Saturday 24 March 2012

recovery assessment findings for Prey Veng




Based on analysis and findings the following recommendations can be considered for “recovery plans’:

a) Still 50% of the people are in need of food and/or basic needs so “Cash transfer” [unconditional and/or conditional] is the best option in given situation, mainly the markets are functioning well and food prices are stable at this time. However in the cases where remoteness, security or other organizational challenges become crucial the “rice distribution” can be an option. It is important to note that rainy season [July to Oct] is falling in project cycle where not much work can be done, there are not many small infrastructures available, the community is not used to do non-farm labour and further there will be lack of skills for specialized infrastructure repairs, which shall be thoroughly analyzed before thinking of “cash for work” option to be proposed.

b) There is significant need of Rice seeds for upcoming season hence it is vital for XXX to consider rice seed distribution as major activity in this proposal, however it is important to note that from learning’s from other organizations and ECHO lesson learned workshop we have noticed that “rice seed” supply particularly the quality rice seed supply can be very challenging in given context so utmost care has to be taken in “rice seed” activities.

c) There are few small infrastructures need repairs, which can be covered under Conditional cash transfer [Cash for Work] option, or even “food for work” can also be considered where remoteness or other factors are challenging.

d) It is observed that the open wells are low height and gets flooded every time where significant amount of money has to be invested in every flooding so looking at longer term DRR integration it is wiser to invest in raising the wells and provide the concrete platform around the base so these well will last for longer term and stay intact in future disaster, there are on an average 10-12 wells per village requires such upgradation.

e) From various communities meeting [WASH FGD] the clear needs of repairing of road came out and the length varies from 150 meter to 2500 meter which can be covered under “cash for work” activities.

f) Many respondents on two districts of Prey veng mentioned about canal repair as the 3rd most priority however we came to know that canal is 35 km long so it is a big infrastructure which may fall outside of the NGO capacity so it is not included in this recommendations.

g) It seems that disaster preparedness activities can bring bigger impact in future hence certain DRR activities especially “early warning system”, “contingency plan” shall be part of recovery program.

h) There will be election in June and “election protocol” will be in place from last week of may. So basically 3-4 weeks were very lean where beneficiaries’ selection or other work cannot be done which may have impact on project cycle because from June 3rd week the monsoon season will set. Further in plight of election the use of “cash grants” need to be carefully handled

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Monday 12 March 2012

Quick start as consultant in cambodia..

5th March:
I just arrived in cambodia on 5th March after a short break.. and learned that my boss is going for a regional meetig in siam reap.. so he wanted me to meet him up before I go home!!!

interesting.. I have finished my house contract on 29th feb.. and as my return was not sure... i didnt extend my contract at the same time owner wanted to renovate my flat and put more furniture to earn more rents!! so she was not interested to rent me for short time...

any ways... i thought let me atleast complete the meeting and than decide where i am sheltering....

finally after meeting i called the land lady.. she said one room flat is available for me for 2 months..cheers!!! here i go.. i moved my stuffs and by 2:00 pm i had my house.... this is the quickest ever i found my place to stay,... and good thing was it was in the same apartment.. :) bingoo!!
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from 6th till 9th we were not clear about the funding call or whether to do needs assessment or not? etc...
finally on 13th march we decided to go for "recover needs assessment"... and i had only few hours to design the recover formats etc..

Its been 6 good months passed since devastating flood hit cambodia...
we geared up for "recovery assessment"..

I have worked on few interesting technical sectors like HEA, cash-transfer, market analysis, WASH needs in recovery..

I had to work with local project manager Mr. Samban.. ..

finally without much brefying at HQ samban and I headed to Prey Veng province.. where we had to conduct a half day training for the staff [mix of higher officials and volunteers]... the training was extremely difficult because of varied profile of staff and language limitation..

finally we could complete the training and did few spot checking... it went well...

came back to PNH after 2 days [15/16 march] and sopetra helped us in entering the while she is entering the data we headed to Siam reap for another needs assessment.. [19-22 march]

we were accompanied in siam reap by Ms. Susanne the HQ recovery coordinator..

findings will be shared in next post.... :)
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