Rehabilitation : a game of negotiation : rehabilitation interventions after typhoon Yolanda in Salcedo, Eastern Samar, the Philippines

Rehabilitation: A game of negotiation

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Rehabilitation: A game of negotiation

Elske van Vessem (student number: 10445544) 26 June 2015, Amsterdam

Master thesis

Contemporary Asian Studies

Graduate School of Social Sciences, University of Amsterdam

Supervisor: R. van Voorst Second reader: R. Rutten

Photograph front page: impression of barangay 2 in the Poblacion of Salcedo, located near to the coastline, taken more than one year after typhoon Yolanda struck the Philippines (photograph made by author).

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Table of contents

1. Introduction ... 4

1.1 Research objectives, relevance and motivation ... 5

1.2 Research questions and structure ... 6

2. Theoretical framework ... 7

2.1 Vulnerability, resilience, reconstruction and development ... 7

2.2 An actor-oriented approach ... 9 3. Research setting ... 13 3.1 Geographical characteristics ... 13 3.2 Economic characteristics ... 14 3.3 Political structure ... 16 4. Methodology ... 18

4.1 Selecting a research area... 18

4.2 Study population and data collection ... 19

4.3 My role as a researcher ... 24

4.4 Influence of using an interpreter... 24

5. Interaction between locals and relief aid organisations: two worlds apart... 26

5.1 Conflicting views on the use of criteria in selecting beneficiaries ... 27

5.2 Conflicts arising from inaccurate assessments... 30

5.3 A mismatch between planned interventions and local realities ... 31

5.4 Conflicting views on attitudes and unfulfilled promises ... 34

5.5 Conclusion ... 36

6. Various responses in rehabilitation and the appropriation of interventions ... 37

6.1 Local responses to conflicting views on the use of criteria ... 37

6.2 Local responses to conflicts arising from inaccurate assessments ... 40

6.3 Local responses to a mismatch between planned interventions and local realities ... 41

6.4 Local responses to conflicting views on attitudes and unfulfilled promises ... 43

6.5 Conclusion ... 45

7. Conclusion - Rehabilitation: a game of negotiation ... 46

Acknowledgements ... 48

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1. Introduction

In the early morning of 8 November 2013 typhoon Yolanda, internationally named Haiyan, struck the Philippines and left massive destruction behind. Winds stronger than 300 kilometre per hour and flood surges higher than four meters were measured, killing at least 7354 people (CRED 2015). Families were torn apart, public and private buildings were severely damaged and infrastructure was ravaged as well as agricultural lands and peoples’ livelihoods. One of the most devastated provinces was Eastern Samar which is located on the island Samar in the south-eastern part of the Philippines. Twelve of the twenty-two municipalities of this province were severely damaged. One of those municipalities was Salcedo. The majority of the population of Salcedo made a living from coconut-plantations. Large parts of the coconut-plantations were destroyed by Yolanda, and thereby the livelihoods of many people. Prior to typhoon Yolanda, people with coconut-based livelihoods already belonged to the second poorest sector in the Philippines (RAY 2013). More than half of Salcedo’s populations had an income below the poverty threshold (CBMS 2009). After the typhoon poverty among these people increased even further. In the days following the typhoon many national and international relief aid organisations arrived at the affected areas. They brought emergency supplies like food, water and temporary shelter and provided medical assistance. The arrival of large numbers of relief aid organisations can cause a problematic and complex situation. Not only the involvement of many different organisations and local actors is problematic, but also the various objectives and “modes of operation” complicate the coordination of relief aid and rehabilitation interventions (Jayasuriya and McCawley 2010). Suddenly people from the outside have to work together with locals and locals have to accept the presence and interference of outsiders. These outsiders do not always understand the local situation. All the involved actors bring their own “lifeworlds” into the field of recovery and rehabilitation (Long 2001). These lifeworlds are formed by past experiences and they shape the individual’s social reality. An individual’s lifeworld is decisive for how individuals act. Lifeworlds also influence the way in which people and relief aid organisations perceive rehabilitation and recovery interventions. The differences in these lifeworlds can lead to conflicts among the involved actors. Together with a “post-disaster field reality”, which is shaped by “strong inequalities, entrenched patterns of relational power and the disorganization, fragmentation and trauma” a complex situation occurs in which lives have to be rebuild (McCarthy 2014: 145). Due to these complexities, rehabilitation interventions often do not reach their planned objectives and can even have a negative outcome. Many authors acknowledge that often a community’s vulnerabilities are reproduced during the rehabilitation and recovery phase for various reasons (Lyons 2009, McCarthy 2014, Shaw 2014, Fordham 2003, Wisner et al. 2004). However, none of these authors explicitly explain how rehabilitation interventions are influenced and

