technical assistance consultant’s report · brr aceh - nias badan rehabilitasi dan rekonstruksi...

Technical Assistance Consultant’s Report

Project Number: 37402 October 2007

RETA 6143: Technical Assistance for Promoting Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment (Financed by the Gender and Development Cooperation Fund)

Prepared by Fany Wedahuditama

Independent Consultant

This consultant’s report does not necessarily reflect the views of ADB or the Government concerned, and ADB and the Government cannot be held liable for its contents. (For project preparatory technical assistance: All the views expressed herein may not be incorporated into the proposed project’s design.

INDIVIDUAL CONSULTANT COMPLETION REPORT TA–6143 (REG): Promoting Gender Equality and Women Empowerment Subproject: Support Activities for Strengthening Women's Involvement in Housing Rehabilitation-Reconstruction in Aceh

HOUSING COMPONENT Asian Development Bank

Oversight Consultant October 2007

Prepared by:

Fany Wedahuditama Gender Specialist Housing Component - Oversight Consultant Earthquake and Tsunami Emergency Support Projects (ETESP)

Asian Development Bank

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ABBREVIATIONS ADB Asian Development Bank BRR Aceh - Nias Badan Rehabilitasi dan Rekonstruksi Aceh - Nias PPC Project Preparatory Consultant PIC Project Implementation Consultant OC Oversight Consultant PPRG Panitia Pembangunan Rumah Gampong Satker Satuan Kerja PPK Pejabat Pembuat Keputusan PHO Project Handing Over FHO Final Handing Over TA Technical Assistance GAP Gender Action Plan

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Table of Contents ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................................ii Project Description (Executive Summary)................................................................... 1

1. Introduction...................................................................................................... 1 2. ETESP Housing component............................................................................ 1 3. Preliminary Gender Analysis for Banda Aceh, Aceh Besar and Meulaboh..... 1 4. Gender Action Plan (GAP) .............................................................................. 1 5. Implementation Arrangements ........................................................................ 2 6. GAP implementation ....................................................................................... 2

Implementation, Lessons Learned & Recommendation ...................................... 3 7. Other related activities..................................................................................... 6 8. Conclusions..................................................................................................... 6

Annex A....................................................................................................................... 7 Annex B..................................................................................................................... 15 Annex C .................................................................................................................... 21 Annex D .................................................................................................................... 28 Annex E..................................................................................................................... 31

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Project Description (Executive Summary) 1. Introduction. The Earthquake and Tsunami Emergency Support Project (ETESP) is a program based on the Grant Agreement between the ADB and the Republic Indonesia that aims to help rebuild the regions of Nangroe Aceh Darussalam and North Sumatera provinces, including Nias island following the 26 December tsunami and earthquake disaster and to support their revival to meet the Millenium Development Goals. The housing component concerns the reconstruction of houses that have been completely destroyed and the rehabilitation of houses that have been damaged, provide on-site and off-site water and sanitation systems. The gender strategy for ETESP housing component is prepared to highlight specific actions in the overall design, which make the program more gender responsive to the housing needs of earthquake and tsunami victims. The gender strategy is based on (i) a gender and social analysis; (ii) primary and secondary data collection; and (iii) discussions with beneficiaries, government officials and local organizations. The gender strategy takes into account ADB’s Gender Checklist and ADB’s Policy on Gender and Development as a fundamental guideline for better and optimal development results. 2. ETESP Housing component. The ETESP Housing component is multi-year project, with an estimated $72,5 million for four packages (package 7, 8, 9, 10) in 5 regencies (Banda Aceh, Aceh Besar, Sabang, Meulaboh and Nias) in 17 villages. It aims to provide housing and rehabilitation for the victims of earthquake and tsunami. The project has, so far, reached end of implementation stage for some of PIC 09’s sub projects and beginning of implementation stage for PIC 10’s sub projects. 3. Preliminary Gender Analysis for Banda Aceh, Aceh Besar and Meulaboh. A preliminary gender analysis was conducted during the preparation of Meulaboh (Pasi Masjid, Alpen II and Alpen Perumnas) subprojects and the implementation of Banda Aceh (Lamdingin, Gampong Pande, Merduati and Keudah) and Aceh Besar (Meunasah Mesjid, Pulot, Ruyung and Baet) subprojects. From this analysis, several findings around gender issues needs to have immediate action: (i) Beneficiaries disaggregated data collection (by gender, and age); (ii) qualitative and quantitative data collection (demography, environmental, education and so forth); (iii) in-depth interviews and focus group discussion to reveal gender issues (including occupancy report); (iv) gender strategy and action-plan. 4. Gender Action Plan (GAP). The gender action plan specifically aims to (i) include disaggregated baseline data and gender-specific indicators into the implementation and monitoring systems of subprojects; (ii) reveal the gender-social related issues which have significant impact for the beneficiaries, especially female, and the overall project; (iii) ensure women participate in community consultations and decision making regarding implementation and technical issues of rehabilitation and reconstruction of housing; (iv) ensure women’s needs for privacy and protection is considered in the design and zoning requirements of housing and settlements; (v) ensure women participate in settlement development (in paid construction work) and supervision of construction work; (vi) ensure women participate in operation and maintenance of basic residential infrastructure; (vii) women are involved in community implementation teams; and (viii) assist women in organizing themselves into self-help groups (e.g., cooperatives, mutual aid associations, savings groups or micro-enterprises). (see annex A: GAP – expected result #1).

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5. Implementation Arrangements. The overall arrangements required to implement the gender action plan should have been integrated into the project design. However, since the development of gender action plan was only being done during the implementation phase of the project due to technical reasons, the costs for each subproject to implement the specific gender actions plan (or GAP) were assessed and included in the overall subproject budget. In addition, counterpart budget for specific gender actions may be accessed through specific regulation. 6. GAP implementation. In order to comply with the objective of gender mainstreaming in monitoring and evaluation of housing project, GAP was developed. Since none of gender strategic and action plans were available during the preparation and implementation stage, the development of GAP in the monitoring evaluation stage has to refer to the ongoing construction process and the maintenance period. Initially, there were 9 expected results in GAP. However, due to the condition in the field, two expected results have been added in the GAP. One expected result, is a mini pilot project for house numbering and street labeling in Gampong Pande. This new item has come up during community meeting to discuss the maintenance of handed-over houses by community. Many ideas of activities raised by the community, especially women. In the end, it was agreed by the community that house numbering and street labelling is the most needed for the moment; since it will help the community in their daily activities, such as correspondence, credit applications, especially for women’s economic activities, and so on. The other expected result is the consultant’s completion report. In total, there are 11 expected results within GAP. Approximately, by the end of October 2007, all these expected results in GAP are scheduled to be finished. The following table summarizes the implementation of GAP.

Implementation, Lessons Learned & Recommendation The table below summarizes all progress and lessons learned of gender mainstreaming in housing projects:

No. Expected results Implementation Lessons learned Recommendation 1 Result 1

Functional gender action plan Gender action plan was prepared in consultation with the ETESP housing and beneficiaries by the end of June 2007

More gender issues identified and taken into account during implementation and post-implementation

All identified gender issues should be accommodated during implementation whenever possible

2 Result 2 Gender-sensitive beneficiaries criteria is formulated

Survey & interviews were used to identify gender issues and indicators within the beneficiaries’ registration, validation, and verification. (May-June 2007)

• The possibility of ineligible beneficiaries can be reduced if gender indicators incorporated into the beneficiaries validation system.

• Priority should be given to the most needed beneficiaries.

