis of our increased wherewithal, we had already anticipate needs. This is why the government makes made a habit of prepositioning goods before calamities. it a point to preposition goods, equipment, and We had also provided lead agencies the necessary funds even personnel: because ideally, relief and rescue to immediately address post-disaster needs. should not have to travel great distances; they should

A key challenge for developing countries ... is how to strike that perfect balance of maintaining its natural defense systems and attaining economic progress.

Typhoon Yolanda, however, was on a different scale already be in the areas predicted to be in the path of in terms of destruction. Some argue that it was the natural disasters. strongest storm to ever make landfall in recorded When disaster does strike, one of the most vital history. Not to mention, it came on the heels of several priorities is reestablishing communications with disasters, including the Zamboanga Siege, the Bohol everyone. We have to organize what we already know, earthquake, and Typhoon Santi. When Yolanda struck, while at the same time fill the gaps in information, in even if we had prepositioned resources and personnel, order to maximize our strategic accuracy. We need what happened was that many of the first responders to be able to answer the vital questions: “Who was were affected, and the equipment and goods we had affected, and in what manner? What do they need at prepared were swept away. this moment?” The effects of Yolanda have prompted us, once At the same time, we do our best to address the again, to study how to further improve our systems. needs of the most vulnerable at the soonest possible For example: One might be aware that, by law, time. This means three things: first, prioritize search the national government steps in during disasters and rescue, and minimize loss of life and property; to address the deficiencies of local government second, secure surviving communities with food, units (LGUs), who are supposed to be the first basic health support, and water, while maintaining responders. We saw that some LGUs managed this peace and order; third, clear and restore critical better than others, and we are now studying how to infrastructure, such as lifeline roads, sea- and guarantee that all LGUs are able to manage disasters airports, telecommunications, and access to water in a manner that is efficient and harmonized with and electricity. national efforts. In the same vein, we are doubling These should not be construed as a step-by- efforts to raise awareness among local communities so step decision-making process. Rather, all these are they are better equipped to interpret and localize the simultaneously undertaken within the first 12 to scientific data made available by PAGASA (Philippine 24 hours after a natural disaster to guarantee that Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services we act based on informed decisions, minimize Administration), the government agency in charge of further loss of life and property, and restore weather forecasting and flood control. Furthermore, adequate communication between the national

20 www.development.asia President Aquino visits Tacloban shortly after Haiyan. and local governments so that real-time information them with infrastructure that can still be designed to aids decision making and action. adapt to natural disasters. Though developed countries These, of course, presuppose that the local also have the capacity to create and apply expensive governments are functional. As I mentioned, under geoengineering technologies to mitigate climate change, our system, the national government, by definition, these technologies may have potentially negative responds to the needs that cannot be addressed by the impacts to the natural environment. respective first responders, who are the LGUs. This is On the other hand, developing countries only precisely why we are looking at how to improve and have their natural ecosystems left to defend them harmonize all our efforts. from natural disasters, such as mangroves, sea grass beds, coral reefs, and rainforests for adaptation DA: What are the special challenges faced by and mitigation. However, these are also the same developing countries that might not be faced resources and ecosystems that they need to sacrifice by developed countries in preparing for and to enable progress and achieve development for their responding to natural disasters? country. A key challenge for developing countries, BA: By definition, developed countries have more therefore, is how to strike that perfect balance of resources—whether it is their governments or their maintaining its natural defense systems and attaining people. There is a vast difference in the resources economic progress. that can be put in play during times of disaster. For This contrast is apparent when you look at the instance, on the micro-level, citizens of developed Philippines. Our country, after all, has an extensive countries, having been alerted to natural disasters, will coastline, and most of our communities developed be ready with a modicum of water and food supplies. in areas surrounding these coastlines. Even In a developing country, where poverty incidence is government facilities that have existed for centuries higher, people are less capable of doing that. On top of were initially situated along the coast. Relocation that, when our people’s lives are disrupted, they have a alone will take us quite some time and considerable harder time recovering and providing for themselves. resources, before completion. For centuries, most The same applies when it comes to disaster communities have lived near and rely on the sea, management efforts. Developed countries have or on the foot of mountains for agricultural purposes. a greater capacity to undertake the physical These areas, as we have experienced, are most reengineering of areas that may be affected by affected when natural calamities occur. Educating disasters, perhaps by building seawalls or by the people, including the local officials, in effectively mangrove reforestation/rehabilitation in coastal preparing for and responding to these disasters, is communities. Certainly, developed countries have also one of the challenges we face. There should be more resources and access to technologies that allow a complete turnaround of mindset when it comes them to alter their natural coastal areas and replace to preparedness.

May 2014 Development Asia 21 Suffice it to say, the impact of climate change hits developing countries doubly hard. One has to ask: Is it fair that the countries that actually contribute a comparatively low amount of greenhouse gas emissions are the ones most vulnerable to the problems caused by those emissions? This is why the Philippines, together with other developing countries, is strongly pushing for developed countries to follow through on their commitment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and to assist developing countries on the issue of climate change adaptation, particularly and primarily through providing assistance on capacity building, technology transfer, and finance.

DA: Resilience has become the shorthand term for the process of reinforcing communities against natural hazards. But such needs vary widely from country to country. What, in your view, are the common denominators of best-practice resilience for developing countries? BA::A common denominator among resilient countries would be the initiative and ingenuity to adapt to the new normal. In recent years, we have seen natural disasters come with greater frequency and strength. Any truly resilient country would respond to this by trying to adapt to the times and to minimize the effects of disasters. We cannot simply allow the cycle of destruction and reconstruction to continue by rebuilding communities in the exact same manner, because it naturally follows that this will lead to the same results. This is why we have embarked on a campaign to build back better. Houses, communities, and infrastructure in damaged areas are being rebuilt in a sturdier manner, and in much safer and more strategic areas. We have also found creative solutions to some problems. Sometimes it is as simple as fastening the G.I sheets to the edge of the wall to make the The impact of climate change sheets more resistant to strong winds. Japan is also sharing its knowledge with us, particularly on how hits developing countries to design and construct buildings that can serve as doubly hard. One has to ask: natural catchments. It is also important to assess the risks that each area is susceptible to, so that the Is it fair that the countries national government and LGUs can strategically that actually contribute a formulate and implement plans to reduce or counter such risks. comparatively low amount In relation to this, the Office of the Presidential of greenhouse gas emissions Assistant for Rehabilitation and Recovery (OPARR) strategy includes empowering LGUs by giving them are the ones most vulnerable maps and data to conduct tactical and strategic plans to the problems caused by for informed decision making, to be resilient from disasters, and to respond to disasters. OPARR is those emissions? collating all hazard maps from various agencies in order

22 www.development.asia to come up with a unified climate change and multi- At the end of the day, however, we look at disaster hazard map. preparation as a significant part of our development Although information gathering and technology efforts. Let me put it this way: Disaster, quite clearly, are vital, a common denominator for resiliency in stifles development, and minimizing the effects of developing countries is its natural ecosystems, which disaster, consequently, makes development possible. have not yet been fully exploited. These ecosystems This is yet another reason for us to build back better. provide natural barriers and services that allow There can be no true progress for any country stuck in a developing countries to adapt to natural disasters, vicious cycle of destruction and reconstruction. This is without the benefit of expensive engineering solutions why we are making sure there are enough resources— and infrastructure. Intact and healthy mangrove areas, and sufficient strategic planning—to ensure that we for instance, have been proven by experts, to reduce rebuild in a resilient manner. wave heights and sea level rise from storm surges and For instance, when we build sturdier, safer homes tsunamis, as well as ensure food and fuel source for for our people in areas that are not disaster prone, it recovery in the aftermath of these disasters. Various allows us to ensure the safety of our countrymen. They case studies in developing countries, particularly in the can then turn their attention to building their skillset, tropics, have demonstrated that this natural defense and which, naturally, will lead our country further down the food security function can help save lives and properties path to development and prosperity. If we are able to in the face of natural calamities. minimize the loss of life and resources during disasters, By end of 2014, we are to complete the improvement we likewise empower our workforce to become of our geohazard maps from 1:50,000 to 1:10,000 detail productive citizens in the soonest possible time. There covering all the municipalities of the country, which is no doubting the importance of minimizing the effects will enable us to inform geohazard map users more of disasters. The benefits are significant on both the accurately and effectively of which areas are most prone humanitarian and economic level. to floods and landslides. Knowing the vulnerabilities of areas to specific types of hazards will help in DA: What is your view of the economic impact the identification and implementation of effective of natural disasters on developing countries adaptation strategies suited for the particular area. The like the Philippines? How can the Philippines vulnerability of communities to certain types of hazards prepare better for the financial hit of future varies from one area to another. Hence, it is necessary natural disasters? to come up with site-specific plans that would address BA: The effect of natural disasters on any economy is site-specific vulnerabilities. We are also into the full vast. When thousands of lives are lost and roads and operationalization of the Geohazards Operation Center houses are destroyed, productivity and income naturally and Quick Response Teams. We also launched Project suffer; economic growth slows; gains previously NOAH in 2011, a comprehensive government program achieved are wiped out. It interrupts economic activity to improve mitigation of the effects of disasters using and income flows and leads to worsening poverty. technology; and developed a website, which makes Natural disasters also create pressure on fiscal credible and real time weather information available to policy through the additional funding that the national disaster managers and the public. government has to provide and the manpower and resources that have to be deployed to support DA: Disaster preparation requires resources. emergency relief efforts. Recovery and reconstruction How does your government balance the need to efforts that could last a number of years also create prepare for a disaster with the country’s other pressure on the fiscal position. development-related needs? We have existing local and international sources BA: Like any other country, we are limited by our of financing, such as the National Disaster Risk budget. A 2009 World Bank study estimated that the Reduction and Management Fund, the Rehabilitation Philippines needed an amount equivalent to 0.6% to and Reconstruction Program, the Green Climate Fund, 1.0% of GDP (gross domestic product) annually from and the Adaptation Fund. Now that we are giving 2010 to 2019 to address climate and disaster risks, more consideration to climate change and disaster risk including investments for replacement and expansion reduction in our development planning activities, I am of resilient infrastructure. As the government is still confident that we can harness these funds in an even under deficit financing, balancing between disaster more efficient manner, and we will be better prepared preparedness and other needs are obviously very on all fronts. difficult decisions, since we are fully aware of the We have already started. At the moment, our priorities opportunity costs of our choices. for funding include adaptation measures, forecasting

