UNCLASSIFIED

AID 02-04-02

DIR:GCARNER

INR:JCHUDY

INR:BRUDERT; PDM:CTHOMPSON; OHE:MANDERSON; DDIR:DKENNEDY

AID

AMEMBASSY GUATEMALA

SECSTATE WASHDC

AMEMBASSY SAN JOSE

AMEMBASSY SAN SALVADOR

AMEMBASSY TEGUCIGALPA

AMEMBASSY MANAGUA

AIDAC

FOR USAID/OFDA,USAID/LAC/AA,USAID/LAC/CEN, SOUTHCOM, USGS,

NOAA, FEMA, USDA/FAS, CDC ATLANTA.

E.O. 12958: N/A

TAGS: OTRA, GT

SUBJECT: USAID/GUATEMALA HURRICANE MITCH RECONSTRUCTION

COMPLETION REPORT

1. SUMMARY: United States Government (USG) financed

reconstruction assistance has significantly enhanced rural

productivity, health and sanitary conditions in affected areas

in Guatemala achieving program targets set in nearly all

areas. USG assistance has moreover been effective in

strengthening both national and local disaster preparedness

through the effective partnership of USAID and other USG

agencies. This cable documents how $71 million in total USG

assistance was utilized, results achieved, and lessons learned

from this successful emergency response and reconstruction

program. Direct damages to infrastructure, crops, housing,

schools and clinics was estimated at $550 million plus another

$280 million lost due to disrupted exports and reduced

economic activity. To this was added the human toll of 268

dead, 106,000 evacuated and a total of 750,000 people

affected. Public infrastructure, private housing, and economic

activity led by agriculture, were hard hit. Following the

storm, USAID responded initially with emergency assistance and

rehabilitation support and subsequently with a two-year

reconstruction program. The $71 million of total USG Hurricane

Mitch assistance was implemented through USAID, $34.8 million;

Department of Defense (DOD), $30.0 million; USAID's Office of

Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), $2.0 million; U.S.

Department of Agriculture (USDA), $1.6 million; U.S.

Geological Survey (USGS), $1.3 million; national Oceanic and

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), $1.2 million; Federal

Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) $0.5 million. All USG

assistance programmed for Mitch reconstruction was completed

by December 31, 2001, except for one irrigation rehabilitation

activity that concluded in January 2002. Through local

initiative to extend and expand projects, benefits will

continue to accrue after Mitch Reconstruction is completed.

END SUMMARY.

2. EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE PHASE: After the Government of

Guatemala (GOG) declared a disaster, the USG through USAID and

DOD, provided $9.5 million in emergency assistance. This

assistance consisted of $1.5 million in emergency water supply

and housing materials provided through USAID/OFDA; $4.0

million in PL 480 Title II food commodities to help the GOG

minimize loss of life and to help affected villages begin to

recover; $4.0 million went for U.S. Army helicopter support

for search and rescue operations and for the distribution of

emergency supplies.

3. REHABILITATION PHASE: Following the initial emergency, the

GOG implemented a 100-day program designed to focus assistance

on efforts to normalize living conditions in affected

communities. The USG provided $30 million during this phase.

The first $2.8 million was redirected from ongoing USAID

programs help the Ministry of Health distribute medicines and

supplies to prevent the spread of cholera and acute diarrheal

diseases and to help the Ministry of Agriculture repair small

irrigation systems. A total of $26 million was provided

through the Department of Defense’s New Horizons program to

help communities begin rebuilding schools and health posts.

Finally $1.2 million in monetized food aid under the US

Department of Agriculture’s Section 416B was program used to

assist the Ministry of Agriculture construct flood control

dikes. The rehabilitation phase was intended as a bridge

between the emergency response and the more permanent

reconstruction period that would follow, once greater amounts

of international resources were obtained to initiate a formal

reconstruction program. The international donor community, led

by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) held a

Consultative Group (CG) meeting May 25-29, 1999 in Stockholm,

Sweden to address Hurricane Mitch Reconstruction in the

Central America Region.

4. RECONSTRUCTION PHASE: The GOG presented a reconstruction

plan at the May 1999 CG meeting that centered on three broad

areas: Enhancing the country’s capacity to prepare for and

respond to disasters, rehabilitating the agricultural economy,

and strengthening health systems as a component of disaster

preparedness. The USG pledged and delivered $32.5 million of

assistance to help the GOG achieve targets laid out in its

reconstruction plan. The USG package consisted of $5.5

million directed at improving disaster preparedness; $24

million for rehabilitating agriculture and restoring important

watersheds; and $3 million for improving community health

systems in the areas of water and sanitation, hygiene

education and malaria and dengue fever control. The program

was implemented between June 1, 1999 and December 31, 2001. By

the December completion date, the program had achieved most of

its expected targets in all three components.