• Labuy’s and Siron’s beneficiaries re-verification should subscribe to the gender sensitive beneficiaries criteria.

3 Result 3 Gender-sensitive improvement for house design has been developed

• Review on existing house design and gender indicators for house design were conducted (July 2007).

• Inputs from gender sp. For house design in Labuy possible semi closed wall for the kitchen area.

• Kitchen has become gender issue. Kitchen is not available in ADB’S houses

• The design of the house should allow the beneficiary to focus on other thing such as livelihood rather than to still thinking about the house.

• House design should regard the gender role division between men and women within the household.

• House design should not add more burden for the vulnerable groups

4 Result 4 Gender issues is incorporated in site development document

• Survey & interviews on basic needs of beneficiaries regarding the location, especially those located in relocation areas, were conducted in July 2007.

• Inputs for Labuy’s site plan.

• Gender indicators help to develop set of priority to ensure equal utilization of basic and public infrastructures by both men and women.

• Site plan of relocation and reconstruction area should at least accommodate beneficiaries’ basic needs of public & basic infrastructures

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No. Expected results Implementation Lessons learned Recommendation 5 Result 5

OC’s recommendations for incorporating gender issues in direct contracting (Tender)

• Prepared together with community contract assessment

• No clear mechanism on how community participation can be mainstreamed in direct contracting

• Direct contracting should develop a mechanism for community participation, especially women.

6 Result 6 OC’s recommendation for Gender-sensitive Community Contract requirement

• Prepared together with tender document assessment

• Community participation, especially women and children, is high, but the quality of the house depends heavily on the training of the community and facilitator for building houses

• Easy-to-remember guidelines for facilitator and community, especially women who are not familiar with construction, to build house

7 Result 7 Gender-sensitive training material for Community (minority) and facilitators groups to be used for capacity building and institutional development is prepared

• Gender training material was completed and used in the training of PPRGs (Community Committee for house reconstruction), facilitators and inspectors in Meulaboh and Nias completed in June 2007)

• Revised after inputs from community participants in Nias.

• Gender training material is effective and efficient if provided in simple and contextual format.

• Gender introduction training material to be improve and provided in a simple form (picture and text)

8 Result 8 Beneficiaries socioecomic data (Lamdingin – pilot project)

• Field survey and interviews with beneficiaries in Lamdingin completed in May 2007

• Existing beneficiaries data is too general. It cannot indicate the family size, livelihood and education, and so on.

• Dissagregated data collection should be initiated whenever possible since the beginning of the project

9 Result 9 Monthly report on lessons learned as evaluation tools prepared

• Monthly report submitted in the first week of every month (March – September 2007)

• Gender issues are discussed, reported and taken into action

• Gender monthly report should have inputs from senior gender advisor

10 Result 10 • Gampong Pande: setting up the • House numbering and street • To be replicated in

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No. Expected results Implementation Lessons learned Recommendation

Gender and social activities: • House numbering and street labelling

for gampong Pande and Lamdingin • Socialization of Septic tank

maintenance.

number for 153 houses • Brochure produced for the

socialization purpose

labeling are needed to support the community to many important activities in their lives: correspondences, credit applications and so on.

• This simple activity can act as good exit strategy for ADB housing project in all location.

other area.

11 Result 11 Consultant completion report is prepared

• Prepared in October 2007 as the consultant’s completion report.

• To have the overall pictures regarding gender issues in ADB housing program

• Need further inputs and actions from gender advisor

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7. Other related activities. Gender activities does not stand exclusively on its own. It overlaps with other activities from different aspects. Thus, there are other gender-related activities, which have helped gender assessments and GAP implementation to become even more effective and efficient. Other activities such as PHO (Project Handing Over), and especially FHO (Final Handing Over), House handing over ceremonial activities and complaint handling activities, have been able to extract many valuable information that can help to improve the overall housing program, either in short or long terms. Each of these activities had to go through many important decision-making process, where the involvement of gender specialist can ensure that gender issues are given the appropriate consideration, especially issues which came from the community itself. A concrete example of this is the improvement of house design for ADB next housing project in Labuy. The house design has been improved with the upgraded detail of kitchen area. Prior to this, ADB’s house has been built without proper kitchen area, while it is considered as the essential part of a house. Through the FHO process, which requires gender specialist and the rest of FHO team to collect information from each beneficiary (who have occupied the house), the lesson learned from house design can be extracted from the beneficiaries. Most of the beneficiaries propose to have proper kitchen area, and it was accommodated in the next project. 8. Conclusions. Firstly, the incorporation of gender issues could have been much more effective and efficient if Gender Action Plan (GAP) had been established in the preparatory stage and then followed up in the implementation stage. However, since gender action plan is only available in the monitoring and implementation stage, the results cannot not be presented as it should have been. Everything has to be done in the monitoring and evaluation stage, rather than to monitor and evaluate as it should have been. Secondly, gender monthly reports would be more useful if gender specialist able to receive inputs from senior gender advisor. The availability of gender advisor’s input would surely be a useful help to improve the performance of the project. Thirdly, gender activities requires budget in order to be implemented. Since GAP was only developed during monitoring and evaluation stage, the budget was not available. The overall design of the project needs to incorporate gender activities into its budget. Fourthly, aside from the delay of the availability of GAP, the housing project has accommodated many gender issues during its implementation. The issues of land titling, widows, orphan and female-headed household were among the accommodated gender issues. The responsiveness of the field teams to gender issues, among others, has made the reputation of ADB housing project very well known among the beneficiaries.

Annex A Asian Development Bank

Earthquake and Tsunami Emergency Support (ETESP) Housing Sector

Oversight Consultant Gender Action Plan (3rd revision 12.10.2007)

Specific Objective: To sensitize the Housing Sector of the Earthquake and Tsunami Emergency Support Project (ETESP) to gender issues by mainstreaming gender analysis in development and implementation activities of the ETESP.

Expected Result Activities Indicators Sources of Verification

Execution time Assumptions

Result 1 Functional Action Plan

• Preparation of Action Plan

• Comments and changes

• Approval of Action Plan

Action Plan has been Approved by ETESP Housing and beneficiaries

Printed documents and soft copy of Action Plan are available

1 Month (May – June 2007)

Plan is based on gender assesment and acceptable to stakeholders

Result 2 Gender-sensitive beneficiaries criteria is formulated

• Propose gender indicators for beneficiaries criteria formulation

• Mainstreaming gender indicators


• Gender indicators are incorporated in action plan

• Female headed household, orphans, elderly and people with disabilities are identified and prioritized

Number of female, orphan, elderly and disabled people have been listed as beneficiaries


Sufficient number of female, orphans, elderly and disabled people as beneficiaries candidates are available and cooperative

Result 3 Gender-sensitive

• Beneficiaries • Revision and Soft copy and hard copy of

To be discussed with OC team

• Gender issues

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improvement for house design have been developed

proposals for gender indicator of house design based on previous design


• Approval of indicators

addendums for previous house design are made

• The needs of female headed household, orphans, elderly and people with disabilities are reflected in the design

improvements in house design are available

have been acknowledged to be vital to the project’s goals

• It is not too late to make changes

• Improvements will be used for future projects

Result 4 Gender issues is incorporated in site development document

• Propose gender indicators for site development document (especially relocation sites)


• Approval of indicators

• Gender indicators are approved and incorporated in site development document

Gender indicators for site development are documented (soft and hard copy)