May 2014 Development Asia 23 and early warning systems, institutional strengthening, on Disaster Risk Reduction on 22–26 June 2014, in and disaster risk financing (e.g., insurance). Bangkok, which the Philippines will participate in. We are also looking at disaster financing on three ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) levels: on the individual, family, or small enterprise has also established mechanisms in response to risks level; on the local government unit level; and on brought about by climate change. These are: the ASEAN the national government level. For the individual, Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency family, or small enterprise level, we aim to broaden Response (AADMER); the ASEAN Coordinating Center micro-insurance products and enhance the policy for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management and regulatory framework. For the local government (AHA Center); and the ASEAN Plus Three Emergency unit level, we are studying ways to require local Rice Reserve (APTERR) Agreement. government units to contribute to a pooled disaster The Philippines works closely with ASEAN and the insurance fund and insure their assets with the international community in building adaptive capacities Government Service Insurance System. For the and ready mitigation measures. national level, we are looking at possible funding sources for a proposed trust fund that will fund efforts DA: In a speech shortly after Yolanda struck to address climate and disaster risks. (11 November 2013), you noted that the disaster took down modern communications technology, DA: Is there a case for greater cooperation between complicating relief efforts. Do you have any countries in the Asia and Pacific region on ways that thoughts about how this kind of technology could mitigate the impact of future disasters? blackout can be averted in future disaster BA: Definitely. We all face common problems, and we responses around the region?

We have to work even closer together to come up with a more unified voice on global climate change. We need to increase the exchange of knowledge and best practices, whether it is in the application of technology or the design of infrastructure.

have to work even closer together to come up with BA: Typhoon Yolanda made very clear that we are in a more unified voice on global climate change. We need of a stable and secure communications system that need to increase the exchange of knowledge and best can withstand any weather condition and will not be practices, whether it is in the application of technology dependent on external power sources. To this end, we or the design of infrastructure. Perhaps there is even a are exploring a number of avenues. case for creating a common bank that will fund disaster One of the possibilities we are looking into is risk mitigation, as well as the construction of more modern technology—specialized communications resilient structures. equipment that is easily transportable. At the But while I believe we can always do more to same time, these will likely not operate as collectively minimize the risks of climate change, independent or self-sustaining entities: ancillary we are already cooperating with countries in the needs will include trained personnel, access to Asia Pacific region in the area of disaster risk satellites, and, most importantly, both power and reduction (DRR) through the following: the Asia fuel, which are likely to be in short supply in the Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)-Emergency aftermath of disasters. On top of these factors are Preparedness Working Group (EPWG), which was the problems that damaged infrastructure will established to allow APEC members to strengthen cause. With airports, ports, and roads impassable our capacity to respond to emergencies and mitigate after calamities, will we be able to move this disasters through sharing of expertise; the Asia-Europe equipment to devastated areas at the soonest possible Meeting (ASEM), specifically during our 4–6 June time? As recent experience taught us, there has to 2014 hosting of the ASEM Conference on Technology be an ability to restore communications, and other and Innovation for Disaster Risk Reduction and technological needs, immediately after the typhoon Management; and the 6th Asian Ministerial Conference has passed.

24 www.development.asia Listening to stories of survival from residents in affected areas

Besides exploring the most modern forms of Yolanda, perhaps there is a need to return to simpler technology available, our government is also looking methods that can function when everything else has into resources that are already in use, for instance, been disrupted. satellite communications, as proposed by our DOST (Department of Science and Technology). We already DA: Your government launched the Foreign have a number of satellite phones for use in these kinds Aid Transparency Hub (FAiTH) after Haiyan of situations. We are cognizant, however, that they (Yolanda), in an effort to ensure transparency and are not a perfect solution, given that their use can be accountability in aid donations and use. How has it disrupted by atmospheric conditions. helped address these challenges? Other solutions have also been proposed. There are BA: Given our history, the Philippines is a country certain cell-sites that can be set up rapidly, but they with its fair share of critics, especially at the local level. will also require power, which will normally require These critics continued to speak out in the aftermath some fuel. Operation of these cell-sites in the wake of of Typhoon Yolanda, with the most common question calamities will draw on fuel resources, to which supply being: If millions of dollars in aid and assistance are has been disrupted. Again, there is the question of being given to the Philippines, where is the fund going? whether there will be sufficient supply, and whether Why are we not seeing enhanced relief efforts? With we will have the capability to replenish this supply Yolanda having affected 44 out of our 81 provinces, continuously in the days after the typhoon has passed. government could not attend to these questions and At the moment, it seems that these kinds of modern criticisms individually: the immediate responsibility of solutions are far too dependent on external factors that government is to address the needs of our countrymen we will not be able to control during calamities. In light who survived the typhoon. This was a responsibility of this, I have instructed Secretary Mario Montejo and also welcomed by the tens of thousands of Filipinos, the DOST to return to older technology—for instance, both here and abroad, who took part in relief and high-frequency (HF) radios. During World War II, short recovery efforts. That is why FAiTH was put up to track wave radios powered by handcraft generators were and monitor the aid. frequently used as means of communication—where FAiTH is an online portal (http://www.gov.ph/ wires and lines could be strung among trees. These faith) that the public can access to get information on are not necessarily outmoded forms of technology: calamity aid and assistance pledged to the Philippines— given the Philippines’ experience after Typhoon from those given by foreign governments, to those

May 2014 Development Asia 25 from intergovernmental organizations, to those for roads and bridges and other public facilities coursed through certain programs of the Philippine (hospitals, school buildings, airports, seaports). government. FAiTH is a repository of data on both Relatedly, as part of disaster mitigation and response financial and in-kind donations; however, it will not following the “build back better” principle, the include donations wired or sent directly to private NEA (National Electrification Administration) has groups and organizations. required the affected electric companies to move their FAiTH is an important measure, not only because it is distribution poles and lines away from the easement part of our government’s drive for greater transparency area of roads during the restoration. and accountability, but also because it answers the To improve weather forecasting and early warning criticisms that arose after Typhoon Yolanda. FAiTH systems, the government is undertaking the following: makes distinctions between assistance that has been modernization of national monitoring, forecasting, and pledged, and assistance that has been converted into warning systems; production of detailed topographical cash or in-kind distinctions. Similarly, citizens who data in support of a nationwide multi-hazard and risk access FAiTH will be able to see that donors typically mapping for community-based early warning systems, specify organizations through whom they will course land-use planning, and zoning; generation of 1:10,000 aid—that the Philippines government is not always scale geohazard maps for 1,634 municipalities and cities; on the receiving end of organizations. It is my hope review and updating of the country’s building code for that, with the creation of FAiTH, my countrymen climate-resilient infrastructure; and establishment of will be armed and empowered with the knowledge to institutional mechanisms to harmonize climate withstand these attacks or criticisms, or even to make change efforts such as the Technical Working Group informed criticism partnered with suggestions on on Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation improving systems. under the Philippine Development Forum, which Our administration intends to continue using FAiTH serves as a venue for the Philippine Government and as a means of fostering trust and transparency. While development partners to address climate change issues. the work to minimize casualties and damages of any At the same time, it is no exaggeration to say that future disasters continues, one can expect to see our developing countries like the Philippines seem government to continue using FAiTH when we receive to bear a disproportionate amount of the burden. aid from foreign or local sources. Our carbon footprint is miniscule, but our share of disasters, as the world will likely recognize, is DA: Climate change has been identified as a key massive. In 2010, the Philippines ranked 40th among driver of Asia’s rising share of the world’s disasters. 210 countries in terms of CO2 (carbon dioxide) How great is this challenge for the region? Is the emissions according to the UN Statistics Division. appropriate response to take steps to halt or The top CO2 contributors are China, USA, India, reverse climate change, or to safeguard against Russian Federation, Japan, Germany, Iran, Korea, disaster-related impacts? Canada, and UK. Some have said that all of these BA::The Asia-Pacific region is extremely vulnerable great communities, mostly developed countries, have to the adverse effects and hazards posed by climate been built on a history of carbon emissions—and we change to health, safety, and livelihood; it certainly are also suffering from the effects of that. Despite hampers the poverty reduction measures that the Philippines’ negligible contribution in terms developing countries are undertaking. The Philippines of greenhouse gas emissions, it is one of the most currently has several initiatives to address climate vulnerable countries in the world given its geophysical change and disaster-related impacts: and socioeconomic conditions. Further, the Philippines The National Strategic Framework on Climate ranks 9th among 193 countries as the most at risk Change (NSFCC), the National Climate Change country to climate change impacts according to Action Plan (NCCAP), and the National Disaster Risk the 2014 Climate Change Vulnerability Index of Reduction and Management Plan (NDRRMP) were put Maplecroft. Cavalier observers may say that, perhaps in place to provide institutional and policy landscape then, the Philippines should be allowed to do our share for the effective implementation of disaster risk of polluting to get to middle income—and then we reduction and management. can start thinking of reducing it afterwards. Clearly, The enactment of the Climate Change Act of 2009 this is not a solution to the problem, and there is a created the Climate Change Commission (CCC), which need for all countries to take responsibility, and to is the lead policy making body on climate change. work together towards finding solutions: not only The DPWH (Department of Public Works and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or mitigate Highways) is preparing new, disaster-resilient designs climate change, but more importantly to create

26 www.development.asia mechanisms to increase the resilience of ecosystems and This is why I created OPARR. We want to adaptive capacity of vulnerable communities to climate rebuild the communities affected by Yolanda in change impacts. such a manner that they are prepared for the new The things that are happening to my country and to norm of what seems to be increasingly powerful other parts of the world are not in the norm. What is storms. The vulnerable, disaster-prone areas will even more alarming is that we now have to consider be built with more resilience. Preparedness and revising our idea of the norm, with storms of growing response will use the latest technologies together size and intensity battering the world. No other person with indigenous wisdom in community and family living now has even experienced a storm like Yolanda. preparedness training, safe and appropriate Things have changed, and they have changed for the evacuation centers, and strategically located satellite worse—that, I think, is non-debatable. None of us can warehouses with logistical support. OPARR will afford to be cavalier, or at the very least, casual about function as the overall manager, who will provide this issue. We need to undertake a precautionary strategic coordination for all the rehabilitation efforts approach to ensure that we do not do further damage to from all stakeholders. The agency will prevent divided our environment and people—damage that, as Yolanda and disorganized interventions. has shown, redounds to economic losses and thousands Government policy right now also relies heavily of lives lost. on the division of duties: LGUs are mandated to be the first responders to any disaster or calamity, DA: Under your government’s Reconstruction while national government is there to enable Assistance on Yolanda (RAY) plan, you have and empower them, allowing them to meet the pledged to “build back better” in affected areas. needs of their constituents. Yolanda taught us that How will past experience with disasters assist this we cannot necessarily rely on LGUs to be at the process? Will new responses be needed to meet the frontlines of relief and recovery, especially with Philippines’ special needs? typhoons of great strength—when local government

Our commitment to build back better is about conducting an honest assessment of what went wrong in previous disasters and using our knowledge and experience to build more resilient communities.