5. DISASTER PREPARDNESS: The GOG immediate response to

Hurricane Mitch pointed out clear weaknesses in the national

network of disaster response, from poor communications between

central and local disaster coordination committees to the

absence of pre-identified logistical support channels and

arrangements. Notwithstanding a 1996 law creating a civilian,

decentralized national emergency management agency(known

locally as CONRED) little had been done to implement the new

system. Following Hurricane Mitch, the GOG made the

systematic preparation for future disasters one of its highest

priorities. The USG committed $5.5 million for enhancing

disaster preparedness. USAID directly managed $1.5 million,

and the other $4 million were implemented through other USG

agencies including NOAA, USGS, FEMA, CDC, and the USDA/Forest

Service. The highly specialized technical expertise drawn from

multiple USG agencies has enabled Guatemala to significally

strenghten its technical capacity and put in place more modern

disaster alert systems.

6. DISASTER PREPARDNESS RESULTS INCLUDE:

- CONRED, the GOG’s national emergency management agency,

strengthened through the design, construction and equipping of

a modern Emergency Operations Center in Guatemala City.

- One hundred fifty-two local community and 6 municipal

disaster reduction coordination committees formed as part of

the CONRED national system.

- INSIVUMEH, the national meteorological institute,

strengthened through the installation of modern equipment and

training that included: 8 automatic weather and rain gage

stations; 2 automatic tide gages; 10 manual weather stations;

4 telemetric stream-flow networks; 5 UHF radios and 1 repeater

station; 1 flood warning system for the Polochic river

watershed area; installation of a local area computer network;

2 satellite imagery receiving stations; 5 staff trained in

satellite meteorology, hydrological forecasting, tropical

weather and flood forecasting. INSIVUMEH also received

landslide and volcano risk mapping capacity that included

digitized maps, computers and technical training.

- CONRED and INSIVUMEH both benefited from aerial photography

and satellite imagery in the development of geographic

information systems for improved disaster planning.

- National health laboratories improved their disease

prevention and response capability through epidemiological

training provided by the CDC and the Association for Public

Laboratories.

- Forest fire management plans and prevention, weather data

collection and analysis, and landslide mitigation

infrastructure developed for the Sierra de Las Minas biosphere

forest reserve.

At the close of the two-year Hurricane Mitch Reconstruction

program, USAID/Guatemala is very confident that CONRED is much

better prepared to respond to future disasters. Equally

important, a national system has begun to take shape with a

hierarchy of responsibilities becoming manifest in the form of

municipal and local disaster coordination units. Finally, the

efforts to strengthen both CONRED and INSIVUMEH, have laid a

solid foundation for the implementation of activities directed

not only at disaster response, but to mitigation and

prevention as well.

7. AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY RECOVERED: In the northern and

eastern departments of Guatemala, Hurricane Mitch destroyed

agricultural productivity, affecting thousands of already

impoverished rural families. Over 17,000 small farmers lost

their crops and seed stocks, and damage to irrigation systems

left over 20,000 small farmers without irrigation service.

Hillside farmers were affected by landslides, damage to farm

to market roads, and the loss of small holder coffee stands.

In response, USAID programmed $24 million to help the GOG

recover small farmer productivity. Activities included

rehabilitation of irrigation systems, construction of stream

bank protection and flood control infrastructure, restoration

of crucial farm to market roads and bridges, the rebuilding of

basic grain seed stocks, rehabilitation and reconstruction of

coffee processing facilities, and the rehabilitation and

reforestation of important watershed and hillside areas.

8. THE TWO YEAR AGRICULTURAL PROGRAM PRODUCED THE FOLLOWING

RESULTS:

- With design assistance provided by the US Army Corps of

Engineers (USACE), USAID, through the Ministry of Agriculture

(MAGA), implemented 9 irrigation rehabilitation and flood

control infrastructure projects benefiting a total of 15,000

hectares of farmland. Over 20,000 small producers were again

productive after these projects were completed.

- Through the national coffee association, USAID rehabilitated

1,600 hectares of coffee plantations, and reconstructed or

rehabilitated 18 coffee processing plants benefiting a total

of 14,000 small coffee growers.

- With USAID financial support, the MAGA implemented a seed

recovery program to bring improved corn, bean, rice, potato,

and sesame seed to 17,000 producers who lost seed stocks to

Mitch. The program produced certified seed for each kind.

