Transition Initiatives: Honduras Field Report
November 16 - December 31, 1999
Country Situation
A newspaper closely associated with the governing Liberal Party
printed accusations that the US government had delayed or changed
plans to assist Honduras due to its perception of corruption. The US
Ambassador responded forcefully that this is not true, and that the
USG is one of the largest donors to Honduras today, and is certainly
the most active in multi-sector Mitch relief. OTI's activities
are one part of that assistance, albeit a highly visible part.
The Tribuna articles may have been an attempt to draw
attention away from other papers' accusations against
government ministries. One of the Government of Honduras agencies
against whom allegations are directed is SOPTRAVI (the Ministry of
Public Works, Transport and Housing). On Nov. 18, SOPTRAVI published
a long, defensive letter in the Tribuna attempting to defend
the Ministry against charges of nepotism and corruption.
SOPTRAVI's main defense in the letter was that there are no
laws against nepotism in Honduras and so the cited appointments were
not technically illegal. Moreover, SOPTRAVI noted, even if they were
illegal, not all the appointments were made by the Ministry (some
were made by the President), so all the accusations are therefore
false. Perceptions of corruption linger.
OTI-funded activities have also encountered problems with this
GOH agency, whose officials have attempted to pressure International
Organization of Migration (OTI's implementing partner for the
Tegucigalpa Exit Program) into contracting SOPTRAVI to undertake
work. IOM has always put all work out to bid and has regularly ended
up paying private contractors only 10% (or less) of the price
SOPTRAVI quoted.
OTI Highlights
A. Narrative
Summary
OTI recently contracted PARTICIPA, a highly respected Chilean
NGO, to undertake its long-awaited Civil Society and Transparency
Survey in Honduras. The survey will provide an inventory of civil
society groups working on transparency and accountability at the
national and local levels, and will assess the ability of these
organizations to carry out a monitoring or oversight role
nationally. The assessment will also seek to determine what role, if
any, USAID can play in strengthening these efforts. Unfortunately,
Honduran civil society has traditionally been underdeveloped,
especially in comparison with other Latin American and Central
American countries. There is a demand at various levels of civil
society for expanded participation in the reconstruction program
– both in terms of administration and oversight – but it
is not yet clear how realistic these demands are. USAID/Honduras has
a very strong municipal development program that is working closely
with OTI on the survey. The Mission has significant resources to
invest in transparency, and the OTI survey will provide information
on the capacity of civil society groups to work in this arena, as
well as plan coordination with other donors' activities. The
PARTICIPA team will arrive in Honduras on January 10, 2000.
The USAID Mission is also involved in another OTI-supported
initiative – the Donor Oversight Mechanism, approved by the
Government of Honduras – which gives donors enhanced ability
to track their funds through the various government agencies to
implementation of activities. OTI played a crucial role in the early
negotiation of this initiative, providing vital support to the
Mission Controller.
B. Grants Activity Summary
The OTI Tegucigalpa Exit Program to help victims of Mitch leave
the capital city's public shelters has fully approved nine
grants to receive OTI funding, assisting a total of 2,220 families
of whom 1,593 will be our direct beneficiaries. OTI has obligated
$1,220,600 to these nine grants, leveraging $8,442,880 in other
donors' funding and beneficiary contribution.
At this time, however, only 370 families are already living on
the site of their permanent housing, and only 77 are already in that
permanent housing. Two projects are completed. One other small
project is well under way, and should accept its first families in
January. Four large projects are breaking ground and preparing for
construction, which is scheduled to begin early next
year.
There are an additional four to six additional projects with
which OTI expects to sign contracts early next year. Some of these
are completed housing projects that have space and have agreed to
take on OTI beneficiaries in exchange for infrastructure support
from OTI and the USAID Mission. Others are larger projects with whom
OTI and IOM are still clarifying the amount and kinds of assistance
needed.
C. Coordination
OTI's Exit Program is being executed in tight coordination
with the USAID Mission, OFDA, and with NGOs doing project
implementation. One of the Exit Program's greatest strengths
(and its greatest weakness in terms of rapid implementation) is that
everything depends on coordinating with and assisting other donors
and implementers. OTI funding helps implement these projects more
rapidly and ensures that our beneficiary population (the most
vulnerable) receive prioritized assistance. Before OTI intervened,
NGOs were focussed on the needs of other populations, those with
whom they have worked longer, and had not prioritized the families
in the public shelters.
OTI continues to represent USAID at the Group of Five Housing
Coordination Group. The Group of Five was formed as a result of the
donors' meeting in Stockholm, where five major donors to
Honduras (the United States, Canada, Spain, Sweden and Germany)
banded together to ensure adherence to principles of transparency
and coordination. The Group has since been expanded to include UNDP,
the IDB and Japan. The housing meetings also include ECHO, IOM, and
other important implementers.
D. Implementation Issues
The main impediments to rapid implementation have been the
complexity of the projects (especially as they all attempt to
provide a social framework as well as a roof), and the weak legal
structure of Honduras. This weak legal structure has meant that none
of the lands on which OTI has sought to build housing have had
uncontested titles. It has also meant that GOH environmental
regulations are being tightly imposed on these projects (for poor
people who lack legal and political clout), although they are less
rigorously enforced on businesses.
The weather is finally cooperating after an unusually long and
wet rainy season, and the political and legal problems are finally
being resolved, but it has taken longer than it should have.
Next Steps/Immediate
Priorities
The first major relocation of families to permanent housing sites
supported by OTI took place in November as 203 damnificado
(i.e., flood-victim) families were relocated from a soccer field to
the Altos de Santa Rosa site. The families are now living and
working on their land as OTI carries out the massive movement of
earth necessary to prepare the land for the construction of
permanent housing there. The second major movement of
damnificado families is scheduled for January 2000, when some
100 families will be relocated from a public shelter to the Habitat
for Humanity construction site. This will be the first relocation
financed and carried out completely by OTI/IOM. If that relocation
goes well, families will be moved shortly thereafter to the CARITAS
housing site and then to the ADRA site.
The relocation of these families is complicated since OTI and IOM
need to fully prepare the areas first, in coordination with the NGO.
The beneficiaries need to have the same conditions they enjoyed in
the public shelters: water, light, sanitation, security, etc. The
movement is strictly voluntary and the full 100 families may not
chose to move at once, but as they leave, their cubicles at the
public shelter (which are built in long galleries consisting of
strings of cubicles) will be destroyed. This will be a moment ripe
with symbolism since no one thought that the beneficiaries would
ever leave the shelters. Both the local and national governments
have credited the OTI Exit Program with making this possible.
Progress Towards Objectives
OTI is beginning to phase out its presence in Honduras. The OTI
Resident Manager is scheduled to leave in January/February 2000,
with OTI activities to be managed by the USAID Mission with OTI
technical assistance when necessary. All agreements have been
negotiated, and the program appears prepared for the
handover.
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