5 transformed by the acts of local actors. This research shows how differing interests are negotiated and how certain outcomes of rehabilitation interventions are reached. It will provide insight in the complexity and diversity among the perceptions and strategies of the involved actors that are determinative for the outcome of the rehabilitation process.

For this research I used the case of rehabilitation in Salcedo after Yolanda. Before the typhoon, only one non-governmental organisation (NGO) was active in the area. Shortly after fifty-three organisations were listed by the Local Government Unit (LGU) (Recovery and rehabilitation plan Salcedo December 2013). For reasons explained above, the entering of many external actors led to a complex situation in which all involved actors responded differently to the emerged conflicts. The high level of poverty, the existing forms of livelihoods prior to the typhoon, the severity of the impact of typhoon Yolanda and the entering of so many outsiders, make Salcedo an interesting case for researching recovery and rehabilitation processes after a natural disaster has occurred.

1.1 Research objectives, relevance and motivation

My primary research objective is to provide insight in the rehabilitation process in Salcedo after typhoon Yolanda with a focus on the interaction between the involved actors and their differing lifeworlds in order to understand why relief aid interventions after a natural disaster often do not reach the planned outcome.

Research on natural disasters and the social context of rehabilitation is relevant for various reasons. The authors Hoffman and Oliver-Smith point out the importance for research on natural disasters by saying that “disasters are emphatic and all-absorbing occurrences, and their affect upon the thoughts and actions of those disrupted is manifold” (1999: 7). The fact that disasters have a major impact on a society makes them interesting and important for scientific research. They give us the opportunity to look at peoples’ lives during critical and difficult times. A natural disaster and the relief aid interventions that follow, can be seen as what Long calls a “social drama” or “critical event”. According to Long this is a “social situation where the disruption of an existing set of social relations or breach of norms occasions efforts to repair the damage and restore social order or institute some new, negotiated social arrangements” (2001: 60). Such a situation provides us a window to look at complex relations. Besides insight in complex relations, anthropologists can help to gain better understanding of what is actually going on with “subtle knowledge of complex situations” (Olivier de Sardan 2005: 4). This helps in “dismantling (false) stereotypes and clichés” in order to develop better policies based on a more realistic image (Olivier de Sardan 2005). Through studying the rehabilitation process, I will gain insight in the underlying social structures and power relations that are present in the Philippine society and more specifically within the community where I conducted the fieldwork. These underlying

6 structures are determinative for the outcome of the rehabilitation process and for the way this process is constructed. This can contribute to the development of more suitable rehabilitation interventions in the future by gaining a better understanding of the rehabilitation of a community in post-disaster situations.

1.2 Research questions and structure

In order to gain insight in the process of relief aid and rehabilitation efforts after a devastating typhoon like Yolanda, the following research question has to be answered: how is the rehabilitation process after typhoon Yolanda socially constructed in Salcedo, The Philippines? I will answer this question based on the findings from my fieldwork that was conducted from January to March 2015 in the municipality of Salcedo. In order to answer this main research question I formulated the following sub questions: How did locals experience the differences in lifeworlds during the relief and recovery efforts? How did these differences led to conflicts? And how did the involved actors responded to these conflicts? I have structured this thesis along these sub questions. Below I will elaborate on this structure.

Chapter two discusses the theoretical framework and some key concepts to introduce the issues at hand in a post-disaster situation. In chapter three I will provide relevant information on Salcedo in order to understand the local situation. The importance of such context will be shown in the theoretical framework as well. In chapter four I will discuss the used research methodologies and I will reflect upon my role as a researcher and some of the challenges that I encountered during the fieldwork. After these introductory chapters I will proceed to the empirical data derived from the fieldwork. First I will discuss the interaction between locals and relief aid organisations in Salcedo after typhoon Yolanda in chapter five. Central to this first empirical chapter are the conflicts that emerged from this interaction. It will be argued that conflicts were triggered by differences in lifeworlds. In chapter six I will further elaborate on this issue of conflicting perceptions, this time highlighting the different ways in which people responded to the conflicts that emerged during the rehabilitation process. The main argument in this chapter will be that there is no such thing as planned interventions, because along the way interventions are transformed or appropriated by the involved actors. This thesis will end with a concluding chapter where all the main findings are summarized.