To be discussed with OC team

Gender issues are accepted and supported by beneficiaries

Result 5 Gender evaluation of direct contracting

• Propose gender indicators for tender documents

• Commenst and changes

• Approval of gender

• Gender indicators are incorporated in tender documents

• Female headed households, orphans, elderly

Written report from OC/ADB on gender-evaluation of direct contracting is available

1 month (Sept 2007)

All stakeholders are aware the importance of minority empowerment in the direct contracting scheme

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indicators

Result 6 Gender evaluation of community contracting

• Propose gender indicators for tender documents

• Commenst and changes

• Approval of gender indicators

and people with disabilities are partner of the construction process

Written report from OC/ADB on gender-evaluation of community contracting is available

1 month (Sept 2007)

All stakeholders are aware the importance of minority empowerment in the community contracting

Result 7 Gender introduction training material for Community (minority) and facilitators groups to be used for capacity building and institutional development is prepared

• Preparation of gender training toolkit

• Comments and changes (assisted by CD specialist)

• Approval of gender training toolkit

• Session for gender is included in the training program

• Training material for gender sensitive training is in use

Soft copy and printed documents for gender training toolkit are available

1st week of June 2007

There is a concensus among partners of the issues to be included in the training sessions

Result 8 Beneficiaries socioecomic data (Lamdingin – pilot project)

• Carrying out of interviews

• Gender analysis based on interviews

• Baseline data has been collected and recorded

• Gender analysis on data is ready

Baseline and socioeconomic data for Lamdingin are available in written form


Data collection has been carried out systematically significant for monitoring and evaluation purpose

Result 9 Monthly report on lessons learned as

• Field visits • Findings of

fasilitators &

Monthly lessons learned report is approved

Monthly report (soft and hard copy) is available

1st week of every month

Lessons learned are significant inputs for

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evaluation tools prepared

inspectors • Data recording • Gender analysis • Preparation of

reports

monitoring and evaluation

Result 10 House numbering and street labeling (pilot project in Gampong Pande 153 houses)

• Field visits • Community

meeting • Budgeting • Implementation

• Agreement with the community

• TOR developed • Budget

established

TOR available October 2007 The activity is considered important by the community (exit strategy)

Result 11 Completion report of gender activities

• Compiling reports

• Editing & revision

• Reports available to be compiled

• Completion reports are sent to Mr. Pieter S., Mr. Rehan K., Mr. Esa P

• Hard copies available at OC and IHS

October 2007 Completion reports is needed for future projects

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Asian Development Bank

Earthquake and Tsunami Emergency Support (ETESP) Housing Sector

Detailed Gender Main Activities ACTIVITIES The Expected Results mentioned in the Gender Action Plan, come from the Main Activities listed below, Indicators, Sources of Verifications and Assumptions are further indicated in the Simplified Logical Framework table, in Annex V. Result 1: Action Plan functioning ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Activity 1.1 Prepare Draft Action Plan Activity 1.2 Discuss and comment on Draft Action Plan Activity 1.3 Correct and upgrade Action Plan Activity 1.4 Approve Action Plan (Major Partners) Activity 1.5 Develop further the ideas of Action Plan Activity 1.6 Prepare a Quarterly Report Result 2: Gender-sensitive beneficiaries criteria is formulated ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Activity 2.1 Prepare gender analysis and gender indicators concerning beneficiaries criteria Activity 2.2 Discussion of the proposed gender indicators (ADB, BRR, community representative) Activity 2.3 Approval of gender indicators Activity 2.4 Mainstreaming gender indicators into the beneficiaries criteria Activity 2.5 Gender-sensitive beneficiaries criteria is approved by major stakeholders (ADB, BRR and community) Result 3: Gender-sensitive improvement for house design have been developed -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Activity 3.1 Prepare gender analysis and gender indicators concerning house design Activity 3.2 Discussion of the proposed gender indicators (ADB, BRR, community representative) Activity 3.3 Approval of gender indicators Activity 3.4 Mainstreaming gender indicators into the house design Activity 3.5 Gender-sensitive house design is approved by major stakeholders (ADB, BRR and community) Result 4: Gender issues is incorporated in site development document ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Activity 4.1 Prepare gender analysis and gender indicators concerning site development, more importantly the process of choosing the location Activity 4.2 Discussion of the proposed gender indicators of site development (ADB, BRR, community representative) Activity 4.3 Approval of gender indicators of site development Activity 4.4 Mainstreaming gender indicators into the site devlopment Activity 4.5 Gender-sensitive site development is approved by major stakeholders (ADB, BRR and community) Result 5: Gender evaluation of direct contracting ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Activity 5.1 Prepare gender analysis and gender indicators concerning tender document and process Activity 5.2 Discussion of the proposed gender indicators of tender process and documents (Satker, BRR, ADB, and community representative) Activity 5.3 Approval of gender indicators of tender (process and documents) Activity 5.4 OC’s recommendations to SATKER for incorporating the gender indicators into tender document Result 6: Gender evaluation of community contracting ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Activity 6.1 Prepare gender analysis and gender indicators concerning community contract (Process and documents) Activity 6.2 Discussion of the proposed gender indicators of Community contract (Satker, BRR, ADB, and community representative) Activity 6.3 Approval of gender indicators of community contract (process and documents)

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Activity 6.4 OC’s recommendations to SATKER for incorporating the gender indicators into community contract document Result 7: Gender-sensitive training material for community (minority) and facilitator groups to be used for capacity building and institutional development is prepared ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Activity 7.1 Prepare gender training toolkit Activity 7.2 Discussion of gender training toolkit with OC team Activity 7.3 Approval of gender training toolkit Activity 7.4 Incorporation of gender training toolkit in the training module Activity 7.5 Gender sensitive training material is presented in soft and hard copy Result 8: Beneficiaries socioeconomic data and analysis (Lamdingin – Pilot Project) are prepared ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Activity 8.1 Prepare questionaires for mini household surveys for Lamdingin (pilot project) Activity 8.2 Discussion of the questionaires with OC team Activity 8.3 Approval of questionaires Activity 8.4 Coordination with geuchik of Lamdingin Activity 8.5 Field visit to Lamdingin (8 packages) Activity 8.6 Data collection Activity 8.7 Gender analysis based on data collected Activity 8.8 Prepare a report of socioeconomic data Activity 8.9 Report is available in soft and hard copy Result 9: Montly Report on Lessons Learned as Evaluation Tools prepared ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Activity 9.1 Routine filed visits Activity 9.2 Meeting with facilitators and inspectors to discuss findings on the fields Activity 9.3 Data recording Activity 9.4 Gender analysis based on findings to propose recommended actions on gender related problems on the field

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Activity 9.5 Preparation of reports Activity 9.6 Monthly reports available in soft and hard copy Result 10: Gender and Social Activities ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Activity 10.1 Initial meeting with community Activity 10.2 Socialization of agreed gender activities Activity 10.3 Implementation Activity 1.4 Reporting Result 11: Individual consultant completion report ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Activity 11.1 Compiling reports Activity 11.2 Executive summary preparation Activity 11.3 Preparation of reports Activity 11.4 Hard copies & soft copies

Annex B GAP expected result : Beneficiaries criteria (ADB-BRR) / #2 Undertaken by : Gender Specialist – Oversight Consultant ADB Housing

Component Date : 16-21 June 2007 Completion : 21 June 2007 I. Background of analysis

As stated in the objective of ADB’s gender and development policy, it is important to maintstream gender issues in every programes or activity. By mainstreaming gender into the core of project’s activities, it is expected that project will be sensitized throughout the process; therefore, optimal output and outcome will be ensured. Aiming for the core is not as easy as said or written. Especially in the housing component for earthquake and Tsunami emergency support project (ETESP). Mainstreaming gender in each activities without knowing and understanding the overall framework will not only confusing, but also not effective nor efficient. Understanding the framework of the project will help to identify the strategic points within the system to be “guarded” with gender mainstreaming. Once these strategic points are mainstreamed, it is expected the mainstreaming of gender will flow within the system of the project. The identification process of these strategic points has been conducted as a part of the development of Gender Action Plan (GAP). Although GAP was only developed during the implementation of the housing project, nevertheless, for the purpose of monitoring and evaluation GAP is useful to ensure that the future housing projects can be improved. The assesment of beneficiaries criteria for housing (ADB-BRR) is counted as one of nine expected results in the GAP, which means that beneficiaries criteria is considered as one of the strategic points to be ensured that gender issues are adequately mainstreamed.