BA: As I said, a nation cannot move forward on the officials may be among the victimized themselves. path to development if it is stuck in a vicious cycle This is why we are investigating further refinement of destruction and reconstruction. Our commitment of this system. One option could be the formation to build back better is about conducting an honest of critical teams who are trained to manage disaster assessment of what went wrong in previous disasters, situations. In this way, if local government ceases to and using our knowledge and experience to build function because it was also victimized, there can be more resilient communities. This is not simply about an immediate deployment—a trigger mechanism of building strong physical infrastructure, homes, and sending these teams to restore services and coordinate buildings in safer places—though that is part of it. It efforts to ensure the well-being of survivors (i.e. peace involves developing stronger institutions at the local and order, rescue, relief ). and national levels. At the same time, we are not learning only If the Philippine experience is any basis, then it from negative examples. The establishment of is clear: the effects of climate change are quickly OPARR is an example of learning from the success becoming more and more severe, and new challenges of others. Indonesia created the Aceh-Nias necessarily mean new responses. Climate change and Rehabilitation and Reconstruction or “BRR” agency; disaster risk reduction are becoming staples in national Sri Lanka also had its Ministry of National Disaster and local planning, whether it is about infrastructure, Management and Human Rights; and Maldives’ or the systems by which national and local agencies National Disaster Management Center. All of work together to respond in the swiftest manner these offices were champions in coordinating all possible during disasters. recovery activities.

May 2014 Development Asia 27 We are determined to break free from the cycle of destruction and reconstruction; we are determined to take charge of our fate and to do everything we can to leave behind a stronger, more resilient society.

DA: Rehabilitating livelihoods is key to full peppers and associated products such as chili powder, recovery. How important is it to reskill survivors of chili sauce, and chili paste. After only three months, disasters to enable a transition to occupations that farmers in the municipalities of Cateel, Baganga, are not so exposed to natural hazards? and Boston in Davao Oriental were able to begin harvesting and processing these chili peppers. To BA: It is vital. Providing them with jobs that would date, the project has generated sales of more than 4.5 prevent them from exposure to natural hazards is a million pesos, and additional investments of 2.3 million giant step towards achieving long-term livelihood pesos— and government is continuing its support to security. However, we realize that this is no easy task, this industry. especially given the fact that health, food, and shelter Our Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has remain foremost priorities immediately after Yolanda. also launched the Small and Medium Enterprise As part of the OPARR’s plan to build climate- (SME) Roving Academy, aimed at enterprise resilient infrastructure, the identification of the no- development and capacity building. This project build zone areas and relocation of structures is also a provides a continuous learning program for necessary consideration in the transition to hazard- the development of micro, small, and medium free occupations. enterprises (MSMEs) either in the aspects of Disaster-resilient occupations are usually in the marketing, training, technology/ product development, construction industry (e.g., carpentry, masonry, or financing to help them become more competitive plumbing, welding, among others). These skills can even in the domestic and international markets. For 2014, be used to rebuild damaged houses and other buildings DTI will be conducting 1,000 runs of this program in in the affected areas. 16 regions. At the same time, we cannot expect our people to For this year, the DTI is also promoting and immediately gain livelihood after a three- or even facilitating the Business Continuity Plan (BCP) a six-month training program, so government will for SME Disaster Resiliency in the country, which give them assistance to recover, or restart their intends to raise the awareness and interest level previous livelihoods. We have always believed that of MSMEs towards developing their action plan our people are our greatest resources; thus, it has on business continuity and managing said plan always been, and continues to be, my administration’s to mitigate the impact of disasters/ crises that policy to empower them and to invest in them confront operations, thereby preventing disruption through healthcare, education and skills training, and in the supply chain. This also intends to build social services. business resiliency through collaboration with other While helping them to transition back to normalcy public institutions that are considered experts in in their livelihoods may take time, past instances have business development. shown us that the problem can present opportunities. A large number of coconut farmers were among those DA: You have mentioned that recovery and whose source of income was completely destroyed by reconstruction after Haiyan (Yolanda) will Typhoon Yolanda. ultimately lead to an “improved state.” Coconuts take seven years before they bear fruit; what What is your vision for this state? will farmers do while they wait seven years? How will they eat? The answer—and the opportunity—we found BA: In concrete terms, my vision for a “built back was simple: intercropping. better” state is composed of many different factors. When Typhoon Pablo (Bopha) hit our country in The most important factor would be that our December 2012, it destroyed coconut plantations. countrymen will no longer live in danger areas, This gave an opportunity to reduce dependence on but in safer communities—or at the very least, that a single crop alone, and to explore intercropping of the number of Filipinos living in danger areas other products—in this case, the production of chili will be minimized to such a point that mandatory

28 www.development.asia evacuations will be easy to conduct. Similarly, become better and more resilient to the “new normal.” government facilities— especially the most essential This includes, among others, building resilient ones—will also be moved into strategically more houses and schools, and creating multipurpose halls viable positions. All structures will be built to more and gymnasiums, which can serve as emergency resilient standards. evacuation centers. These centers will have food Relatedly, instead of adopting a strict No Build storage systems, as well as water- and power- Zone Policy in Yolanda-affected areas, OPARR is providing facilities. Hospitals will be built in a manner exploring the possibility of distinguishing “Safe that would allow them to be immediately converted Zones” from “High Risk Zones” and “Controlled into command and communication centers when a Zones.” This distinction is in recognition of calamity strikes. exceptional circumstances that may exist in As part of building a resilient community, OPARR areas within 40 meters from the coastal line (e.g., in coordination with government agencies also the need to build structures for fisheries and seeks to develop alternative forms of livelihood tourism-oriented industries, highly elevated areas, which will remove people from the risk of being and critical facilities). Construction of houses constantly exposed to High Risk Zones; shift or infrastructure intended for dwelling will be communities from livelihoods which destroy their prohibited in Controlled Zones, while structures for ecosystem (e.g., over fishing, deforesting) that make livelihood may be allowed therein. However, there them more susceptible to the effects of climate will be no compromise for building government change or the “new normal” (e.g., increase of risk of structures like Municipal Halls within High Risk landslides due to deforestation or illegal logging); and Zones considering that LGUs are expected to be first shift communities from livelihoods which are no longer in line to respond to disasters affecting communities. viable due to changes in the natural conditions of As a result, all structures will be built to more the communities after Yolanda. resilient standards. As we rise above the tragic experience that we Each locality will have an established, reliable had after Typhoon Yolanda, we also encounter a communications system, and protocol to follow life-changing opportunity. As we build back better, after disasters. Banks of essential supplies—such we are also empowering our people—giving them as fuel—as well as heavy equipment will be organized the ability and forewarning necessary to prepare and stored in strategic areas. Ideally, there will be for future calamities, giving them the confidence a ready pool of mechanics and engineers to restart to rebuild the foundations for a stronger life, and and operate this equipment, so that they can be impressing on them the fact that they are not and deployed immediately following disasters. Airports and will never be alone. seaports will also be evaluated, and bolstered to At the same time, the resilience that I have withstand calamities and resume operations at the been constantly emphasizing refers not only to soonest possible time—so that we can likewise ensure the people or communities but, more importantly, the fastest response possible. Regarding electrical to the overall rehabilitation efforts. Thus, I envision infrastructure: Given violent wind strength, electrical an “improved state” for the Philippines that is poles topple one after another because the electrical built through climate-resiliency, inclusiveness, wires pull them together—a domino effect. To scientific integration, and empowerment. minimize this, power lines are now installed with It is high time for the entire world to take more more electrical poles supporting them (i.e., closer seriously the mounting of the new norm brought proximity between poles) to resist the impact of wind. about by climate change. Our interventions are We are also looking at engineering techniques that tailored to give rise to what could withstand the will permit electric lines to snap or disconnect from impacts of the “new normal” conditions. The the electric pole during strong winds to minimize rebuilding process entails developing communities poles pulling one another when one falls down. that do not forget the lessons from the major disasters The fewer poles are downed, the faster we can we have encountered. restore power. No one can predict when the next catastrophe Using the Post-Disaster Needs Assessment will strike. But without doubt, one day, it will— prepared by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and we are determined to break free from the and Management Council (NDRRMC), OPARR cycle of destruction and reconstruction; we are in coordination with the relevant government determined to take charge of our fate and to do agencies, seeks to create a master plan with the everything we can to leave behind a stronger, more goal of rebuilding Yolanda-affected communities to resilient society.