Total seed quantities produced include 430,000 lbs. of corn,

204,000 lbs. of rice, 15,000 lbs. of sesame, 72,000 lbs. of

black bean, and 150,000 lbs. of potato.

- A total of 13,200 small rural enterprises benefited from $2

million worth of micro-credit loans.

- The program rehabilitated 202 kilometers of rural farm to

market roads (28 additional kilometers will be completed in

2002 by beneficiary municipalities), and reconstructed or

repaired 13 bridges.

- Working through private voluntary organizations and local

non-governmental organizations, USAID successfully reforested

1,198 hectares of land, and implemented agro-forestry

activities on another 1,863 hectares, all in Mitch-affected

watershed areas.

- Hallmark achievements in this component begin with a

successful Participating Agency Service Agreement (PASA) with

the US Army Corps of Engineers. The PASA led to the design of

twenty-two irrigation rehabilitation and flood control

infrastructure projects. USACE’s willingness to work with

USAID in scaling their work to fit the environment of rural

Guatemala, without compromising on design and construction

standards, created the ingredients for success. USAID-managed

Mitch funds were sufficient to implement nine of USACE’s

designs. The eleven unimplemented designs are fully developed

including budgets, and are ready to go as the Government of

Guatemala secures funding for them, and the Mission and MAGA

will have a continuing relationship with USACE to call upon

their services, if needed.

Finally rehabilitation targets for roads, bridges, hectares of

watershed, hectares of farmland, coffee mills, and small

enterprises were met, and often exceeded. The productive lives

of people were restored.

9. COMMUNITY DISEASE PREVENTION AND CONTROL SYSTEMS

STRENGTHENED: In many parts of Guatemala, infectious diseases

such as malaria, dengue, cholera and other diarrheal diseases

have long been serious problems. Hurricane Mitch created

greater vulnerability in areas directly affected by the storm.

In addition, many rural areas lack access to potable water and

proper sanitation. Hurricane Mitch exacerbated this situation

as well.

USAID programed $3 million to improve malaria prevention and

case detection and treatment, help relieve some of the water

and sanitation deficit, and help develop a dengue response

plan for Guatemala.

10. THE TWO YEAR PROGRAM PRODUCED THE FOLLOWING RESULTS:

- With assistance from the CDC, an insecticide-treated bed net

program was developed that included the production, treatment

and distribution of 11,275 bed nets to 38 malaria affected

communities.

- Malaria case detection and treatment was facilitated by the

training of 414 volunteer community collaborators who visited

over 40,000 homes.

- Epidemiological surveillance of malaria was initiated in the

project area to identify positive cases and to monitor

treatment.

- A vector-monitoring component was initiated to better

understand the effect of insecticide-treated bed nets on the

vector population.

- With the assistance of US private voluntary organizations, a

total of 40 water systems, 109 water wells, and 5,449 latrines

were constructed or repaired.

- Over 8,000 five-gallon water receptacles with chlorine

applications were distributed.

- Hygiene education was imparted in more than 200 communities.

- The CDC assisted the Ministry of Health in the development

of Guatemala’s “National Offensive for the Prevention and

Control of Dengue.”

All three dimensions of the health component led to

strengthened community disease prevention and control by

improving community disease response and better household

health practices. CARE and CRS, principal partners in this

component for water and sanitation activities, achieved their

respective work plan targets, and MERTU-CDC met its targets of

supporting CARE and CRS in their water and sanitation efforts

as well as meeting malaria and dengue control targets.

11. LESSONS LEARNED AT THE SPECIAL OBJECTIVE LEVEL:

1) Washington pressures to meet quarterly expenditures target

to meet the Hurricane Mitch reconstruction deadline as

prescribed under the Central America and Caribbean Emergency

Disaster Relief Fund (CACEDRF) of December 31, 2001, diverted

attention from quality management and control.

2) The Mission's choice of existing mechanisms to obligate

funds and implement activities was well taken. It took

advantage of the presence of existing partners in the

Hurricane Mitch affected areas, such as CARE, CRS, ANACAFE and

CHF, so that within six months after receiving CACEDRF

funding, activities were up and running. The Mission employed

Cooperative Agreements, Project Implementation Letters and a

PASA, which achieved excellent results.

3) The Mission also initiated innovative approaches like Fixed

Amount Reimbursable (FAR) contracts. The FAR arrangement

employed for the implementation of construction projects

worked very efficiently. Ten projects (nine designed by USACE

and one by CARE) totaling $4,354,672, were implemented under

FAR arrangements through MAGA. Concurrent audits confirmed the

efficacy of the FAR approach.