II. Gender Sensitive Beneficiaries criteria: What is there to sensitize? Why? “There are more or less 16000 victims of earthquake and Tsunami who have not received housing grant. However, it is very difficult just to find 300 beneficiaries to receive house grant. What’s wrong?” Who are the beneficiaries? How to become one? What are the requirements? Who decides in the end? Are there any rules regarding an eligible beneficiaries? and so forth. These are the main questions that have always been around before the starting of the project up until now in the end of implementation stage. Eventhough the beneficiaries criteria had already established since the beginning, questions, problems and new cases constantly rose to the surface making BRR, the executing agency for reconstruction and rehabilitation in Aceh

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and Nias, had to improve the criteria several times. It shows that beneficiaries criteria is not simple. On the contrary, beneficiaries cirteria is complex and has a great deal of impacts on how things are being done. It is considered as the first “gate keeper” because beneficiaries criteria is the derivation of the rule of the housing grant project, which decides what can be done, who should be involved, who should be excluded and so forth. Strategically and logically, to mainstream gender into the rule in order to ensure that the rule itself is an enabling environment is extremely important. Based on this very reason beneficiaries criteria should be ensured to be able to give equal opportunity to all the victims of earthquake and Tsunami, especially female headed households, orphan, elderly and disabled people –a gender-sensitive beneficiaries criteria-.

III. Beneficiaries criteria: a gender perspective

Sensitizing beneficiaries criteria cannot be done exclusively on the criteria itself. It requires us to deconstruct the criteria in order to carefullly analyze the process of criteria formulation right from the beginning up to the end (See figure 1.1). The process of formulation covers a wide range of aspects from defining the eligible victims for housing grant, the registration mechanism, the verification and validation, up to building an integrated beneciaries database system. Each of these aspects needs to be ensured that gender issue are adequately mainstreamed. The following sub section will analyze each aspects based on gender perspective.

Who are the victims eligible for housing grant? Not all of Tsunami’s victims are eligible for housing grant. For the preliminary filtering, there are two criteria that needs to be fulfilled, which are those whose domicile located in the disaster area and had lost their shelter (regardless of their status as owner or renter) because of the disaster. Following these two criteria, in order to ensure that no one can apply for more than one housing grant, the grant is not given for individual victim, but to household. One victim household can only receive one housing grant, this is the third criteria. For special cases such as orphan or if only one person survived the disaster, the housing grant can still be granted with specific requirement. For orphans, if more than one person are identified within a household, only one housing grant will be granted. For victim who is the only survival, he/she entitles to only one housing grant, regardless he/she is the heirs of several households. Based on gender perspective, there are several issues that need attention. Firstly, it has to be ensured that female headed households, orphans, elderly and disabled people should receive equal opportunity in the process of beneficiaries filtering, especially when they do not own any land or house. For this issue, it is recommended for BRR and/or donors, and NGOs to apply equity principle in their housing grant policy so that these group of victims can be put in the first priority or at least to have special treatment.

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Secondly, in the case of orphans, it has to be ensured that boys and girls have equal opportunity in receiving the house grant, since the possibility of conflict among the children, especially grown up children, upon their parents legacy are high. Since most of the local people subscribe to customary law that governs the distribution of parent’s legacy to their children, it is recommended that the receiver of the housing grant should be on behalf of all the identified orphans within a household. This way, each one has equal share of the house regardless who inherit the land from their parent. Thirdly, renters, especially female headed households, orphans, elderly and disabled people are entitled to housing grant on the base of relocation (see separate document on gender sensitive site development analysis) or five to ten years free of rent if the orginal owner of the land gives permission for a house built for the renters. Since the process for this group is more complicated then the other group (owner group), it has to be ensured that this group is not left behind or even left out. The criteria for renter and owner should be distinguished clearly as it will determine the type of housing grant, relocation, reconstruction and rehabilitation. Fourthly, the criteria 1 household 1 housing grant should be carefully applied. Based on the survey in the filed there are households with more than five members where grown up children are identified. This type household will not fit properly in a 36m2 house because of privacy and health issues. Therefore, it is recommended for this specific case that the household can be condsidered to receive a different type of house The registration mechanism Registration mechanism is another important aspect because it is the only way for victims of disaster to apply as the beneficiaries candidate to receive housing grant. Consequently, the registration must adapt to a situation where it is required to be efficient as well as effective. With a magnificent number of victims to deal with, it is recommended that the registration mechanism should give attention on several factors as follows: a. A thorough and effective socialization of registration mechanism, and

requirement should be properly and sufficiently delivered to the community. The participation of community in the socialization process will ensure that the information is delivered accurately.

b. Registration unit should be established in every area which suffered from the disaster. Each unit will prioritized, or at least gives special treatment to, female headed households, orphan, elderly and disabled people in the registration mechanism.

c. Registration form and the requirement for it should be simple (applicant can submit letter from geuchik/residencial letter or domicile identity card, fill in beneficiaries form and acknowledge that none of his/her member of household has never received a housing grant)

d. Registration form should consist of important points such as the applicants profile including his/her family who will be living in the same house (baseline data) and the reason of why the house grant will be on his/her behalf. Please see annex A for proposed registration form.

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e. People with reading and writing disablities should be assisted and prioritized.

f. In registrating, a photograph of applicants should be taken on the spot. (the photograph will be used for proof of life and beneficiaries identity card when already approved)

g. Every applicant will receive a receipt as a proof of registration and for checking their approval process of their status of beneficiaries.

Verification & Validation Following the registration process is verification and validation. So far the verification and validation process in the field has not been done in an integrated way. There are two main reasons to this situation: (i) BRR’s verification system is still considered not sufficient in preventing double grant or misallocation of grant; and (ii) Eventhough donors and NGOs receives their beneficiaires data from BRR, each of them have their own criteria for their beneficiaries. Based on these reasons, the immediate impact in the field is time delay for the validation which then cause delay house construction, administration, and so on. This impact then can create a series of problems concerning uncertainty situation for the victims in making decision for their survival strategy (more problems are faced by the victims when their barrack is going to be demolished). Only a single time-problem, not to mention other problems, can create such social problems; therefore, there are several important points to be noticed regarding verification and validation: a. Verification and validation supposed to be managed under BRR only; thus, it

should be reliable and valid in order to used by other stakeholder b. In the verification process, the criteria should be applied without exception.

Specific cases which might come up should and must be dealt separately in order to make sure those who deserves the can receive the grant.

c. In the process of verification and validation, the information of every beneficiaries designation should be clear from the beginning (owners or renters; relocation, reconstruction or rehabilitation)

d. Validated beneficiaries list should be annouced publicly and periodically via any possible media. Announcement also mut be conducted in every barrack.

e. As suggested in the registration section, every victim who has applied for the housing grant should have a receipt as a proof of application submision. Using this receipt, the applicants can track the process of their status. This will maintain the verification and validation process to catch up with the progress in the field.

f. Validated beneficiaries should be given Beneficiaires Identity Card in order to prevent double grant and to start building the baseline data of beneficiaries.