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Photos: Plan International / Hatai Limprayoonyong [email protected] t www.devbusiness.com 30 www.development.asia SPECIALSPECIAL REPORTREPORT Aid Watch Asia’s decade of disaster has spurred a sharper focus on how aid is used

By Sunshine Lichauco de Leon and Karen Emmons

WHEN AID STARTED arriving after Typhoon The FAiTH website tracks all cash and non- Haiyan, there was gratitude but also frustration among cash foreign aid pledged to the Government of the harried bureaucrats in Manila. An outpouring of global Philippines, tallies how much has been received, and goodwill deluged the Philippines with every form of aid, breaks down amounts by donor countries. Users can from cash to emergency supplies and heavy equipment. download details of individual donations. As of 11 April The first pledge was from Indonesia, recalls Richard 2014, the total amount of foreign aid pledged was E. Moya, chief information officer and undersecretary $579,814,960, of which $69,304,478 was pledged as cash at the Department of Budget and Management. “They and $510,510,483 as non-cash. asked us what name to put on the check, and we were By enhancing public access to this type of not sure. I was thankful but frustrated that help was information, FAiTH “augurs well in promoting here, and realized we were not yet prepared to accept transparency as the Philippines begins post-Haiyan that help.” reconstruction,” says James Nugent, director general As one of the world’s most disaster-plagued countries, at the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB’s) Southeast the Philippines has worked hard to bolster the Asia Department. resilience of its far-flung communities and to streamline The aim is to shore up public confidence in the relief efforts. Haiyan, locally called Yolanda, would government’s ability to make best use of the aid it have taken many more lives without these preparations. receives. But with multiple branches of government Nevertheless, the devastation it wrought demanded involved in collating aid from multiple donors, it’s not new efforts to demonstrate that aid was reaching those a simple exercise. “This is chaos being structured,” who needed it most. says Moya. The description could apply to most post- Moya was part of a team tasked with developing an disaster scenarios, where the world’s generosity often online system to track foreign aid channeled through outstrips the ability of the affected country to handle an government agencies and to make this data publicly avalanche of aid from innumerable sources. available. The result is the Foreign Aid Transparency FAiTH is a reflection of the pressure to be Hub (FAiTH), the country’s first attempt at full public accountable and transparent when the post-disaster disclosure of aid channeled through the various arms of aid avalanche hits—pressure that has been placed on its national government. governments since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS ASSOCIATED PHOTO:

MayMMaay 201420201414 DevelopmentDDevvelol pmpmeennt AsiaAAsiia 3131 Expanding rights education has made governments increasingly accountable to the people for whom the aid is intended. Moreover, the popularity of social networking and mobile technologies is making it easier to express grievances. In Indonesia in late 2004, which then had very limited legal guidance for the receipt of international assistance from aid organizations during disasters, “everyone just tripped up and did what they wanted,” recalls Oliver Lacey-Hall, head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) regional office for Asia and the Pacific. “A lot of governments turned around and went, ‘Wow. We were not prepared for this. And we need to make sure we are prepared.’” Even Japan, one of the better disaster responders, says Lacey-Hall, realized after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that it had not sufficiently considered the challenge of managing multiple offers of humanitarian assistance from other countries. Now Lacey-Hall sees governments legislating accountability. New laws being enacted cover “everything from how to conduct yourselves to how our domestic aid system works during disasters and how you can plug into that,” he explains. yet happening sufficiently,” explains Evans, who says Indonesia’s 2009 implementing regulations for its it helped to bring order to the reconstruction efforts in 2007 law on national disaster management, for example, the field. provide predictability about whether and how it will The RAND had its setbacks, with the system breaking ask for assistance, and if so what it expects to get. Japan down frequently. Some organizations had no electricity is revising its guidance, while Myanmar is developing or internet access. The initial ambitions of “doing a framework. Cambodia and Viet Nam are working everything” were scaled back and it took 2 years to with the International Federation of Red Cross and “grow the application,” recalls Evans. It eventually Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) on regulations clarifying evolved into a useful accountability tool. When the BRR how international assistance can best support domestic was accused of fudging the number of houses that had disaster response. been built, a Housing Geospatial Database was added. A key catalyst for all this was the 2004 tsunami, which Every finished house was photographed and uploaded killed more than 130,000 people in Indonesia alone. with GPS coordinates, identifying donor and recipients. With much of Aceh Province and Nias Island That ended the sniping and “provided us credibility,” devastated, the Government of Indonesia set up the says Evans. “The BRR did an amazing job,” says OCHA’s Agency for the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction (BRR) Lacey-Hall. “They oversaw the rebuilding of Aceh in 4 of Aceh and Nias in April 2005, with a 4-year mandate to years and they did it well.” manage the coordination of all recovery projects. Other parts of the region have taken note. In its report Its director, Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, would become on the Indian Ocean tsunami response, The Tsunami a “recovery czar”—a daunting role given that nearly Legacy, the United Nations Development Programme 500 relief organizations were operating in Aceh alone by outlined some breakthrough practices that were the time the recovery phase had gained momentum. introduced in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami. A traffic cop was needed, and Kuntoro was given In Sri Lanka, a housing program let Tamil the job. He built a “control room” by linking project communities design and build 1,000 houses for approvals to BRR’s Recovery Aceh-Nias Database themselves with funding from the Government of (RAND). A short concept note was required explaining India. Homeowners formed community development the proposed project, its transparency and integrity councils that supported each other throughout the controls, as well as consultative processes undertaken reconstruction, providing information and guidance, with local communities, says Kevin Evans, an adviser raising concerns, resolving conflicts, overseeing who headed the BRR’s anticorruption unit. infrastructure projects, and managing funds. In The concept note was posted online through the the Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, extensive RAND for people to view. “It was a tool that allowed consultations were organized to hear from people

us to identify where things were happening and not affected by the tsunami. CORBIS PHOTO:

32 www.development.asia System that OCHA operates for reporting in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) set up in the United Kingdom for development assistance in general and for the longer-term reporting when relief shifts to reconstruction, and the European Disaster Response Information System. The hitch is that these systems rely on data voluntarily inputted, and few organizations, if any, are completely forthcoming. Vijaya Ramachandran, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington, DC, contends that governments need to enforce reporting standards. She finds the United Kingdom government leading the way by requiring all large international nongovernment organizations (NGOs) to report to IATI. Better reporting of aid activities, Ramachandran believes, would help prevent such avoidable mistakes Volunteers unload as children in Aceh who were—after the tsunami— supplies as Haiyan vaccinated against the same virus three times by relief efforts get underway. three organizations working in the same area. “I think if NGOs, governments, and bilateral aid agencies were required to report information on a publicly available website in a standardized format, “The intention is that you won’t eliminate that kind of behavior but you would reduce it,” she says. the last peso must be The Philippines is not making grand claims about FAiTH’s game-changing attributes. Rather, it sees accounted for.” FAiTH as a first step toward enhancing aid transparency and accountability in its disaster-blighted backyard. —Richard E. Moya, chief information FAiTH is a work in progress. Much of the aid officer at the Department of Budget and delivered to the Philippines outside national Management, Government of the Philippines government channels isn’t tracked by the system, and it can’t show how much non-cash aid has been received in total, as opposed to pledged. In Pakistan, after floods in 2010, the IFRC launched But there are plans for a FAiTH 2.0 with more data a weekly 1-hour nationally broadcast talkback radio on how government agencies have used the aid as well show with specialists answering questions from people as a social networking component allowing citizens to affected by the disaster, such as how to apply for shelter comment via Facebook and Twitter. or livelihoods programs. In the Philippines, the Red “Citizens can confirm or debunk those statements,” Cross has used Facebook, Twitter, Google +, Instagram, explains Moya. “For example, if an agency said 10,000 and SMS to hear from Haiyan-affected people. people were hired to clean up a certain area and “People do have a voice, technology is the equalizer,” someone says there are only 200 people living in that says Will Rogers, the global beneficiary communications area, they can comment and that will be part of the coordinator at IFRC. The use of the technology, he public record.” believes, is helping drive the paradigm shift taking place Approvals are underway for a single multicurrency in aid accountability. “Hopefully, a mix of traditional and treasury account to make it easier for foreign new technologies will allow communities to drive their governments, institutions, and individuals to deposit own recovery.” donations, while improving transparency. Data from The push for affected people to be engaged in their this account will end up at FAiTH, where the data own recovery unites these programs with national entry process will be upgraded to enable government efforts, such as FAiTH, and with global initiatives geared agencies to update the website themselves when they at improving aid effectiveness. receive pledges. Three international systems are attempting to create “We are learning and taking steps to improve FAiTH standardized real-time tracking of who is doing what in as many ways as possible,” says Moya. “The intention and where on aid. These are the Financial Tracking is that the last peso must be accounted for.”

