Preventive Resettlement of Populations at Risk of Disaster - GFDRR

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Participation by the population in setting priorities;
Applying the subsidiary-with-solidarity principle;
Strengthening democratic governance and legitimacy;
Strengthening civic values through joint work
and agreements;
Involving the private sector through the procurement
mechanism;
Incorporating a cultural and gender perspective;
Adopting a new integrated and sustainable rural
development strategy.
When this reconstruction model was adopted, it offered
the opportunity to (a) rehabilitate the social fabric, (b)
rebuild and strengthen the country’s infrastructure in a
way that could avoid reproducing previous risks, (c) endow
households with better productive infrastructure,
and (d) construct the institutional underpinnings for
risk management aimed at supporting sustainable human
development.
These goals led to the National Reconstruction with
Transformation Plan, which has three major components
and three connected themes: (Box 6.1)
Box 6.1. National Reconstruction Plan
Components
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Physical infrastructure and the management of watersheds
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Reactivation of productive activities and family income
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Rehabilitation and strengthening of the social fabric
Cross-cutting Themes
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Risk management and integrated management of watersheds
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Transparency and accountability
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Decentralization
The Office of the National Coordinator for Reconstruction
of the Office of the President (Coordinadora Nacional
de Reconstrucción de la Presidencia de la República)
was responsible for creating and implementing the Plan.
A National Manager for Reconstruction was appointed,
as were departmental managers. The population of the
15 departments affected by Tropical Storm Stan also
participated. In each, a Departmental Reconstruction
Commission was established to execute the reconstruction
plans.
The crisis forced the government to adopt and encourage
a more dynamic pace than was usually followed. It
set up an inter-agency team managed by the National
Coordinator for Reconstruction and composed of various
types of professionals—architects, engineers, anthropologists,
economists, journalists, archeologists,
sociologists, urban development specialists and environmentalists—committed
to forming 80 new settlements
in 15 departments to resettle approximately 7,400
families (50,000 people) who were either victims of the
disaster or at imminent risk.
Strengthening the social fabric played a decisive part in
confidence-building, as it fostered citizen participation;
this improved transparency and matched grassroots
“demand” with reconstruction “supply.” Specifically, the
Plan did the following:
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Mobilized internal and external solidarity;
Promoted measures that fostered the population’s
participation in social and productive rehabilitation
efforts;
Boosted communication mechanisms, the quest
for points of consensus, and coordination on the
work to be done between society and the government;
Included a social and cultural perspective in decision
making;
Linked the program’s actions with Millennium
Development Goals, the Peace Accords, and national
development priorities.
Resettlement of the affected and at-risk populations of
the Panabaj and Tzanchaj districts in the municipality
of Santiago Atitlán illustrates how challenges were faced
and how the Reconstruction with Transformation model
was applied. This case was selected because of the special
factors associated with the building of trust, strengthening
the social fabric, retrieving traditions and culture,
adopting an environmental approach and creating the
potential to develop productive activities—all geared to
achieving sustainable development.
Chapter 6 The First Tz´utujil City of the Twenty-First Century | Guatemala |
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