Apart from these important points, based on ADB’s experiences on housing project, some problems have occurred in the field regarding the existing BRR’s verification and validation process. One problem is that the data from BRR needs to be re-verified, which consume quite amount of time. As the the victims have been patience enough to wait for the aid, the re-verification activity then becomes sensitive to social tension. Victims will start to become impatience because the re-verification pose an uncertainty of situation which add burden for the victims. Based on gender analysis, the problems caused by the uncertainty situation have a deep impact on beneficiaries’ survival strategy, especially female headed

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households, orphans, elderly and disabled people. This group tends to experience the uncertainty worse. For instance, in order to survive, very often that children have to drop-out from school, especially girls because their help to do domestic works to gain a few extra income are becoming crucial to the household welfare. This kind of case will lead to inequality between boys and girls enrollment in education. Health issue is another example of problem for the victimes, especially mother, children and elderly who are vulnerable. Staying longer in barrack will force them to deal with poor health condition. Moreover, this will add burden on mothers who is the “main” actor in the children’s and elderly’s health condition. It means more time and energy will be stretched from mothers. In brief, the whole process of verification and validation needs to be aware of potential social and gender problems that might occurred due to the inefficiency of the process. Social tension is never good for any program, especially when the life of many victims are depending on it. Integrated beneficiaries database system Following the registration and verification stages, an integrated and acurate beneficiaries database system needs to be further developed from the existing one. The database should be updated periodically and provide comprehensif information on each beneficiaries listed within the system. The database not only can provide information on beneficiaries, but also provide significant baseline data for the purpose of future technical, social, economic or other important assesment. Based on these baseline data, impact analysis can be conducted regarding the housing grant to the beneficiaries. As for the transparency and accesibility of the database system, the data base should be able to be accessed by all stakeholders. For this reason, the database should also periodically backed-up and supported by a maximum security system to prevent any system failure or outside threat or faulty purpose.

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Figure 1.1 Framework of Beneficiaries Criteria

Criteria of housing

beneficiarie

Loss of belongings (land and/or

house)

Domicile status during

disaster

Heirs

Never received

house grant

1 Household 1 house

t

Beneficiaries of housing

grant

Owners

Renters

Reconstruction

Rehabiltation

Relocation

Relocation

Total accomodate

d

Unaccomodated Beneficiaries

(gap)

Total listed beneficiarie

s

Reasons: • Preference of

location • Prioritization • Change of

domicile (time factor & personal matters)

Gender issues Female headed households, orphans, elderly and disabled people should have equal opportunity to become beneficiaries

Victims of earthquake

and

Annex C GAP expected result : Gender Sensitive House design (ADB-BRR) / #3 Undertaken by : Gender Specialist – Oversight Consultant ADB Housing

Component Date : 13-27 July 2007 Report Completion : 08 Aug 2007 I. Background of analysis

As stated in the objective of ADB’s gender and development policy, it is important to maintstream gender issues in every programes or activity. By mainstreaming gender into the core of project’s activities, it is expected that project will be sensitized throughout the process; therefore, optimal output and outcome will be ensured. Aiming for the core is not as easy as said or written. Especially in the housing component for earthquake and Tsunami emergency support project (ETESP). Mainstreaming gender in each activities without knowing and understanding the overall framework will not only confusing, but also not effective nor efficient. Understanding the framework of the project will help to identify the strategic points within the system to be “guarded” with gender mainstreaming. Once these strategic points are mainstreamed, it is expected the mainstreaming of gender will flow within the system of the project. The identification process of these strategic points has been conducted as a part of the development of Gender Action Plan (GAP). Although GAP was only developed during the implementation of the housing project, nevertheless, for the purpose of monitoring and evaluation GAP is useful to ensure that the future housing projects can be improved. The assesment of the existing house design is counted as one of nine expected results in the GAP. It aims to evaluate to what extent gender issues have been accomoddated by the existing design. Furthermore, it also focuses on what works and why regarding the relation of gender and house design.

II. Gender Sensitive House Design: Building houses for who? Based on the discussion with the preparation team of Housing Component (PPC/Project Preparation Consultants), the design of the house for the victims is based on the idea that the house should be strong by design, ready to live in and gives the possibility and flexibility for further improvement by the owner. Based on these reasons, the technical and social aspects have played an important role to determine the design of the house. At times, these two aspects often contradict one to another. Consequently, it takes time to design the house. Based on gender perspective, there are several important points in designing a house for the victimes of erthquake and tsunami. Firstly, the purpose of the house house provision. Everyone can build a house, but the condition of the place of the house to be built and for whom we are building a house are the main questions behind the purpose of building house. In this context, we are

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building house for the victims of earthquake and tsunami; therefore, the condition of the place and the people are not normal. Many people lost their assets, some land are destroyed beyond imagination that it cannot be built on again. Based on this, the purpose of providing the house will have strong influence on how the house should be designed, which is to design a house that is structurally strong, ready to live in, and flexible in term of improvement. Secondly, structurally strong. In gender perspective, structurally strong means taking into consideration the trauma of the victims caused by the disaster. In engineer’s language, this means a house of good quality. From gender point of view, the good quality of the house should not be based on the purpose to withstand another possible disaster, but should be based on the protection of the people living inside the house. This way, we can say that the houses that ADB has provided are people-centered by design and structure. Thirdly, a ready-to-live-in house. It does not means we are trying to provide a hotel room, but the idea is that by design we have acknowledged that the houses we are building are meant for the victims who have nothing to start with. Therefore, by design, the house should not require the receiver more than neccesary in order to live in. Another important point regarding a ready-to live-in house is that the house is healthy by design. Fourthly, Flexible in term of further improvement. The idea is that we hope the victims could get on with their lives and hopefully manage to improve their economic condition. Upon the improvement, if the beneficiaries wish to improve or extent the house, the original design of the house should not prevent this. on the contrary, the design should allow any further improvement of the house which indicates its flexibility without jeopardise the safty of the family living in the house. These four arguments, although at a glance seems to be universal, they focuses to the people’s rights and opportunity, especially female, children, elderly and the disabled, to live in a house. Each of them have their needs toward the house; therefore the design should be able to incorporate their needs, at least their essential needs.