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2. Theoretical framework

This chapter will provide a framework for understanding the events that took place during the rehabilitation in Salcedo. I will show the link between studying natural disasters and development studies, which becomes evident in the vulnerability perspective. Next, I will discuss the issue of reconstruction after a natural disaster in combination with development. Third, I will elaborate on the actor-oriented approach and explain why an actor-oriented approach is more suitable than a structural approach for studying the rehabilitation process.

2.1 Vulnerability, resilience, reconstruction and development

It becomes more and more accepted by scholars in the field of disaster studies that the causes of disasters lie in a society’s socio-economical structure and therefore disasters are “socially embedded events” (Gaillard et al. 2009, Oliver-Smith and Hoffman 1999). Many authors have recognized that we should not only look at the natural environmental causes of natural disasters, but also take into account the social, political and economic environment in order to understand why disasters occur.

A society’s vulnerability is crucial for the level of impact of the natural hazard on a society. The more vulnerable a population is, the higher the risk on disaster and the greater the impact of a natural hazard probably will be. Like many other authors, Bankoff links the vulnerability of a society to its history and social structure. Bankoff emphasizes the vulnerability of the “poor and marginalized” to natural hazards. These people are often forced by their economic situation to live in unsafe areas in houses that are not resistant to the impacts of natural hazards (1999). Other factors that influence a community’s or an individual’s vulnerability to a natural hazard are “the manner in which assets, income and access to other resources, such as knowledge and information, are distributed between different social groups, and various forms of discrimination that occur in the allocation of welfare and social protection (including relief and resources for recovery)” (Wisner et al. 2004).

Building resilience will help to reduce a population’s vulnerability. Resilience can be defined as a societies’ capacity to “absorb disturbance” and the capacity to recover from disturbance. The more resilient a community is, the lower the risk on disasters and a higher level of resilience will help to rebuild a community when a disaster does occur (Berkes 2007). For example, abundant access to resources can help a community to recover from a natural hazard. In most cases it is easier to rebuild a house for a rich person than for someone who is poor.

Social, political and economic factors influence the level of vulnerability and resilience of communities and thus the impact of natural hazards on a community (Wisner et al. 2004, Bankoff 2003, Pelling 2003, Gaillard et al. 2009, Berkes 2007, Hufschmidt 2011, Lyons 2009, Ingram et al. 2006). Or

8 in other words: “Disaster victims are marginalized geographically because they live in hazardous places, socially because they are members of minority groups, economically because they are poor, and marginalized politically because their voice is disregarded by those with political power” (Gaillard et al. 2009: 119-121). Therefore, it is important to recognize the interplay between the environment and social systems in studying natural disasters.

In the book, Natural disasters and development in a globalizing world (Pelling 2003) it is stated that a natural disaster is a humanitarian disaster with a natural trigger. Whether an actual disaster occurs or not, depends on the capacity of a society to cope with the negative effects of the natural hazard (Pelling 2003). Acknowledging a community’s vulnerability and resilience as key factors in the occurrence of natural disasters automatically implies a link with development practices. If development is defined as: “an economic, social and political process, which results in a cumulative rise in the perceived standard of living for an increasing proportion of a population” (Hodder 2000: 3), we can state that development decreases a population’s vulnerability and increases its resilience. So, a disaster is likely to have a less negative outcome when development practices are deployed prior to a natural hazard (Fordham 2003). Also after a disaster has occurred it is important to take into account long-term sustainable development goals, otherwise vulnerabilities can be reproduced or a society’s vulnerability to natural hazards can even increase (Lyons 2009, McCarthy 2014, Shaw 2014, Fordham 2003, Wisner et al. 2004).

