The politics of the post-conflict and post-disaster nexus in Nepal

Abstract

The intersection of the post-conflict reconstruction processes established in Nepal’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2006, and the post-disaster reconstruction effort that swung into action following the country’s devastating earthquakes in 2015 provides an important opportunity to observe to what extent synergies between the two reconstruction processes have been successfully exploited. This paper critically examines these two processes, demonstrating that despite a growing recognition of the value of linking these processes by researchers, in practice they often remain separate. It shows how certain actors have framed the post-disaster reconstruction as unrelated to post-conflict activities in order to avoid what they perceive as the risk of politicising – and thus delaying – the post-disaster reconstruction process. The paper suggests that this is a mistake. The process of post-disaster reconstruction is innately political and intricately entwined with the very same issues and activities the post-conflict reconstruction process attempted to address. Moreover, we argue that the entire process is taking place within a political context which is a product of the as-yet unresolved post-conflict polity. Any reconstruction process that does not take this into account risks being undermined by the same challenges that underpinned the country’s conflict.

Keywords:

• Nepal
• post-conflict reconstruction
• post-disaster reconstruction

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Allan and Nesta Ferguson Charitable Trust.

Notes

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2. See, for example, Albala-Bertrand, ‘Complex Emergencies versus Natural Disasters’.

3. The ‘Build Back Better’ principle asserts that recreating pre-disaster conditions is inadequate, and that the reconstruction of disaster-affected communities should aim to improve the living conditions of disaster-affected communities and address the vulnerabilities that contributed to the disaster in the first instance. See WCDRR Issue Brief, Rebuilding After Disasters.

4. Wahlstrom, ‘New Sendai Framework’; Kelman, ‘Climate Change and the Sendai Framework’.

5. Prior and Roth, ‘Global Disaster Politics Post Sendai’. .

6. Peters and Budimir, ‘When Disasters and Conflict Collide’.

7. Glaser, Discovery of Grounded Theory.

8. Özerdem, ‘Post Conflict Reconstruction’, 38.

9. Thapa and Sharma, ‘From Insurgency to Democracy’.

10. Human Rights Watch, Like We are Not Nepali.

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12. UN Common Feedback Project, Issue: Reconstruction.

13. HRRPN, Private Housing.

14. Hsiang et al., ‘Quantifying the Influence of Climate’.

15. Vivekananda et al., ‘Climate Resilience’.

16. Dahlberg et al., Disaster Research.

17. Macrae et al., ‘Conflict, the Continuum and Chronic Emergencies’; Kapucu and Özerdem, Managing Emergencies and Crises.

18. Christoplos and Harvey, ‘Adding It All Up?’, 231.

19. Duijsens, ‘Addressing Fragilities’, 224.

20. Duffield, ‘Complex Emergencies’; Harmer and Macrae, Beyond the Continuum; Keen, Complex Emergencies.

21. Godschalk, ‘Urban Hazard Mitigation’; Scheffran et al., ‘Climate Change and Violent Conflict’.

22. Clarke et al., Post-Disaster Reconstruction.

23. For an overview of the coincidence of conflict and disaster, see Uexkull, ‘Sustained Drought, Vulnerability and Civil Conflict’; Peters et al., When Disasters and Conflicts Collide.

24. Vivekananda et al., ‘Climate Resilience’, 488.

25. Nel and Righarts, ‘Natural Disasters and the Risk of Violent Civil Conflict’.

26. For further discussion of the characteristics of disaster resilient communities, see Twigg, ‘Characteristics of a Disaster-Resilient Community’.

27. See Sørensen, Women and Post-Conflict Reconstruction; Barakat, After the Conflict; Anderlini and El Bushra, ‘Post-Conflict Reconstruction’; Call and Cousens, ‘Ending Wars and Building Peace’; Suhrke, ‘Reconstruction as Modernization’, for discussions of the breadth of activities carried out under the aegis of post-conflict reconstruction, and Clarke et al., Post-Disaster Reconstruction; Amaratunga and Haigh, Post-Disaster Reconstruction of the Built Environment; Kapucu and Özerdem, Managing Emergencies and Crises; and Kennedy et al., ‘The Meaning of “Build Back Better”,’ for an overview of different post-disaster reconstruction activities.

28. Albala-Bertrand, ‘Complex Emergencies versus Natural Disasters’.

29. Ibid., 189.

30. Simpson, The Political Biography of an Earthquake, 12.

31. Oliver-Smith and Hoffman, The Angry Earth.

32. Solnit, A Paradise Built in Hell.

33. Ferris, ‘Natural Disasters, Conflict, and Human Rights’.

34. Kelman, Disaster Diplomacy.

35. De Torrenté, ‘Humanitarianism Sacrificed’.

36. Hilhorst, ‘Dead Letter or Living Document?’.

37. Pelling, The Vulnerability of Cities, 5.

38. See, for example, Bosher and Chmutina, Disaster Risk Reduction for the Built Environment; and Kelman et al., ‘Learning from the History of Disaster’.