III. Lessons learned

There are many lessons that have been learned in term of house design. Some of these lessons have been directly applied to the filed while the rest will be applied for future projects. The lessons learned in house design were started by the issue of privacy, and then women needs, health issues, accessibility and weather. The issue on privacy was centered around the number of bedroom within the house. Originally, the design only provided one room within the house. However, many of the beneficiaries raised the issue of privacy, especially for the famiy with grown up children or elderly. This issue was then incorporated in the revision of the design, which provide another bedroom into the house. This first lesson learned shows that beneficiaries are not a single and homogenous person. Beneficiaries live as family too, and in the family there are negotiation processes over household resources. Bedroom is one of them. The needs of each member of the family might be the same or different from each other. We need to be careful not to try to incorporate everything

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into the design of a 36m2 house. Nevertheless, we need to incorporate the basic needs of the family regarding the design of the house. The issue on women needs triggered by the condition of existing kitchen area and bathroom. The kitchen has a major weakness, which is the location of the kitchen. The kitchen is located outside in the back of the house. This has caused more burden for women because they could not cook outside the house, especially when it is windy or rain. Consequently, many of them have to move the kitchen inside the house. By moving the kitchen into the house two concerns were raised, which are the high possibility of fire accident, and high level of humidity within the house. While it is obvious the impact of fire accident can cause to a house and its inhabbitants, the increase of humidity within the house can casue illnes especially to the children and elderly. If the children and the elderly have gotten sick, the main caregiver are, most of the time, the women (be that the mothers or the daughters). Based on the gender perspective, the design have not given sufficient attention on the needs of women who actually the one with the most roles related to the house utilities. Furthermore, in term of time usage for other activities, women tend to have unequal opportunity compare to men. Based on the kitchen issue, it is recommended that the kitchen area can be improved with semi closed wall. This semi-closed wall (halved open air) not only allow the kitchen to be outside of the house, it also have an open air space that allows the circulation of air better and faster. Moving on to the bathroom section, the issue of privacy came up once again. As it is located outside the house, it does not match with the local custom, the Syariat Islam. To overcome this problem, the recommendation to change the position of the door into the inside has been proposed. Another, recommendation to overcome this issue is the proposed semi-closed wall for the kitchen. Since the bathroom is located near the kitchen, the semi-closed wall can be extended until the bathroom area. This way the privacy can be maintained as well. As for the health issue, very often the concerns are centered around the air circulation and humidity. The design of the existing windows and air outlets are not supportive for required air circulation. The high temperature in Aceh requires continuous air circulation within the house, especially for the bathroom. A good air circulation design will reduce the level of humidity and will decrease the possibility of air-borne disease or other illnes. The recommendations for these concerns are by re-design the windows, the air outlets and the layout of the house which can enable more frequent air circulation throughout the house (please see annex). Other issue such as accessibility of the house was not very often came up, but actually they reflect the needs of other vulnerable group of people who often excluded. The current accessibility of the house has not taken into account the needs of disabled people (who are many considering the level of destruction of tsunami) and the acces for motorcycle or bicycle. Very often the constrain comes from the high elevation level of house foundation (technical aspect). Some say it will cost more and add more time in the constrcution process. This arguments are not acceptable. We are building house for the people who will live inside the house; therefore, the technical aspect should maximize its capacity to deal with the situation. What is the house for if just to get in is already difficult for some of the people? Based on

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gender persperctive, there is unequal opportunity for some group of vulnerable people to utilize the house as it is suppose to. Based on this facts, it is recommended to add access for the disabled people (please see annex).

IV. Technical, Social, and Ownership Aspects Based on the lessons learned, the foundation of our aim in providing houses for the earthquake and tsunami victims needs to be balanced between the technical and the social aspects. We need to reduce any trade-off in balancing the two aspects. The technical aspect should maximize its capacity to accommodate basic social needs, and at the same time also provide a space for the beneficiaries to utilize and improve the house based on their own needs. This space will, in turn, develop the sense of ownership of the beneficiaries.

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Terrace design a. Less steep stairs

(save for children) b. Access for people

with disabilities (also for motor cycle and bicylce)

c. Concrete fence (or can used as vegetation/plants)

Window design a. More light can penetrate into

the house b. Reliable air circulation with

no trade-off for privacy

25

Bathroom ventilation:

26

a. Reliable air circulation b. Easy to clean c. More light can penetrate into the bathroom

Fixed Air control: a. Reliable air circulation b. Prevent dust and rain better c. Easy to clean

Door design: Double functions (door and ventilation)

Proposed rear design (semi-closed wall for kicthen and bathroom): a. Avoid rain and wind b. Incorporate privacy issues c. Incorporate women needs and

not adding more burden to women’s role

Proposed House Design

(perspective)

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Annex D GAP expected result : Gender Sensitive Site Development Plan (ADB-BRR) / #4 Undertaken by : Gender Specialist – Oversight Consultant ADB Housing

Component Date : 13-31Aug 2007 Report Completion : 03 September 2007 I. Background of analysis

As stated in the objective of ADB’s gender and development policy, it is important to maintstream gender issues in every programes or activity. By mainstreaming gender into the core of project’s activities, it is expected that project will be sensitized throughout the process; therefore, optimal output and outcome will be ensured. Aiming for the core is not as easy as said or written. Especially in the housing component for earthquake and Tsunami emergency support project (ETESP). Mainstreaming gender in each activities without knowing and understanding the overall framework will not only confusing, but also not effective nor efficient. Understanding the framework of the project will help to identify the strategic points within the system to be “guarded” with gender mainstreaming. Once these strategic points are mainstreamed, it is expected the mainstreaming of gender will flow within the system of the project. The identification process of these strategic points has been conducted as a part of the development of Gender Action Plan (GAP). Although GAP was only developed during the implementation of the housing project, nevertheless, for the purpose of monitoring and evaluation GAP is useful to ensure that the future housing projects can be improved. The focus of gender assessment has now focused on site plan. Site plan can be defined as a document that describes how a parcel of land is to be improved. It includes the outlines of all structures and site improvements, such as driveways, parking lots, landscaping, and utility connections. The assesment of how the development of the site plan within each of ADB’s housing sub project is planned has the importance regarding the sustainability of the projects, and most importantly, it is important regarding whether the development of site plan has taken into account the basic needs of all the beneficiaries, especially the vulnerable groups (women, children, elederly and disabled people)

II. Gender Sensitive Site Development Plan: improving the land and the quality of life In determining which piece of land to be ideal locations of subprojects are as important as the project itself. The projection of how the land can be improved so that the inhabitant can live a good life is influenced by several factors. In case of housing provision in earthquake and tsunami affected area these are the elements to be considere: (i) character and feasibility of land in the relocation area; (ii) accessibility to the area; (iii) masterplan of the area; and (iv) utilities plan for the area. These elements are important not only for the planners and the contractors but mostly important for those whom ADB is building for – the beneficiaries. Building houses especially in relocation area needs careful assessment in order to come up with a good site plan. All the elements mentioned above needs to be considered, assessed and planned carefully. Based on gender perspective, the site development plan should not only focuses on technical issues, but also need to focus on the needs of the people, especially the vulnerabel groups, who are going to live in the area. The site plan has to ensure equal opportunity for everybody to live and utilise all the facilities and services in the area.