May 2014 Development Asia 33 OPINION

Takehiko Nakao is ADB’s President and the Chairman of its Board of Directors. He took office in April 2013, following an extensive career in international finance and development. He has held senior positions in Japan’s Ministry of Finance, and has published books and numerous papers on financial and economic topics.

likely have killed many more only a few years earlier. INVESTING IN Moreover, the region has embraced a host of declarations and action plans for disaster risk management, including the world’s RESILIENCE first legally binding agreement in the field—the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Disaster risk will check Asia’s economic growth Emergency Response. Disaster unless tackled quickly risk management legislation and coordinating agencies have been established across the region as By Takehiko Nakao awareness grows of the need for strengthened resilience. hree years ago, Filipinos as they struggled with Yet, progress has lagged where it my homeland extreme adversity. counts: embedding resilience into was blindsided by The challenge facing Asia and national development. calamity. The 2011 the Pacific is to create another kind The region’s growth path can earthquake and of resilience—disaster resilience— only be truly sustainable when Ttsunami in Japan was a stark at the national and regional level. the risks posed by disasters reminder of nature’s power and By disaster resilience, I mean the are reflected in the investment underscored the importance of capacity of countries, communities, decisions taken by governments being prepared for the next time businesses and households not just and communities. The potential disaster strikes. to absorb shocks, but to anticipate for an earthquake and tsunami, for Of course, we all hope there them, thereby ensuring that they example, to wipe out crucial public won’t be a next time. But here don’t jeopardize economic growth and private infrastructure should in Asia and the Pacific, we are and development. influence decisions on design and alarmingly exposed. Our region Disaster risks can never be positioning. Jobs programs should has an outsized share—more eliminated entirely, but they can include measures to diversify than 50%—of the global disaster be significantly reduced. Since the livelihoods so communities are not death toll, and accounts for Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, reliant on one vulnerable industry. more than three-quarters of progress has been made on several Environmental assessments the world’s damage bill due to fronts, often using innovative can examine the impact of natural hazards. In 2011, economic approaches. Sophisticated early proposed investments on hazard losses reached a staggering warning systems now crisscross vulnerability, like the effect of a $260 billion, or more than 2% the region alerting authorities new road on storm water drainage. of GDP. to earthquakes and tsunamis. The public sector needs to develop These frailties were brought Advances in hazard mapping have more efficient and effective ways home to me late last year when the raised public awareness about of delivering crucial services Philippines was struck by potential risks. New evacuation during relief, recovery and Typhoon Haiyan. During a recent procedures, combined with better reconstruction efforts. visit to Tacloban I witnessed the enforcement and greater public A wide range of gaps and devastation caused by the typhoon, awareness, have reduced death obstacles clouds that vision.

but also the resilient nature of tolls from disasters that would Disaster risk information ADB PHOTOS:

34 www.development.asia is unreliable and patchy in and reinsurance, which can cushion With Asia’s urban population some countries, and funding communities from the financial expected to double to 3 billion for risk reduction is similarly impact of calamity. people by 2050, it is imperative wanting across all levels of Any blueprint for action to build climate resilience into government. People with must also deal squarely with development projects. Climate minimal understanding of climate change, which is change adaptation and disaster development often staff national increasing our exposure to risk reduction should go hand in disaster management offices, natural hazards in unpredictable hand, as they do in Tajikistan where while many local governments ways. Extreme weather events ADB is working with the national lack the expertise and capacity to are expected to become more government on a system to store integrate risks into their broader frequent and intense as climate and share data on climate-related policies. Several countries lack change unfolds. Several of disaster risks. Unfortunately, appropriate institutional the region’s countries are climate risks remain largely arrangements and clear mandates. particularly vulnerable to unaudited across the region, with We need to close these gaps rising sea levels, and many of fewer than 20% of our cities having quickly. A good start would be its urban centers are located conducted climate risk assessments. to promote the use of risk maps in hazard-prone areas such as We must do better. Our region to identify hazard-prone areas, coasts and floodplains. Urban faces a future of frequent and and follow up with risk sensitive congestion means the poor severe natural hazards. But if we act land use plans. We could also often live in settlements quickly, and we act together, there’s make better use of disaster risk offering little protection from nothing inevitable about the losses financing tools like insurance the elements. that may accompany them.

The region’s growth path can only be truly sustainable when the risks posed by disasters are reflected in the investment decisions taken by governments.

A visit to communities hit by Haiyan underscored the importance of disaster resilience.

May 2014 Development Asia 35 ADVERTISEMENTONCE

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Tacloban, Philippines, after Typhoon Haiyan. © Gregg Yan / WWF-Philippines

36 www.development.asia REVIEW

BLUE FUTURE: IF MAYORS RULED THE GREAT ESCAPE: PROTECTING WATER THE WORLD: HEALTH, WEALTH, AND FOR PEOPLE AND THE DYSFUNCTIONAL NATIONS, THE ORIGINS OF INEQUALITY PLANET FOREVER RISING CITIES By Angus Deaton By Maude Barlow By Benjamin Barber Princeton University Press The New Press, Yale University Press September 2013, $29.95 January 2014, $26.95 November 2013, $30 Poverty is decreasing but in many The final book of a trilogy on water The planet faces challenges of parts of the world—even in countries scarcity—a particularly pressing unprecedented complexity, which with fewer poor people—inequality concern in Asia—argues for water the author believes are better is on the rise. The question to be recognized as a fundamental resolved by cities rather than states. energizing this book is: “How much human right. The United Nations Benjamin Barber is an American does this matter?” (UN) obliged in 2010 by declaring the political theorist and author. He is Angus Deaton is the Dwight D. human right to water and sanitation, currently a senior research scholar at Eisenhower professor of economics but as Maude Barlow notes, water the Center on Philanthropy and Civil and international affairs at the remains scarce and mismanaged. Society of the Graduate Center, The Woodrow Wilson School of Public Barlow says demand for clean City University of New York. and International Affairs and water easily outstrips supply and “The book is organized around the economics department at too many people go without as a short portraits of activist mayors Princeton University. result. She is cofounder of the Blue such as New York City’s Michael “Refreshingly, Deaton … reaches Planet Project, which advocates the Bloomberg, London’s Boris Johnson, beyond a purely economic narrative human right to water, and chairs the Moscow’s Yuri Luzhkov, and to encompass often neglected board of Washington-based Food & Delhi’s Sheila Dikshit. The book is dimensions of progress such as Water Watch. convincing in its claim … that the better health. ‘The great escape’ he “Everything about our leaders of cities have ‘the political has in mind is the one from early contemporary world—from position to really change people’s death as well as deprivation that global politics to food production lives.’”—Foreign Affairs had begun with Britain’s industrial technology—has made our water “Barber argues, I think revolution.”—The Economist supply unsustainable, argues persuasively, that city governments “The Great Escape is a deeply Canadian activist Barlow.”—Slate are closer to their people than compassionate book, but it should “In the introduction, she offers the national ones and as such are better not be read only for its insights into book ‘as a guide…to clarify the values at winning the trust of citizens— how economic growth has liberated and principles needed to protect the though the same goes for rural forms hundreds of millions of people from planet’s fresh water.’ The book is then of local government.” the clutches of poverty. Deaton also quartered by four guiding principles: —Financial Times provides very lucid explanations on ‘water is a human right;’ ‘water is a how poverty, health, and inequality common heritage;’ ‘water has rights, are measured. These are important too;’ (and) ‘water can teach us how to issues that the thinking citizen live together.’” —The Globe and Mail should be aware of.”—Mint

May 2014 Development Asia 37 FEATURES Bride Price Girls in Bangladesh are studying harder and marrying later due to a path-breaking cash transfer program

By Saad Hammadi

t Pakshia village in 15, and 66% of girls marry before they supported by the World Bank, has southwest Bangladesh, turn 18, according to UNICEF’s 2011 since 1994 provided for girls a stipend light bulbs tied to State of the World’s Children report. of around $2 over a 6-month period barbed wire fences mark In this setting, Muslima Akter, 17, is to pursue secondary education. Even the border with India, something of a rebel. She has resisted this small amount allowed recipients Athe only factor distinguishing it from her father’s attempts to marry her to buy stationery and books and to countless villages across Bangladesh. off. “My father still wants me to get photocopy other materials. Most Life is hard, and many families married so he does not have to bear important, it means their education struggle to provide for several my expenses,” says Muslima, who is did not stretch family finances, as children. Men are the breadwinners in her final year of secondary school. the stipend comes with a tuition and women the homemakers. Young That she has held out so long is due fee waiver. women, considered an economic mainly to a landmark Government To qualify, families must guarantee burden, are often married off early— of Bangladesh initiative to persuade that the girl won’t marry before if possible to a wealthy groom. families to let their girls finish school. graduation, a measure devised to About a third of Bangladeshi women The Female Secondary School help contain Bangladesh’s soaring aged 20–24 are married by the age of Assistance Project (FSSAP), population while encouraging the PHOTO: CORBIS PHOTO:

38 www.development.asia “The stipend that the government provided saved our education.” —Rehana Akter, Bangladeshi college graduate and schoolteacher

program supported 6.9 million of gender parity in education in girls between grades 6 and 10. By Bangladesh, laying the groundwork the end of the program in 2008, for more inclusive economic growth. girls’ secondary school enrollment It has certainly changed Muslima’s had climbed to 56% of the total life. Her family of five scrape a living population, compared with just 33% at a small settlement by a railway before the program. track. Her father is unemployed and A recent report on the scheme’s her mother feeds the family with impact found that the FSSAP money she earns by selling milk. contributed to boosting between 1.6 Muslima says she felt liberated and 2 years the time spent by girls when her school waived her tuition at school. Moreover, it helped lift fees and provided her a monthly participating women’s marrying age stipend under FSSAP. “If it wasn’t for between 1.4 and 2.3 years, with some my mother and this school, I would evidence it has lifted the marrying not have been able to complete my age for men as well. studies,” she says tearfully. “Bangladesh is probably a pioneer Even a couple of extra years in in the world for implementing such study can make a difference at an a large-scale project exclusively for individual and the national level. girls’ education,” says Mohammad The report on FSSAP’s impact, Zulfiquar Rahman, deputy director conducted for the World Bank, notes at the Directorate of Secondary and that an additional year of education Higher Education at the Government increases labor force participation of Bangladesh. of married women between 2.4% The FSSAP was among the first and 5.3%. “The changes that are conditional cash transfer (CCT) occurring [among women in programs introduced in Asia. CCTs Bangladesh] are due largely to the provide stipends to poor households education they are getting,” says in return for commitments to positive Serajul Islam, professor emeritus at behavioral changes such as enrolling the University of Dhaka. children at school, ensuring regular Still, keeping girls at school was a education of girls. Students must attendance, and getting regular challenge due mostly to a mindset at attend at least 75% of classes and health care treatments and checkups. places like Pakshia that views early obtain a minimum average mark of Highly successful in Latin America, marriage of young women as a form 45%. The qualifying benchmark for CCTs are gaining traction in Asia as of family debt relief. Early marriage is results was kept relatively low to an important poverty reduction tool. rooted in an attitude that girls “would ensure that deprived girls who might “CCTs kill two birds with one not be as helpful in earning money have difficulty getting higher marks stone,” explains Sri Wening or making a contribution,” says were not excluded from the scheme, Handayani, principal social Islam. Hence, the role designated for says Mohammad Waheduzzaman, development specialist at the Asian girl children is within the family—a secondary education officer at Development Bank (ADB). “The housewife doing the domestic chores Sharsha upazila (subdistrict)—which cash transfer creates household and raising children. includes Pakshia, and is one of the 125 purchasing power while, at the same Muslima says the situation is subdistricts where the World Bank time, conditionality enables human improving, but notes, “We have implemented the program. investment in schooling and health.” had friends who studied with us The results have been startling. Handayani says the FSSAP has but dropped out (of school) after Over more than a decade, the delivered “huge dividends” in terms marriage.” This is common in rural