39. Barakat, After the Conflict, 10.

40. Ramsbotham et al., Contemporary Conflict Resolution; Özerdem, ‘Post Conflict Reconstruction’.

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42. Clarke et al., Post-Disaster Reconstruction.

43. Kapucu and Özerdem, Managing Emergencies and Crises. The question of authenticity in reconstruction is important – Clarke et al. argue that the reconstructed landscape should in some way match, and therefore be endowed with meaning by, the ‘internal landscape’ of communities living there, whilst the UNESCO’s Nara Document on Authenticity underlines the role of authenticity as a guarantor of the ‘collective memory of humanity’.

44. Mac Ginty and Richmond, ‘Hybrid Peace’.

45. Including but not limited to Le Billon and Waizenegger, ‘Peace in the Wake of Disaster?’; Hyndman, ‘Siting Conflict and Peace’; Kennedy et al., ‘The Meaning of “Build Back Better”’; and Uyangoda, ‘Ethnic Conflict’.

46. For example, see Chopra and Hohe, ‘Participatory Intervention’ on participatory post-conflict interventions, or Siriwardena and Haigh ‘Stakeholder Consultation in the Reconstruction Process’ for a discussion of community participation in PDR.

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48. Clarke et al., Post-Disaster Reconstruction.

49. Pelling, The Vulnerability of Cities.

50. Mac Ginty and Richmond, ‘The Local Turn in Peace Building’; Leonardsson and Rudd, ‘The “Local Turn” in Peacebuilding’.

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58. Author interview with Nepali NGO representative, Kathmandu, 9 February 2017.

59. Author interview with representative of the Ministry for Peace and Reconstruction, Kathmandu, 7 February 2017.

60. Oliver-Smith and Hoffman, The Angry Earth, 158.

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62. Author interview with Nepali NGO representative and academic, Kathmandu, 8 February 2017.

63. Author interview with representative of the National Reconstruction Authority, Kathmandu, 6 February 2017.

64. De Torrente, ‘Humanitarianism Sacrificed’.

65. Collinson et al., ‘States of Fragility’, 286.

66. Author interview with donor government representative, Kathmandu, 8 February 2017.

67. Author interview with international organisation representative, Kathmandu, 2 February 2017.

68. Pelling, The Vulnerability of Cities.

69. Author interview with Nepali NGO representative, Kathmandu, 10 February 2017; Author interview with Nepali NGO representative, Kathmandu, 9 February 2017; Author interview with Nepali NGO representative, Kathmandu, 9 February 2017.

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78. Lederach, The Moral Imagination; Dudouet, Civil Resistance and Conflict Transformation.

79. Author interview with donor government representative, Kathmandu, 14 February 2017.

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86. Clarke et al., Post-Disaster Reconstruction; Scheffran et al., ‘Climate Change and Violent Conflict’.

87. Vivekananda et al., ‘Climate Resilience’.

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89. Author interview with donor government representative, Kathmandu, 14 February 2017.

90. Krampe, ‘Empowering Peace’, 54.

91. Author interview with international charity representative, Kathmandu, 13 February 2017.

92. Author interview with Nepali NGO representative, Kathmandu, 9 February 2017.

93. Klein, The Shock Doctrine; Pelling and Dill, ‘Disaster Politics’, 22.

94. Author interview with representative of the National Reconstruction Authority, Kathmandu, 6 February 2017.

95. Thapa and Sharma, ‘From Insurgency to Democracy’.

96. Author interview with donor government representative, Kathmandu, 8 February 2017.

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98. Author interview with representative of the National Reconstruction Authority, Kathmandu, 6 February 2017.

99. Bauman, ‘Times of Interregnum’, 49.

100. Author interview with Nepali NGO representative and academic, Kathmandu, 8 February 2017.

101. Author interview with Nepali NGO representative, Kathmandu, 10 February 2017; Author interview with Nepali NGO representative, Kathmandu, 9 February 2017; Author interview with Nepali NGO representative, Kathmandu, 9 February 2017; Author interview with Nepali NGO representative, Kathmandu, 7 February 2017; Author interview with international charity representative, Kathmandu, 13 February 2017.

102. Author interview with international organisation representative, Kathmandu, 6 February 2017.

103. Olson and Gawronski, ‘From Disaster Event to Political Crisis’, 207.

104. Pelling and Dill, ‘Natural Disasters as Catalysts’.

105. Kirsch and Flint, Reconstructing Conflict.

106. Lederach, The Moral Imagination.

107. Brancati, ‘Political Aftershocks’; Nel and Righarts, ‘Natural Disasters and the Risk of Violent Civil Conflict’; Poggione et al., ‘Public Response to Disaster Response’; and Olson and Gawronski, ‘Disasters as Critical Junctures?’.

108. Olson and Gawronski, ‘From Disaster Event to Political Crisis’, 207.

109. Adhikari, ‘Ending the Political Transition?’.