Sometimes even seemingly sensible policies can backfire. The government has for the last few years been mulling a 'one-window' policy to aid distribution. This makes sense. In recent times our bilateral donors have tended to cherry-pick projects they would like to fund. In some cases such funds have been cunningly shunted aside into their pet political projects that they self-righteously deemed important for Nepal. Nepal, therefore, badly needed a one-window policy whereby all foreign aid would be channeled through government into national priority projects. But apply the same helpful one-window approach to distribution of relief material in case of a national disaster, and it can have all kinds of undesirable consequences. Take the chaos this policy has caused in Gorkha, the epicenter of the massive 7.6-scale earthquake (the first of many tremors to hit the country) on Saturday.Relief materials from all over the world have been piling up at the Tribhuvan International Airport: food stuff, tent material, medicines. But the government seems clueless about how to put them into the hands of earthquake victims. Thousands of houses have been razed to the ground in worst-affected districts like Sindhupalchowk, Gorkha and Dolakha. As a result, nearly three million Nepalis have been rendered homeless. Many of them are now living under open skies. They also have nothing to eat. Even as they shiver and starve, most of the things they need are now locked up in TIA go-downs. It thus makes sense to explore every possible avenue to quickly transfer these materials to quake-affected areas. But the one-window policy means that only designated government agencies can undertake the vital task. This narrow approach has had predictable consequences. Again, in Gorkha's case, the government has been able to transfer the bulk of the vital food and equipment to Gorkha Bazaar, the district headquarters; the relief material collected by other NGOs, INGOs and private contributors have also been assembled at the same place. But this is where things have gotten tricky.
The government, wary of the kind of massive leakages that have characterized aid distribution in the past, apparently wants to do it all by itself. It would indeed be wonderful if it had the means to do so. But it clearly doesn't. Given its limited resources, why not let people from other sectors help with timely distribution of relief material? Above 6,100 people have already died from Saturday's earthquake; twice as many are injured. Aid agencies reckon that if help does not reach survivors in the next few days, the number of deaths could rapidly increase. But even as people are dying, according to some news reports, there have been massive misappropriation of relief funds from government middlemen. And top political leaders are apparently fighting among themselves to secure enough for their individual electoral constituencies. Thus far from making relief efforts quick and transparent, the government monopoly over aid distribution is crippling the whole process. Instead of no (government) help reaching the survivors, surely, its far better that they get some help in these desperate times—from somewhere, anywhere.
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