Shaw distinguishes four phases in the reconstruction process. The first phase is preparedness, the second phase is called response, the third phase is recovery and the fourth phase is mitigation (2014). The direct relief aid that is provided during the phase of response consists mainly of the distribution of food, water and shelter and providing medical assistance to the affected population. After this immediate response the recovery phase starts, which is focused on the rebuilding of lives and encompasses the (re)building of houses and the rehabilitation of livelihoods. This recovery phase is the main focus of this thesis. Shaw and other authors use the concepts recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction interchangeably, as will I in this thesis.

Especially since the Indian Ocean Tsunami of December 2004 a lot has been written on the post-disaster reconstruction process (Gaillard et al. 2009). Shaw argues that the study of the recovery phase is just as important as the study “pre-disaster preparedness”, because the recovery phase can be seen as a “development opportunity”. When this chance would be optimally utilized, it can lower the risk on future disasters. Shaw also states that the recovery phase should be “integrated in the disaster risk reduction” (2014). Like Shaw, McCarthy relates the rebuilding of a community in a post-disaster context to development practices. He argues that lessons learned from development interventions can be translated to post-disaster rehabilitation efforts. He states that community driven development can “provide a clear structure for post-disaster policy” (2014: 145). However, he also

9 acknowledges that there are some differences between development interventions and rehabilitation projects, because in rehabilitation projects post-disaster realities have to be taken into account for the success of interventions. Especially, relational and structural dynamics between actors are important for the failure or success of interventions in a disaster context. According to McCarthy post-disaster field realities are shaped by “strong inequalities, entrenched patterns of relational power and the disorganization, fragmentation and trauma” (2014: 145). For example, strong inequalities and entrenched patterns of relational power may occur when the most powerful people can easier obtain access to relief aid or when they (mis)use their position for their own benefit at the expense of less powerful people. This kind of actions can enhance inequality. Further, it is likely that widespread disorganization occurs, because of the temporary loss of organizational structures like government institutions. At the same time people are often traumatized by the human and material losses they suffered and by what they experienced during the natural hazard.

The risk on recreating “pre-disaster vulnerabilities” is another important point in the discussion of reconstruction (Shaw 2014). McCarthy, Shaw, Jayasuriya and McCawley argue that many relief aid organisations have to operate under pressure. They have to “spend money quickly and visibly” (McCarthy 2014) and relief aid organisations are often not responsive to “local customs and cultural sensitives” (Jayasuriya and McCawley 2010). A poor understanding of the local context together with the limited timeframe can lead to reconstruction projects of poor quality which can lead to recreation of pre-disaster vulnerabilities. Jayasuriya and McCawley state that: “Mismatches between donor and community views can lead to friction, and sometimes even open conflict” (2010: 8). McCarthy provides the example of villagers who received livelihood projects, but were not able to benefit from these projects, because they were still psychologically recovering from a disaster. These villagers were not yet thinking of their future. In this example, the organisation in question did not take enough time for their project and did not take into consideration the state of mind that the disaster victims were in. McCarthy takes his argument further by stating that inappropriate rehabilitation interventions can even undermine long-term development goals. To prevent this from happening and in order to develop appropriate and sustainable forms of rehabilitation, development practices should be incorporated in disaster mitigation and reconstruction after a disaster has occurred.

2.2 An actor-oriented approach

As been argued, it is important to take into account vulnerability, resilience and development practices when researching the rehabilitation process. For studying the rehabilitation after Yolanda, I have chosen to use an actor-oriented approach in which all these aspects can be combined.

10 Long argues in his book, Development sociology: actor perspectives for the use of an actor-oriented approach instead of a more structural approach for studying development (2001). According to Long a structural approach fails to acknowledge all actors involved and is aimed at developing a country towards modernity. Another limitation of the structural approach is that it tends to give more weight to the powerful voices. In contrast, an actor-oriented perspective encompasses: “a more dynamic approach to the understanding of social change which stresses the interplay and mutual determination of internal and external factors and relationships, recognizes the central role played by human action and consciousness” (Long 2001: 13). In the actor-oriented approach ethnography plays a central role to understand what is actually going on at the local level and it acknowledges the important role that local populations can make to the process of change (Long 2001).

