Aid management and institutional capacity in Nepal

SUFFICIENT time has passed since the Nepal earthquake in April to reflect on deeper structural causes and institutional failures. The crisis attracted global attention and placed developed world organisations face-to-face with Nepal's own weakened governance capacity. While aid management is an immediate concern, institutional reforms are needed to build longer-term resilience.

Discussions about recovery and reconstruction have increasingly focused on aid and its effective use, by both government and international agencies. Misuse of recovery funds after the 2010 Haiti earthquake was recently publicised. Comparisons to Nepal quickly followed, particularly in social media. It is widely assumed that aid effectiveness is an unattainable goal.

Massive flows of donations and aid typically follow any disaster. According to Richa Shivakoti, a Singapore-based migration analyst, in developing countries such as Nepal, donors often have little trust in the government's management of funds. Therefore, many donate directly to international aid organisations such as the Red Cross, Save the Children and Medecins Sans Frontieres. Soon after the earthquake, the Nepali government, international agencies and citizen groups made separate appeals for immediate relief. For example, the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) issued a flash appeal for recovery support, requesting US$422 million.