May 2014 Development Asia 39 areas where childbirth often quickly her responsibilities as a mother and Many of the follows marriage and wives are a teacher. expected to take care of elderly in- Times have changed since girls who laws and household chores. Rehana left school. In the mid- Schools, too, have been strict on 1990s, only a couple of girls from her completed the eligibility conditions under the neighborhood completed secondary FSSAP. Abdus Samad, principal school but now there are several. secondary of Pakshia Secondary School, says “Two-thirds of students in my that in 2008 there were a few cases classes are girls,” says Rehana, who schooling in of girls within the stipend program is now a schoolteacher herself. getting married even while they “Nowadays, women would not get Sharsha under were studying. “We stopped a few married until their intermediate stipends at the time, which set an or undergrad.” the FSSAP example for those studying under the Selina Akter, 22, in her last program,” says Samad. semester of undergrad program subsequently Rehana Akter, 28, has become in business administration at the a role model for girls in Pakshia. Rajshahi University, is another young completed Not only did she complete her woman with ambitions beyond secondary school as the top student marriage. (Akter is a common university in every grade, she also acquired surname for girls in rural Bangladesh. a bachelor’s degree in education Muslima, Rehana, and Selina are studies. More and is currently pursuing a master’s not related despite their shared program in Bengali. Rehana has family name.) than a dozen also become an assistant teacher A former beneficiary of the in a secondary school. The mother FSSAP as a student at Mariam from a single of a 7-year-old daughter, Rehana Memorial School between 2002 balances family, work, and studies in and 2006, Selina aspires to become school are a way that was impossible not many a banker, but before that she plans years ago. to complete her master’s degree in currently “During our time, parents did not business administration. want to educate their children too Many of the girls who completed pursuing far and if you were a girl, this would their secondary schooling in Sharsha be out of the question,” says Rehana, under the FSSAP subsequently medical who received the FSSAP stipend completed university studies. More along with her younger sister. than a dozen from a single school are degrees. “The stipend that the government currently pursuing medical degrees. provided saved our education,” Recent graduates have chosen Rehana says. As a grade 6 student in professions in teaching and law. 1996, Rehana was entitled to a tuition This attitudinal shift has occurred waiver and $2 every 6 months. She in part because families are now was also entitled to an additional seeing the benefits of keeping their stipend equivalent to $6.50 every girl children in school. Income year for topping her secondary generated from ensuing employment school class. can offset or even eliminate the Rehana married soon after economic liability girls represent for secondary school but that did not many families. end her studies. Usually, family Islam says, “Helping the girls in responsibilities overwhelm other respect of tuition has been very priorities after marriage, she says. beneficial for the girls and also for Besides, women in conservative their family. Without the stipends, families are constantly judged many of these girls would not have on their activities especially if been able to continue their studies. they are living with in-laws. But her As a whole I see this as a very husband has been supportive of beneficial and useful program.” This her continuing education, despite does not mean that programs like the

40 www.development.asia AFTER THE STORM

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Learn more at ChildFund.org May 2014 Development Asia 41 FSSAP can single-handedly achieve Not long ago, a life outside gender parity in education and the domestic chores didn’t workplace. “CCTs are just one of seem to be an option for many instruments,” says ADB’s many Bangladeshi girls. Handayani. “Success (in programs like FSSAP) isn’t due only to the stipend. It’s also the poverty targeting and community involvement. Also, there are supply-side factors like teacher training. Most important is the political will of the government.” More work is required to ensure equal treatment in Bangladesh schools for poor students of both genders. Since 2006, ADB has supported the Secondary Education Sector Development Program, providing conditional Girls under stipends to 150,000 students the secondary school assistance across 53 upazilas annually, training program have been new teachers, and upgrading found to marry at school facilities. an older age. These efforts will be expanded from this year under the 10-year Secondary Education Sector Investment Program, targeting 3 million students annually—boys and girls—with a sharp focus on secondary school completion as well as enrollment. “Efforts are being made to ensure the stipend is received by the neediest households,” says Eisuke Tajima, a social sector specialist at ADB. The new program will address has been highly motivating for both eligible for a stipend, irrespective of changing realities, he notes, such as teachers and the recipient schools,” socioeconomic condition. the fact that girls now outnumber he says. Under the new program, applicants boys in grade 6 but often drop out The FSSAP, which ended in 2008, are assessed on 18 variables before graduation. Moreover, it has been remodeled and extended comprising their living standards and will support advanced teaching under the Secondary Education household spending on essentials and learning programs using Quality and Access Enhancement like electricity and water. The stipend innovative technology, prevocational Project, which began in September has risen as well, to account for and vocational programs, and 2008 and will expire in June 2014. rising inflation. examination reforms. “Previously, the stipend program The new fine-grained approach The FSSAP has also aims for was designed for girls as they were is a testament to the success of impacts beyond the stipend, falling behind; but after a midterm the FSSAP: girls’ enrollment now including infrastructure review in 2004, we came to an outpaces boys’, notes Rahman, enhancements at schools like agreement with the World Bank allowing future assistance to be better water supply and sanitation. to develop a poverty targeted targeted at the neediest rather than It also channeled financial aid to program,” says Mohammad Zulfiquar across the board. schools that maintained outstanding Rahman, deputy director at the The program is set for another results in mathematics and Directorate of Secondary and Higher sequel. Rahman says the new English, says Sharsha secondary Education who now oversees the program is likely to be extended education officer Mohammad new program. Previously, every girl beyond 2014 and its coverage Waheduzzaman. “The incentive student in secondary school was expanded to 215 subdistricts. PHOTOS: CORBIS (TOP), ADB PHOTOS:

42 www.development.asia ADVERTISEMENT

May 2014 Development Asia 43 FEATURES ACCOUNTING FOR NATURE Putting a price on the natural environment is now feasible—perhaps even imperative

By Rupert Walker

an a coral reef have environmentally literate,” says services in 2010 at €545 billion a dollar value? In a Nessim Ahmad, director of the ($756 billion, just under 1% of world commercialized world, environment and safeguards GDP), due mainly to the absence of most things need a division at the Asian Development adequate protection policies. price tag to be fully Bank (ADB). “Trees might be cut down to build Cappreciated. But a push to price the Still, the degradation of natural a house, yet although the value natural environment has a loftier aim: capital receives considerably less of the house will be recorded the promoting sustainable development. attention in national accounts timber will not, which is contrary to The concept of natural capital than the depreciation of man- basic double-entry bookkeeping,” accounting (NCA), also known made capital assets. Losses from says Dasgupta. as wealth accounting, has existed deforestation, topsoil erosion, Traditional income reporting for decades as economists have and the loss of marine and coastal methodologies such as GDP mulled how to measure economic resources are underplayed or even cannot record the trade-offs development in a way that omitted, on a mistaken assumption between, for example, draining a recognizes the importance of natural that nature is abundant, always wetland to make way for a shopping assets, as well as man-made ones. regenerative, and cannot earn mall and considering whether Until now, national budgets have invested returns. cutting down upstream forests rarely acknowledged the value “Nature is a mosaic of self- for timber and minerals is worth of services provided by saltwater generative but degradable assets,” the risk of floods downstream, wetlands, coral reefs, and the like, says Sir Partha Dasgupta, professor argues Dasgupta. according to Wealth Accounting and emeritus of economics at the “The GDP fetish was a response the Valuation of Ecosystem Services University of Cambridge and a to the 1930s depression in the West; (WAVES), a global partnership pioneer of NCA. and as a true measure of a country’s of national governments and It depreciates if it is misused, and income it is inadequate, especially international organizations that the impact of this depreciation on for developing countries.” promotes NCA. The result, it says, national economic well-being is Dasgupta stresses the importance has been decades of environmental now being measured. The World of nature as life’s support system, and economic loss. Bank estimates that natural capital especially for the poor because Now, there is a sense of urgency, degradation costs India $36 billion they are more dependent on it fueled by fear of climate change and to $124 billion annually, or between for sustenance and have far fewer the effects of rapid industrialization 2.6% and 8.8% of 2009 gross options than the rich if it is damaged. in the developing world. But there domestic product (GDP). The losses The chronically poor often depend is also growing confidence that the in the People’s Republic of China on nature simply to survive, whether tools to measure the value of natural (PRC) in 2007 were $76 billion. it’s grazing land for livestock or a assets are finally available. In a 2008 report, The Cost of stream as a water source. “Environmentalists have become Policy Inaction, Leon Braat and NCA has gained significant more economically literate, and Patrick ten Brink estimated losses traction since the 2012 Rio+20 economists have become more from the destruction of ecosystem conference on sustainable

44 www.development.asia $ $ $ $

development, and from a recognition that the Millennium “Environmentalists have become Development Goals (MDGs) paid insufficient attention more economically literate, and to the deleterious effects of environmental damage on social economists have become more well-being, according to Priya Shyamsundar, program director environmentally literate.” at the South Asian Network for Development and Environmental —Nessim Ahmad, director of environment and Economics (SANDEE). safeguards, ADB Since then, following broad consultation within the United Nations (UN) and among Division of Environmental Policy from those sources should be development agencies, the Implementation (DEPI), one of aggregated, and the consequences UN System of Environmental- the seven divisions of the United of their degradation or depletion Economic Accounting (SEEA) Nations Environment Programme. deducted from its accounts. Central Framework has become SEEA incorporates the Critically, the adoption of the the global—albeit limited—standard environment within a country’s SEEA “marked a recognition that for measuring the environment and existing accounts. It captures GDP, as currently measured, its relationship with economic and both resource use and the was an unsuitable indicator of human activities. damaging effects of pollution and sustainable development,” says Properly implemented, it would degradation as well as the store of Shyamsundar, who adds that NCA “better inform development wealth contained within land and is not a substitute for GDP, but a policy through improved sectoral water, such as energy and mineral parallel measurement. planning and more equitable resources, timber, and fisheries. It is important “to correct the social allocations, and also helps It makes intuitive sense that mistaken way a nation’s income poverty alleviation,” says Pushpam a nation’s stock of physical and capital stock has been Kumar, chief of the ecosystems assets—land, water, atmosphere, traditionally valued and to remove services economics unit at the and ecosystems—and the flows the asymmetrical accounting of ILLUSTRATION: CLEONE BARADAS ILLUSTRATION:

May 2014 Development Asia 45 Erosion and landslides caused by deforestation put a dent in business operations and man-made and natural capital,” infrastructure investment. says Kumar. Yet, NCA is not a new idea. “The concepts have been developed by economists and academics during the past 3 to 4 decades, so the adoption of the SEEA in 2012 is really a rediscovery and formalization of NCA,” notes Ahmad of ADB. The catalyst for this shift was the 1987 Brundtland Report, which coined the term “sustainable development” to describe “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” That spurred some economists to call for natural capital’s inclusion in estimates of a nation’s capital stock and the flows that emanate from it. The first SEEA in 1993 aimed to develop environmentally adjusted aggregates such as “green GDP” to complement conventional GDP. Since then the focus has shifted to more nuanced objectives. The 2012 SEEA is a multipurpose organizing framework of economic and adjustments to a country’s domestic assistance program underway in environmental statistics to inform products, by including the depletion the PRC. “Many countries in Asia are policy on sustainable development of natural assets in addition to the working toward its implementation,” and derive comparable indicators standard consumption of man-made says Alfieri. “This requires a paradigm and indexes. capital,” says Alfieri. change involving close collaboration The objective now is not to give “Although many companies between data producers and policy a snapshot of the countries’ natural account for proven and probable and decision makers.” capital, but to analyze the change reserves of oil or minerals, most A more significant limitation in its flow—stocks of mineral and countries do not incorporate than its optionality is that the SEEA energy resources and their extraction their value in national accounts,” does not account for changes in over time, for instance. she notes. Exceptions include ecosystem conditions and services, SEEA follows similar accounting Australia, Canada, Indonesia, the particularly intangible services that structures as that of GDP, adjusting Netherlands, and Norway where are not valued in the marketplace them to account for the cost of hard commodities are a major (e.g., the storm buffer value of environmental degradation (e.g., component of their economies. mangrove forests). deforestation) or depletion of a Countries are encouraged to The price of excluding such natural asset (e.g., from mining), implement it but the SEEA can’t be services can be high. In a 2007 paper explains Alessandra Alfieri, chief enforced—although Eurostat, the published by SANDEE, Saudamini of the environmental-economic statistical office of the European Das established from statistical accounting section at the UN Union (EU), mandates the 28 EU analyses that if the mangrove forests Statistics Division. countries to report on selected that had existed in 1950 had still All natural assets fall within the accounts. Among the 15 countries been in place, 92% of the deaths scope of the SEEA. “It provides implementing SEEA are India, would have been avoided when a the framework for valuing natural Indonesia, the Philippines, and super cyclone hit the state of Orissa assets with a market value as well as Viet Nam, and there is a Canadian on the east coast of India in 1999. PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS ASSOCIATED PHOTO:

46 www.development.asia spills, coral bleaching, and red tides It’s a relatively new science, and using data collected from local an aggregated national snapshot of technical studies. such benefits is not yet feasible. “It Ahmad points out that the is necessary to start with specific practical policy implications of NCA sectors such as forests or water need to be further demonstrated, and then move toward national although physical data needed to aggregation,” says Shyamsundar. value land, water, soil, forests, and Additional factors will be included other natural assets has improved in wealth measurement over time dramatically, making its application as data accumulates and models more feasible. become more sophisticated. NCA’s gradual evolution means This appears to be happening. it can now help examine how gains Kumar says that DEPI, from its base from mineral depletion compare in Nairobi, currently maps physical with potential gains from other stock in regions across 20 countries resources—minerals versus timber, in Africa, estimates shadow prices, for instance, says Shyamsundar. and is attempting to create a more But it is a complex issue. Forests robust framework to help scale these are not just a source of timber but accounts to the country level. also of fuel, fodder, sustenance, However, more data collection and medicinal plants for poor and experience at the micro communities. In addition, loss of level is required to develop a forests reduces carbon dioxide baseline for measuring biodiversity absorption, which affects the as an indicator of the health global community—and that is of ecosystems. hard to incorporate in local cost– “Ecosystems services whose benefit analyses. benefits are intangible and diverse It is also a challenge to assess are much harder to value,” notes She estimated that the value of a how income gained from mineral Ahmad. “There are methodologies hectare of land in the study area with extraction compares to damage available, such as calculating intact mangrove forests was $8,670 caused by pollution, soil erosion, and contingent valuations, conducting (after adjusting for the probability harm to ecosystems. surveys, and creating hypothetical of severe storms), higher than the A step toward quantifying demand curves, but they need to be $5,000 market value of cleared land. these trade-offs was taken at credible to carry weight with policy In addition, the cost of regenerating the 44th session of the UN makers. Most importantly, we need one hectare of mangroves was $110, Statistical Commission last year, more case studies, which should be much lower than the anticipated which agreed on an experimental conducted at the local level.” benefits from regeneration. ecosystem accounting framework Valuation techniques are There are projects underway to improve land-use management improving. But “there is less clarity that aim to estimate the value of by comparing alternative uses. about how the knowledge gained mangrove forests in Viet Nam and It looks at all services provided can inform government policy in wetlands in Cambodia, the Lao by an ecosystem such as food specific terms,” says Shyamsundar. People’s Democratic Republic, and drinking water production, The challenge now is to start building and the Philippines. In these and carbon sequestration, water sector-specific accounts to provide other countries, mangroves are purification, recreational use, and practical information for decision emerging as important sources of even risk mitigation. makers about trade-offs between timber, aquaculture, biodiverse Though not yet a standard, this resource use and conservation. habitats, storm and flood protection, system aims to reflect wealth, After all, as Kumar points out, and recreation. not just income, by establishing valuation of natural capital is “by In the Philippines, WAVES is an asset’s “shadow price” derived no means a panacea.” It is a tool to assisting efforts to attach a monetary from intangible benefits that don’t ensure more robust and objective value to coastal waters by examining have a commercial value, explains economic estimates, which in turn the costs of destructive fishing, oil Kumar of DEPI. should facilitate better policy.

May 2014 Development Asia 47 ADVERTISEMENT

48 www.development.asia FEATURES

Missing LINKS Women are vital but neglected components of Asia’s production chains

By Alexandra A. Seno

ike most women in Varanasi, India’s ancient silk- Up to 800 million employment-aged women making capital, Adira Salam works from her spare worldwide have no productive economic role, and their and dimly lit home, helping create the magnificent number could rise to 1 billion by 2020, according to textiles for which her city is famous. consultants Booz & Co. Poor countries account for 90% Until recently, Salam’s work yielded no of these women. Leconomic gain, but a simple act of recognition has Though Asia does better on some measures than other transformed her life. With her husband, a master weaver, regions, its performance is uneven. In South Asia less she produces high-quality fabrics for United States (US)- than 10% of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) based nongovernment organization (NGO) Nest, which are run by women, whereas in East and Central Asia more works with artisans in developing countries to bring their than a third of SMEs have women at the helm. products to the global market. “Gender inequality and economic growth is a two- Now, she receives payment through Nest, allowing her way relationship,” says Amy Liu, senior lecturer in to save money to avoid the high debt levels that plague the international and development economics at the city’s weaving community. “I enjoy my work...I like having Australia National University’s (ANU) Crawford School money,” she says. of Public Policy. “If you improve gender equality, you The world economy would look very different—and improve economic development. Women are part of more equitable—if more women were able to transcend the labor force, and when they are part of the economy cultural expectations to play an active, income- but are given equal opportunities to fully engage, it generating role. Asia and the Pacific would be better off has impact.” by $89 billion annually if women were able to maximize Today, however, many Asian women are invisible their earning potential, according to the recent United in a financial sense. Salam used to be one of these Nations Women report, Progress of the World’s Women: women, and indeed most of the women in the textile PHOTO: AFP ; ADB PHOTO:

PHOTO: ADB PHOTO: In Pursuit of Justice. industry—even at her high-quality end of the production