Another important concept in Long’s actor-oriented perspective is “agency”. According to Long, people’s agency is built on their “knowledgeability and capability” which are both determined by culture (2001: 240). In other words, notions of agency are perceived differently depending on and largely influenced by culture. People from different cultures are likely to have a different perspective on concepts like “power, influence, knowledge and efficacy” (Long 2001: 19). Long further notes that the way in which people perceive such things influence the responses and strategies of the different actors towards interventions.

Another key concept in the actor-oriented perspective is “social actors”. Social actors can indicate individual actors, informal and formal groups, but also “interpersonal networks, organisations and collective groupings” (Long 2001: 241). Long makes a distinction between “external actors” and “local actors”. External actors are located outside the arena and local actors find themselves within the specific social arena (Long 2001). Linking this to a post-disaster situation, the internal actors are the affected people that already lived in the area and the external actors are mainly the relief aid organisations that came into the area after the typhoon stroke.

Like Long, the scholar Bierschenk also acknowledges the importance of recognizing all the involved actors in processes of development. Bierschenk discusses in his article, “Development Projects as Arenas of Negotiation for Strategic Groups”, the importance of assessing the relationships between the different actors that are involved in the implementation of a development project. He argues that the implementation of a development project can be understood as a “process of negotiation” (1988: 146). According to Bierschenk a development project serves as an arena where all the different interests of the involved actors are being negotiated. Bierschenk makes a relevant comparison between the social process of negotiating interests within a development project and a complex chess game with living chessmen, in which there are many players. He describes this game of negotiation as follows:

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“Some of them control many more pawns than their competitors are able to put on the board. Some are only allowed a few moves, whereas others can, if necessary, change the rules to their own advantage. The goals of the players vary as much as their stakes and risks. Probably some of the participants play according to rules which the others do not know. They play a game which consists mainly of negotiating about establishing generally accepted rules but where, on the other hand, good tactics and strategy count as well. For resources are dependent upon context and a good player can turn even a catastrophe into an advantage” (1988: 146).

In understanding the process of rehabilitation, it is useful to keep the image of a chess game in mind, because it encompasses all the components that are present in reality and at the same time it is a good way to understand the relationships between the actors.

In order to understand the process of negotiation, an analysis of all the actors and their interests is necessary. Each group has their own strategy to reach its goals. Or in other words, each social group has their own project within the project (Bierschenk 1988). The strategies of the groups are largely determined by the resources and political powers of the groups (Bierschenk 1988). However, there can also be heterogeneity within a certain group. This can be linked to an argument made by the authors Bankoff and Hillhorst in their article, “The politics of risk in the Philippines: comparing state and NGO perceptions of disaster management” (2009). In this article they argue that stakeholders and actors most likely perceive risk and disasters in a different way. This different way of “seeings” relates directly to the different lifeworlds that Long discusses. According to Long lifeworlds are:

“‘lived-in’ and largely ‘taken-for-granted’ social worlds centring on particular individuals. Such worlds should not be viewed as ‘cultural backcloths’ that frame how individuals act, but instead as the product of an individual’s own constant self-assembling and re-evaluating of relationships and experiences. Lifeworlds embrace actions, interactions and meanings, and are identified with specific socio-geographical spaces and life histories” (Long, 2001: 241).

So, lifeworlds can be different and contradicting depending on the actor’s cultural background. Bankoff and Hillhorst go one step further by saying that these different perceptions also influence the way people act before, during and after an event (2009). As acknowledged by Bankoff and Hillhorst, heterogeneous perceptions of risk and disasters lead to heterogeneous responses as well. They say: “Domains of disaster response are not homogeneous systems that are clearly separated from one

12 another: contradictions, conflict and negotiations occur as much within as outside of them” (2009: 688). By conflicts I mean conflicting views on rehabilitation interventions, which could lead to arguments, tensions between the involved parties or negative feelings such as envy, jealousy or anger. Due to the game of negotiation as described by Bierschenk the outcome of an intervention is often not as it was planned (Long 2001). Long describes intervention as a “multiple reality” that is determined by “differing cultural perceptions and social interests” of the involved actors (2001: 30). The struggles or negotiations over these differing perceptions and interests play a major role in the outcome of interventions. The important role of these differing interests of the involved actors and the struggle over these differences, are also important in the construction of the rehabilitation process. According to Long development interventions need: “deconstructing so that we recognise it for what it fundamentally is, namely, an ongoing, socially constructed and negotiated process, not simply the execution of an already-specified plan of action with expected outcomes” (Long 2001: 31). This also holds for interventions in the rehabilitation process. Recognizing that planned interventions do not have the planned outcome, is called the “demythologising of planned intervention” by Long (2001: 30). This idea corresponds with the point made by Olivier de Sardan about the need for bridging the gap between policies and reality and his consideration of the fact that planned interventions hardly ever have the expected or planned outcome (2005).