4) When addressing a disaster, a mission should not pay undue

attention to sustainability and institutional strengthening.

Bypass mechanisms to get things rebuilt quickly are

acceptable, if not preferred.

5) During emergency response projects, support and follow up

to technical and operational exchange among partners has to be

provided. Partner’s institutional capacity is strengthened

through the exchange of knowledge, tools and experience. The

Mission’s role in facilitating partner coordination during an

emergency response is critical.

12. LESSONS LEARNED: DISASTER PREPAREDNESS ENHANCED

1) This activity was a novel experience for USAID/Guatemala

and its partners. While the successes are considerable in

terms of quality and quantity, the duration and funding was

too short and limited. Particularly with respect to the

formation of local and municipal coordination units,

additional time and resources would have led to not only a

greater number of community disaster committees being formed,

but a greater consolidation of a national system.

2) The collaboration of USG agencies under the Mitch

Reconstruction program proved to be very valuable in this

component. The different agencies brought different strengths

and capabilities to the task. Most obvious were the technical

strengths of NOAA and USGS, but the most surprising was FEMA,

complementing OFDA’s traditional disaster response capability

with effective organizational talents and mitigation and

prevention approaches.

3) In Guatemala, there is no prior experience with the concept

of disaster mitigation; the concept was introduced through

this activity.

4) Both CARE and CRS gained entry-level experience with

disaster preparedness. Consequently, both agencies acquired an

appreciation for the importance of the concept and have stated

they will be incorporating disaster preparedness and risk

management in all future development projects.

13. LESSONS LEARNED: AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY RECOVERED ON

MORE SUSTAINABLE BASIS

1) The Mission entered into infrastructure construction

activities while not having an engineer on the staff. This

slowed down implementation, and put the Mission at a

disadvantage when technical issues arose. However, once on

board, an engineer proved invaluable in improving efficiency

and implementation of infrastructure activities.

2) The Mission had as many as eleven Recipient-Contracted

Agreements (audits) going on during the implementation of the

program, which occupied more staff time than anticipated.

However, implementation and accountability was deemed to have

worked well, and USAID partners’ internal systems were

strengthened as a result.

3) The partnership between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

and the Ministry of Agriculture in completing critical

infrastructure protection and flood control infrastructure

proved to be very timely and efficient. USACE identified

critical needs and completed timely designs. MAGA contracted

with private construction firms under a FAR arrangement with

USAID while USACE continued to provide construction

supervision and final inspection and certification. MAGA and

the private contractors were impressed with the innovativeness

of the USACE designs, the strict application of specifications

for local materials, and the application of U.S. work place

safety standards. MAGA requested that USACE conduct a

successful streambank protection course for local engineers.

The Mission extended the USACE PASA using regular funding for

an additional year and a half after the completion of the

Mitch program to provide on-call assistance to evaluate the

response of the completed structures to climatic events as

well as to provide follow up assistance to MAGA and local

communities for the operation and maintenance of the

structures.

14.LESSONS LEARNED: COMMUNITY DISEASE PREVENTION AND CONTROL

DISEASE PREVENTION AND CONTROL SYSTEMS STRENGTHENED

1) Water quality and educational activities must be closely

monitored in emergency response projects. The participation of

partners whose strength is monitoring and evaluation can

support timely information and response to water quality

issues and also the development of behavior change educational

material.

2) At USAID’s initiative, extensive water and sanitation

experience in Honduras was shared and used to improve the

quality of water and sanitation activities in Guatemala, with

assistance from the Regional Water and Sanitation Network for

Central America (RRAS-CA).

3) Having an independent agency to test water quality, e.g.,

Medical Entomology Research Training Unit in Guatemala of the

Centers for Disease Control (MERTU/CDC), was effective.

4) Sustainability of chlorination and how to set up community

chlorine banks needs more work.

5) Some innovative and very affordable locally made latrines

were designed which were easier for preschool children to use.

6) CDC malaria bednet production now needs to be paired with

microenterprise know how from elsewhere in the Mission to be

sustained as small businesses for women.

15. CONCLUSION:

The USAID/Guatemala Mitch reconstruction program has been very

successful. The Mission is especially proud of the overall

approach it adopted early on for reconstruction, which it

believes laid the foundation for success. That approach

consisted mainly of working with existing partners to take

advantage of their proven skills and abilities, and to

complement that by obtaining needed technical assistance from

other USG agencies and private contractors. USAID’s clear

vision for reconstruction coupled with help from other

agencies created a collegial and productive atmosphere.

BUSHNELL