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From gender perspective, there are several issue to be considered in the site development plan: (i) the planning of public transportation from and to main city regarding livelihood, education, health, etc; (ii) the planning of basic infrastructure such as water supply, electricity, access road, and drainage; (iii) the planning of public infrastructure such as clinic, school, market, playground, meeting hall, mosque, etc; and (iv) the planning of the surrounding environment in relocation area. These issues should be equally considered beside the technical issues, because the main task is not relocating houses, but relocating people with different needs. The issue of public transportation planning Public transportation system has become an issue especially in relocation area. While the people have to move to another area, most of their sources of needs stay in the previous area where they lived. These sources of needs ranges from livelihood, educations, health and leisure. Based on these needs, we can breakdown the “people” into men, women, children, elderly, disabled people, and so on. Accordingly, the public transportation system which connect the relocation area to the sources of needs should be carefully planned and it should, at its best, recognized the equall rights of everyone to rightfully utilizes the available services and facilities. A concrete example of taking gender issue into account is by focusing on the use of public transportation by men and women. It can be further brokendown into age category or other category as required. For example, based on the gender role of women in a community, the use of public transportation by women is higher than men. According to women’s role, they have to shop for groceries, collect water for household necesssities, take the children to schoolor elderly to hospital when they have gotten sick, and even work for additional family income. These roles based on gender should be also considered as the main foundation, apart form the technical issues, of the public transportation system planning. The issue of basic infrastructure planning Access road, drainage, pathway, electricity, water supply and solid waste management should be carefully planned in the site development plan. If not carefully planned, the community, especially the women, will be faced with more burdens as their gender role encompasses with the availability of these basic infrastructure. A concrete example of the availability of water supply in the reconstruction and relocation areas are evident. In Gampong Pande and Lamdingin, although the basic infrastructure was planned carefully, the construction of water supply, and of course other basic infrastructures as well, came in way too late. Consequently, the occupancy rate was low (below 50%) during the first two months. People did not want to move in because they need, at least, water and electricity to live there. For those who already moved in because they could not stay any longer in the barrack because of their family size or other reasons, had to survive without water supply. Consequently, women have to strecth their back and time to do the domestic work. Instead of lessening the burden of certain vulnerable group, this group suffer more from the condition. As for the example in relocation area, ADB’s location in Ujung Seukundo, Sabang, there was an ongoing issue of the availability of water sources and the electricity. It had caused a decrease of beneficiaries who are willing to be relocated there. It came down to 22 from more or less 50 beneficiaries. Although now the issue is being handled by BRR; nevertheless, it shows the importance of site development plan to accommodate the people needs into the plan, if possible, including how all of each component in the site plan concerted in a sistematic way. Often the problem is that the construction of the houses finishes much earlier than the infrastructure. Therefore, a sistematic scheduling between what is planned and when and how to implement it should be developed carefully. The issues of public infrastructure planning In long term, the public infrastructure will become a crucial issue as it is already becoming important now. The needs of health, education and market facilities are slowly coming up to the

29

surface. ADB has accomodated these public/social infrastructure in its site development plan. However, there is the need to have a priority of which public infrastructure needs to be built first. Learning from the field, there are many new schools being built where there are no students to study there. All these million dollars grant could have been allocated to other public infrastructures, such as building market place or mosque or health facilities or meeting place. The problem with this empty school is that after the tsunami, many families lost their children, and most of them are trying to build back their family. Based on the field survey, many beneficiaries after tsunami are being remaried and having new born child. So, the decision to build school has to refer to what is going on in the filed, otherwise it will be just another empty school. As for other public infrastructures, building market place is recommended because it can create jobs, build back the local economy and simply needed by all households. However, the most important thing is to make a priority list for public infrastructure through a community participation, where everyone, men, women, children, elderly and Of course, this priority list can be related to the usage frequency by the community. Since women’s role are often related to the use public infrastructure; therefore, it iwill be useful to cross check the priority list with women’s needs and roles. The issues of surrounding environment of relocation and reconstruction areas From gender perspective, the surrounding environment of a location needs to be thought thoroughly in site planning in term of the impact to men and women. For example, the plan to build the communal solid waste in order to prevent soil and air polution should be included in the site plan. Failure to address the issues of solid waste management can have a negative impact for the beneficiaries, especilally the children and elderly who can easily get sick, which, in turn, they will be the responsibility of the women to take care of them. Another example is the proposal to include retaining wall in Blang Tunong to prevent land slide. This example shows that safety issues regarding the surrounding environment are also important for beneficiaries. Therefore, it should be thoroughly and carefully thought in the site development planning stage to include the prevention or mitigation of any possible problems that might jeopardise the beneficiaries’ lives.

III. Gender Indicators for Site Development Planning

Based on gender perspective, site development planning is meant to plan and incorporate the needs of a location which reflects the needs of the beneficiaries. Since beneficiaries are not homogenous, there is the need to make sure that the basic needs of every beneficiary, especially those categorized as vulnerable groups, are incorporated in the site development plan. In developing gender sensitive site development plan there are several gender indicators: a. Ensure that the beneficiaries are not treated as a homogenous entity, thus, have different

needs. b. Ensure every component in the site plan (basic infrastructure, public infrastructure, etc)

reflects the needs of the beneficiaries/people, especially the vulnerable groups (women, children, elderly, disabled people) community participatory method in developing the site development plan

c. Analyze the gender role of men and women in term of their needs vis a vis the site development plan. For instance, the need of soccer field or sport hall are low in prioriity compare to market place where it is considered as daily need.

d. Ensure the needs of vulnerable groups, especially women who are the primary users of basic and public infrastructure, can be prioritized to guarantee gender equity

By incorporating gender issues with the lead of gender indicators, it is expected that the site development plan can accommodate the needs of the beneficiaries while ensuring equall opportunity of every beneficiaries to access the planned services and utilities.

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Annex E GAP expected result : Gender evaluation of tender document (direct contract) and

community contract ing (ADB-BRR) / #5 & #6 Undertaken by : Gender Specialist – Oversight Consultant ADB Housing

Component Date : 13-30 September 2007 Report Completion : 07 October 2007 I. Background of analysis

As stated in the objective of ADB’s gender and development policy, it is important to maintstream gender issues in every programes or activity. By mainstreaming gender into the core of project’s activities, it is expected that project will be sensitized throughout the process; therefore, optimal output and outcome will be ensured. Aiming for the core is not as easy as said or written. Especially in the housing component for earthquake and Tsunami emergency support project (ETESP). Mainstreaming gender in each activities without knowing and understanding the overall framework will not only confusing, but also not effective nor efficient. Understanding the framework of the project will help to identify the strategic points within the system to be “guarded” with gender mainstreaming. Once these strategic points are mainstreamed, it is expected the mainstreaming of gender will flow within the system of the project. The identification process of these strategic points has been conducted as a part of the development of Gender Action Plan (GAP). Although GAP was only developed during the implementation of the housing project; nevertheless, for the purpose of monitoring and evaluation, GAP is useful to ensure that the future housing projects can be improved. Gender monitoring and evaluation on direct and community contracting is considered as strategic effort to identify any advantages and disadvantages in mainstreaming gender issues within the both type of contracting processes.

II. Gender Evaluation of Direct and Community Contracting From gender perspective, especially from monitoring and evaluation side, contracting process is seen as a rule to determine how things are done, who will do it, and when, including all of criteria in each stages. Accordingly, the inclusion of community participation refer to the rule of contracting. Direct contracting Direct contract in ADB housing program (on-budget housing program) has to subscribe to BRR’s tender guideline as BRR is the appointed executing agency for ADB’s grant. The tender process itself is fine, it is how the community, especially women, participation is being included within direct contracting. The implementation of direct contract in the field have shown that community participation, especially women participation, were left out due to unavailable mechanism in including the community participation within a direct contracting (for example: labor force & monitoring). Consequently,

31

ADB consultant, especially from the Oversight Consultant (OC) and Project Implementation Consultant (PIC) provided a mechanism where community participation still can be delivered in a direct contract mainframe. The mechanism was to establish a community committee to monitor the construction work of the contractors. It was later on institutionalized into a community committee for house construction or known as PPRG (Panitia Pembangunan Rumah Gampong). So far, this committee is the only mean to bring the community participation into the picture. Seen as an effective way of monitoring, more PPRGs were established for other locations. Women were encouraged to become the leader and member of PPRG; however, the norm of women’s role within the community had restrained their participation, and even there were a few, most of the time their advice to the workers in the field are neglected due to the believe that women do not have the necessary knowledge of construction work. To overcome this problem, a simple checklist of monitoring has been established by OC and socialized to the PPRGs, facilitators, inspectors. This checklist consists of 16 essential guidelines to monitor the construction of the house. With all elements of the monitoring system on board, the monitoring process was moving to the right direction. Nonetheless, problems occurred, and they were not because the system has failed, but because of the unwillingness of the workers (contractors) to work according to the specification from ADB. The control over this unwanted deviation of quality of work is handled by OC and PIC by holding back the payment, warning letter, penalty, and so on. This kind of problem often happens within direct contracting scheme. Even though there are a few contractors who are very good and professional, local contractors tend to provide low quality of construction work. The idea of empowering local economy through local contractors has suffered from this problem. In addition, the “involvement” of ex-GAM (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka) suppliers in some of subprojects also has worsened the problems at hand. The following table summarizes social and gender issues within direct contracting scheme.