May 2014 Development Asia 49 type manufacturing or services like beauty shops or food preparation. Many of them were started by women, who own an impressive 62% of registered companies in Cambodia. Female-owned SMEs are also growing quickly in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Viet Nam. Over the last 2 decades, a combination of improved government policies, private sector initiatives, and enlightened transnational activism have paved the way for greater opportunities for enterprising women throughout Traditional views on women’s domestic the region. roles can change Getting more women into business can be a key to when they start contributing to the economic growth. In East Asia and the Pacific, where GDP household income. increases of above 5% for cities are not unusual, more than half of listed enterprises are owned by women. The global average for the developing world is 34%. In Latin America and the Caribbean, it is about 37%; in the Middle East and Northern Africa, 18%; and in South Asia, 15%. Women have also proven to be good consumers, forming a demographic that new markets for goods and services have emerged to serve. Linda Scott, the DP world chair for entrepreneurship and innovation at the University of Oxford’s Said Business School in the UK, describes it as a “shadow economy,” since much of it is either not monetized or has long been trapped in the informal labor sector, as in Salam’s case. Better access to But that economy is gradually coming out of the microcredit and shadows as women start to earn salaries. financing can help women establish Scott told branding publication BrandiQ that better themselves as communication, coupled with women’s gains in wage earners. economic access, was opening doors to new markets and opportunities. This can have a marked development chain—remain silent partners. While the actual weaving impact, as research shows that women are most likely to is done by the men, the women are hugely important to use disposable income for important family needs such as production as they do all the preparatory and finishing schooling for their children. work—from spinning the bobbins to the cutwork and “The women’s economy … is more clearly marked with a finishing fabric edges. concern for human capital, so getting women more power “However, in most cases the women are invisible pieces and money has a positive ripple effect into a community’s of the production chain—they are not paid for their work, future,” Scott told BrandiQ. and do not receive the same sense of pride in the finished Getting to that endgame, however, is easier said than product,” says Chris Van Bergen, director of partnerships done. The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap and development at Nest, the NGO that now pays many Report finds a strong statistical link between countries women weavers for their work, including Salam who now with the most competitive business environments and receives up to Rs50,000 ($803) annually. their ability to provide equal opportunities to men and More than a decade of attention to the problem has women, making these countries attractive for commerce. made a difference. In fact, a critical episode in Asia’s But there are still barriers to creating business narrative of development has been the rise of women in environments that are inclusive of women. business and social roles. On legal rights alone, women still lag behind men. In Cambodia, there are a third more enterprises today As the World Bank report Women, Business and the than 2 years ago. A new crop of female entrepreneurs Law 2014 points out, “In the past 50 years women’s helped drive that expansion. According to the Asia legal status has improved all over the world. But Foundation, a majority of businesses in Cambodia are many laws still make it difficult for women to fully modest operations—about 90% have four or fewer participate in economic life whether by getting jobs employees and most do buy-and-sell, cottage industry- or starting businesses.” PHOTOS: AFP (TOP), ADB PHOTOS:

50 www.development.asia In Nepal, it was only in 2002 that laws were passed of Liverpool, UK, points out that in countries like India, allowing single daughters under age 35 to inherit property. money might be earned by women but assets are In many places, vital elements of property ownership and ultimately controlled by the husbands. access to capital are not as easy for a female entrepreneur Such thinking has returned the spotlight to what it as for a man. means to empower women meaningfully. In the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Now, policy makers are conscious that providing access Philippines, a married woman still needs her husband’s to capital is a preliminary step. True empowerment consent to get a loan. requires education and training to open avenues for a The issue, explains Liu of ANU, is that gender better life. inequality is often viewed as unconnected to the wider “There is growing evidence that training…where it economy. “All broad-based policies, such as industrial can have an effect on livelihood—like in giving business and trade policies, should take into account gender training or being taught how to use a sewing machine— [impact] because the effects are across the board,” means that women are more likely to stay in the labor she points out. force and continue to earn,” says Visaria. Progress, then, has been gradual. Edna Aquino, a Investing in women pays off. In Indonesia, women have development consultant on women’s rights who has gained improved access to capital and better legal status managed projects in South and Southeast Asia as well as after learning new skills. As a result, small businesses Africa, says, “There are still a lot of challenges, but one owned by women in the country are flourishing, with of the main successes has been in raising consciousness new ventures on the rise and existing ones enjoying about the potential of women.” solid growth.

Women have also proven to be good consumers, forming a demographic that new markets for goods and services have emerged to serve.

Aquino believes that identifying and spotlighting Adira Salam already possessed useful skills in a craft “agents of change” has a profound impact as these role handed down through generations. What she has models show new generations of women how they can learned to do only recently is enhance the marketability gain control over their financial destinies. She points of those skills by working cooperatively with similarly to the demonstration effect of women succeeding in skilled local women. business as a key factor. Male objections against women’s The village wives have formed a craft cooperative, advancement can change once their salaries start to ease pooling their skills and resources to try to level the the household’s financial burden. financial playing field with male weavers. Through One area of palpable progress has been the Nest, Salam and her colleagues have taken orders implementation of women-focused programs providing from Maiyet, a cult luxury fashion label in which British small loans or microcredit to people who might otherwise entrepreneur Richard Branson has invested and be considered credit risks by lending institutions. These which Hollywood celebrity Jennifer Lopez patronizes. small sums help spawn ventures that can improve the lives Maiyet pays wages above the norm in support of of entire families traditional craftsmanship, and has made a long-term “Microcredit is probably the most important policy commitment to use Varanasi textiles. Its garments show tool to improve women’s access to capital,” says Sujata regularly in Paris, and sell in high-end boutiques in Europe Visaria, an economist who studies microfinance in India. and the US, as well as through luxury online retailers like Today, 70% of the 20 million people globally who receive Net-a-Porter. microcredit are women. Salam has been told that her handiwork is worn But it’s far too early to declare victory. Microcredit on the catwalks of the world’s most glamorous cities, has also triggered a rethink of whether success can be and the news gives her pleasure and purpose. But her measured by established metrics. Supriya Garikipati, chief gratification is grounded, like her work, in her family: senior lecturer in development studies at the University “I contribute to the household.”

May 2014 Development Asia 51 FEATURES

52 www.development.asia FEATURES DEVELOPMENT AGENDA MAY JUNE SEPTEMBER 4–7 : 3rd Forest Science Forum and 1–6 : World Water Week 12th International Conference on Bio-Based Composites in Pan-Pacific Region – International Union of Forest 2–5 : 47th Asian Development Research Organization 1–10 : 6th International Training Bank Annual Meeting Beijing, PRC Course on Climate Risk Astana, Kazakhstan 8 : World Oceans Day Management in a Changing 5–6 : Forests Asia 10–27 : 26th Human Rights Council Environment – ADPC Summit – Center – United Nations (UN) Bangkok, Thailand for International Geneva, Switzerland 8 : International Literacy Day Forestry Research 10–20 :Youth 8-12: Joint (CIFOR) Forum – United FAO (Food and Jakarta, Indonesia Nations Agriculture 3 : World Press Freedom Day Educational, Organization)/ 5 : International Day of the Midwife Scientific WHO Expert and Cultural Meeting on Organization (UNESCO) Emerging Food Safety Issues Spain Rome, Italy 21 : International Day of Peace 23 : UN Climate Summit 7–9 : Asia–Pacific Forum on New York, US Sustainable Development – UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and 16–20 : 9th Asia Clean Energy OCTOBER the Pacific (ESCAP) Forum – ADB and USAID Bangkok, Thailand Manila, Philippines 3 : World Habitat Day 20 : World Refugee Day 11 : International Day of the Girl Child 13 : International Day for Natural JULY Disaster Reduction 11 : World Population Day 19–24 : 67th World Health JULY 28–AUGUST 8 : 23rd Assembly – World Health Regional Training Course on Organization (WHO) Community-Based Disaster Geneva, Switzerland Risk Reduction with a Changing 21–23 : World Climate – Asian Disaster Economic Preparedness Center (ADPC) Forum on Bangkok, Thailand East Asia Manila, 14–15 : Workshop on Philippines Environmental Services in 25–26 : 46th Global Environment AUGUST the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities for Facility Council Meeting 1–7 : World Breastfeeding Week Cancun, Mexico Sustainability – Asia-Pacific 9 : International Day of the World’s Economic Cooperation 27–29 : 3rd ADB–DMC and Indigenous Peoples Partners Sanitation Dialogue: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 27–29 : 1st Global Conference on 16 : World Food Day 11th Hour to MDGs 2015 Climate Change and Manila, Philippines 17 : International Day for the Health – WHO Eradication of Poverty Geneva, Switzerland

May 2014 Development Asia 53 BLACK & WHITE

PHOTOGRAPH: MOHAMMAD RAKIBUL HASAN SPOILED EARTH IN THIS LOW, flat land, climate threats are leaving Bengal, which funnels water into Bangladesh as it their mark. Most of Bangladesh is less than 5 meters narrows towards the north. above sea level, making floods a constant threat. In a The water eventually recedes, but the salt remains. bad year, most of the country can be inundated. Factors other than climate change—like natural The surging waters bring danger, disease—and salt. sedimentation and reduced flows in the Ganges—may At coastal lowlands, salinity is a growing problem as be causing higher salinity in southwest Bangladesh. rising sea levels push saltwater further up rivers into But the Government of Bangladesh expects climate groundwater aquifers. change to make matters worse. Lower freshwater Frequent tropical storms drench once fertile soil supplies, health problems from drinking saline water, in saltwater, rendering it barren. Often the ruined reduced crop yields, unsustainable rural livelihoods and ground yields only stray logs to burn as fuel. Children, mass migration to city slums all loom as serious threats. like this girl in the southwest Satkhira District, dig for “All of these changes threaten the food security, hours to find them. livelihoods, and health of the poor,” says the Bangladesh’s geography exposes it to climate Government’s Climate Change Strategy and Action threats. Located at the delta of three of the world’s Plan. Large investments have been made in climate largest rivers, the Brahmaputra, Ganges, and Meghna, resilience. The timing and severity of climate impacts it is vulnerable to higher rainfall and sea levels. Storm may be uncertain, notes the strategy, but “the surges can rise 7 meters, amplified by the Bay of directions of change are clear.”

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MAY 2014 Development Asia is the P.18 THE AQUINOINTERVIEW The things that are happening to my country and to other parts of the world are not in the norm. We now have to consider revising only magazine dedicated to our idea of the norm. PHILIPPINES PRESIDENT BENIGNO AQUINO III PLUS ADB’s TAKEHIKO NAKAO ON DISASTER PROOFING ASIA P.32 A publication of the ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK development issues in Asia and the Pacific. To keep abreast of the latest in development news join us at FROM ACEH www.development.asia TO TACLOBAN Follow us on Twitter @developmentasia

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Analyzing issues that matter in Asia and the Pacific A publication of the ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK CONNECTING ASIA POWERING GROWTH

Asia and the Pacific are better connected than ever. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is at the forefront through trade facilitation, building regional transport links, and boosting cooperation.

But the continent’s infrastructure needs are immense and ensuring growth is shared by all remains an enormous challenge for the region.

On 2–5 May 2014, around 3,000 people will gather in Astana, Kazakhstan, for ADB’s 47th Annual Meeting to discuss the region’s future.

Join us as we work to connect Asia and the Pacific with a changing world.

To find out more, visit www.adb.org