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3. Research setting

As discussed in the theoretical framework, there is a strong connection between the vulnerability of the affected people and the possible occurrence of a disaster. When we look at the municipality, Salcedo and its characteristics it becomes clear that the area is geographically, economically and politically vulnerable when a natural hazard strikes. In this chapter I will provide relevant contextual information on Salcedo. The context of where the typhoon struck and where the relief aid and the reconstruction efforts took place are crucial in understanding the process of rehabilitation.

3.1 Geographical characteristics

Salcedo is located in the province Eastern Samar on the island Samar. The municipality consists of forty-one barangays1 _{of which thirteen barangays form the centre. This centre is called the Poblacion. The}

east side of the municipality faces the Pacific Ocean and the West faces Leyte Gulf. Figure 1 shows Salcedo’s geographical location. Its geographical location makes Salcedo very prone to typhoons all year round, because in this area many typhoons occur. Especially the barangays facing the Pacific Ocean are very vulnerable in the case of a strong typhoon, because typhoons enter Salcedo mostly from the east side where they cause major storm surges. Figure 2 shows the path that Yolanda followed from east to west making its first landfall in the Philippines on Samar. Salcedo had a total population of almost 20.000 people in 2009, of which twenty-nine people died during Yolanda. These deadly casualties all fell in the two barangays facing the pacific, Asgad and Jagnaya. These are the most remote barangays and difficult to access from the main road that passes through Salcedo.

1 _{The Philippine administrative system consists of a national, regional, provincial and municipal level. The} institution at the municipal level is called the Local Government Unit (LGU). A barangay is the governmental administrative institution at the lowest level.

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Figure 1: Geographical location Salcedo (http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salcedo_(Eastern_Samar) last accessed at 22 June 2015).

Figure 2: storm track Yolanda (RAY 2013).

3.2 Economic characteristics

The main livelihoods in Salcedo are farming and fishing. Table 1 shows how the agricultural lands in Salcedo were divided before Yolanda.

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Agricultural product Number of hectares

Coconut 3166

Root crops 284,9

Fruit trees 19,5

Rice 31

Table 1: Agricultural land use in Salcedo (Recovery and rehabilitation plan Salcedo December 2013).

Coconut plantations provided the main source of income before the typhoon. However, during the typhoon 80% of the agricultural lands was devastated including the coconut plantations. Depending on the specific specie it can take between five up to ten years before the production of coconut fruits is fully recovered from the damage.

The author Cruikshank describes the island of Samar as a “backwater” in the nineteenth century, by which he means that Samar economically lagged behind in comparison to other parts of the Philippines (1982). Still the island and also Salcedo can be depicted as underdeveloped. Salcedo is a fifth class municipality, which indicates a low level of income. In Salcedo 65.9% of the households have an income below the poverty threshold.2 _{These numbers are based on all the forty-one barangays}

of Salcedo. Table 2 only shows the percentage of households with an income below the poverty threshold in the barangays on which I have focussed my research. The barangays where deadly causalities fell, Asgad and Jagnaya, belong to the poorest barangays of the municipality. This poverty makes people more vulnerable to natural hazards, because they have less resources to fall back on in times of hardship compared to people with a higher income.

A consequence of living in a difficult economic situation, is that people are forced into practices that harm the environment, making them more vulnerable to natural hazards. In Salcedo illegal and legal mines have damaged the environment. Especially the open pit mines in the barangays Palanas and Caradapan increases the risk on floods and landslides in those barangays during heavy rainfalls. A couple of weeks before my arrival in Salcedo, these barangays had experienced severe flooding due to the typhoons Ruby and Sengiang. The effects of the typhoons was worsened due to the presence of the open pit mines, according to some of my informants. This relation between poverty, environmental degradation and vulnerability to natural disasters is also recognized by Bankoff (2007). He states that: “The poor suffer most and the poverty of their subsequent condition often drives them to actions that further degrade their environment and which, in turn, only increase their vulnerability to these hazards. This is the cycle of poverty and disaster that afflicts the Philippines and many other developing countries” (Bankoff 1999: 411).