TABLE 1 Social and Gender Issues within Direct Contract Scheme

No. Social & Gender issues Recommendation Status Remarks 1 No formal mechanism for

community participation within the contracting scheme

Establish Community Monitoring Committee (PPRG)

Implemented Socialization of PPRG existence and position to all stakeholders

2 Under estimation of women in monitoring process

Develop checklist as guideline to monitor house construction

Implemented Attitude towards women’s capacity still not improving

need more awareness among the workers/contractors

3 Ineffective community monitoring

Reward system for PPRG (identity, operational cost, weekly meeting with contractors, etc)

Not fully implemented

Aceh has different situation with other development locations. Most of community lost their livelihood monitoring the construction creates trade off for the community (indispensable opportunity cost)

4 Double standards among the community (Community’s standard and ADB’s standard)

Confirmation and socialization of ADB specification and

Implemented Over expectation from the community needs socialization (guideline for

32

qualification to all stakeholders

community on specification and quality standards)

5 Local labor (competition with outsider)

Accommodate local labor whenever possible


The wives usually propose to the contractor to hire their husbands as worker

expected wage is too high and usually local worker does not works as hard as their competitor (outsider)

6 Conflict with outsider (mainly worker) behavior and local culture/tradition

Socialization to contractor’s workers to adapt to local tradition and custom law


Behavior towards women regarding the customary law are very straight forward in Aceh. Workers or outsider should adapt to this traditional and customary law.

Community ContractingCommunity contracting scheme is more complex compare to direct contracting, but the level of community participation is certain. It is complex in a sense of administration and implementation procedure. The community is requested to manage almost everything with the assistance of facilitators. Therefore, proper and detail training for the community and facilitators are required. However, training a community to become an engineer and manager is not an overnight task. Many constraints to be faced during the implementation. This evaluation of community contracting is mostly based on Nias’ and Lamdingin’ rehabilitation experience. From a gender perspective, the participation of those who are considered as vulnerable group are quite high. Women, elderly, and children take a part in the construction process. However, participation in the construction process is just half of the hard work. The reportation of construction progress, fund disbursement, and other administration process are the other half of the hard work. Several gender and social issues were raised during both construction and administration processes. The underestimation of women’s knowledge regarding construction works is the first thing to come up. In order to overcome this, the simple 16 checklist for house construction has been socialized to the community as well as the facilitators. The second gender issue is the clustering of beneficiaries into groups. The clustering objective is to have a group management and responsibility of logistic, reporting, adminsitration, and construction. It is to ensure that nobody in the group will be left out regarding the construction progress, reporting and administrative process. However, there is a potential problem regarding who is included in the group. Women, especially elderly and orphan beneficiaries, position has become less advantageous, because they are considered to be liability for the group. Therefore, it has been a real concern for ADB to ensure that these vulnerable groups are supported adequately, whether by the facilitator or the other member of the group. The third gender issue related to the allocation process of construction budget. The first question that has come up was how do we ensure women or other beneficiaries from the vulnerable groups (orphan, elderly) have the same opportunity as the other member in making decision to allocate the budget. In order to overcome this, the facilitators need to pay more attention

33

and support to these vulnerable groups by providing them with proper guideline for house construction and spending more time with them to discuss if any problem starts to develop. The same case happens in the rehabilitation program in Lamdingin. The decision to allocate the budget for rehabilitation should be consulted with the other member of the family, as they have other opinions regarding the rehabilitation. Related to this case, facilitators can only suggest to the recipient to consider the opinion from other member of the family. However, very often women have relied the decision making of the rehabilitation budget allocation to their husbands, as they already have many domestic task to do. In such case, the facilitators should ensure that prior to the decision of women to rely on their husband to make the decision for the rehabilitation, women have already given equal opportunity to be involed fully in the decision making process. The fourth issue is related to the division of labor within the group. Since women are underestimated by male regarding their knowledge of construction works, the administrative works may be handed over to the women. As has been said previously, the administrative works is as hard as the construction works; moreover, it needs reading and writing skills. Problems then occur because of the level of education of community, in Nias especially, is very low. Both men and women have low level of education, and if women are to be responsible for the administrative works, then detail assistance from the facilitators are required. What happens in the field is that only a few women are willing to do the administrative works, the rest join the men to do the construction works. Consequently, facilitators have to do almost all of the administrative works, which is not possible since the availability of facilitators is limited, as well as time. Based on these gender issues in the field, it is important for us to intercept gender issues with issues from different aspect, such as finance, technical, social, psycological, and so on, in order to avoid unintegrated and coordinated analysis and implementation. The following table summarizes gender and social key issues regarding community contracting vis á vis other aspects (finance and technical).

TABLE 2 Social and Gender Issues within Direct Contract Scheme

No. Social & Gender issues Recommendation Status Remarks 1 Under estimation of women in

construction works cause reluctant attitude among men in clustering process

Intensive assistance from facilitator and provide effective and efficient mechanism for cluster with widows, orphan, elderly or disabled people among their members

Implemented Division of labor based on capacity not sex or gender

2 Decision making process within the community contract vulnerable groups needs to be involved

Facilitate coordination meeting for each cluster or collectively on how to manage the logistic, the administrative works, etc

To be implemented

(lesson learned)

Transparency is crucial for each cluster trust among member

3 Double standards among the community (Community’s standard and ADB’s standard)

Confirmation and socialization of ADB specification and qualification to all stakeholders

Implemented Over confidence of the community about house construction leads to double standards

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4 Limited skilled local labor Outsourcing Implemented Quality and time are crucial 5 Material flow / Logistics Warehouse to stock all

material in all subprojects

Under discussion

Needs agreement from the beneficiaries and committed supplier

6 Payment / disbursement Administrative requirement checklist to be provided

Implemented Time-frame and procedure for administrative works should be known to all stakeholder

7 Low education level among the community progress reporting problem

More assistance from facilitator in preparing the administrative works, including report of construction progress

Implemented Ensure empowerment of the community through assistance of facilitators

8 Monitoring and evaluation mechanism constraint

Ensure facilitator equipped with proper monitoring and evaluation tools

Implemented Difficulty of monitoring due to double standard or over confidence of community

III. Conclusion

To decide whether to use direct contracting or community contracting, it is best based on several elements: (a) the vision and mission of the project; (b) quality; (c) time; (d) local context & custom; (e) supply logistics; (f) beuraucracy/administration; and (g)availability of labor force. If the vision of the project is to empower the community/victim, especially women, through housing project, then community contract is the best option. However, the other elements still have to be ensured. Usually, community contract will take much more longer time compare to direct contract. This is why direct contract is employed based on the vision of providing house to community/victim of Tsunami reagrding emergency situation. But again, this is only from time perspective. We need to be able to forsee the overall process including potential constraints and ensure that any constraints still within our power to be addressed properly.

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technical assistance consultant’s report · brr aceh - nias badan rehabilitasi dan rekonstruksi...

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