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Barangay Number of households Percentage of households with an income below the poverty threshold

Palanas 123 84,55 Asgad 93 80,65 Jagnaya 67 80,60 Buabua 144 72,92 Poblacion, barangay 13 75 65,33 Balud 68 63,24 Poblacion, barangay 7 139 60,43 Poblacion, barangay 11 59 57,63 Carapdapan 57 54,39 Poblacion, barangay 8 37 54,05 Poblacion, barangay 2 94 53,19 Naparaan 363 52,62 Poblacion, barangay 3 59 22,03 Average 106 61,66

Table 2: barangays ordered by percentage of household with an income below the poverty threshold (CBMS 2009).

3.3 Political structure

Besides the geographical and economical characteristics, the political structure of Salcedo influenced the rehabilitation process as well. Therefore, the political structure will be discussed in this paragraph. Each barangay has a barangay captain and a barangay council. The captain as well as the council are the link between the municipal LGU and the residents in a barangay. This political structure highly influenced the rehabilitation process, because the barangay captain and the barangay council became in many cases the link between relief aid organisations and the affected people, which gave them a certain degree of power. There are stories of barangay councils that kept emergency supplies to themselves when they were in charge of the distribution. Other informants told me that some barangay captains changed beneficiary lists by putting their own relatives and friends on the lists while removing other people who were actually entitled to this aid. The correlation between the way power and wealth are divided and the access to relief aid is recognized by Bankoff. He states that:

“Not only are some among the rich and powerful better able to cope with emergency situations but actually seem to profit from natural disasters through

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their greater ability to benefit from the economic opportunities presented for graft and malfeasance by relief operations. It is possible that natural disasters also act as an important mechanism for consolidating and increasing social inequalities within societies subject to frequent national catastrophes” (Bankoff 1999: 400).

This is also seen in Salcedo, were the existing power structures influenced the rehabilitation process and social inequality is enhanced after typhoon Yolanda.

In this chapter the research setting has been discussed, which is important to understand the local situation in Salcedo. All the above mentioned characteristics of Salcedo have highly influenced its vulnerability to natural hazards and the way in which the rehabilitation efforts took place afterwards.

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4. Methodology

In this chapter I will explain why I chose Salcedo as my research site, how informants were selected and I will elaborate on the research methods that I used during my fieldwork. Further, I will reflect upon my own position as a researcher and I will discuss the effects of using an interpreter. This is important, because in anthropological research these issues highly influence the data. Finally, I will explain some of the decisions that I made during my fieldwork and how these decisions have affected my data as well.

4.1 Selecting a research area

To gather the needed data for writing this thesis I conducted fieldwork from the beginning of January to the end of March on the islands Leyte and Samar in the Philippines. After spending some time on both islands, I chose the municipality, Salcedo as my study site. Salcedo is a relevant and interesting study site for two main reasons. Firstly, Salcedo was severely hit by Yolanda after which many relief aid organisations entered the area. This caused a complex situation in which people with various cultural backgrounds had to work together and lives had to be rebuild. Secondly, Salcedo is a geographically, economically and politically vulnerable municipality. As discussed in the theoretical framework, a society’s vulnerability is important for the level of impact of the natural hazard on a society.

Choosing Salcedo as the place to conduct my fieldwork had another advantage, the presence of the Eastern Samar State University (ESSU) made it easier for me to gain access to informants and to obtain the needed data. I spend most of my time in the centre of Salcedo, the Poblacion. This is also where I lived. To get a better picture of the whole municipality and the rehabilitation efforts I went also to other barangays. I selected thirteen barangays of which six were located in the Poblacion. Coastal as well as more upland barangays were selected to see the differences between the barangays, but mostly to get the full picture of what had happened in Salcedo after Yolanda. Looking at several barangays showed me how different people, living in different barangays and thus in a different situation had experienced the typhoon and its aftermath. On the map in figure 3, the barangays where I conducted interviews are coloured red.

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Figure 3: municipality of Salcedo, Eastern Samar and the selected barangays where I conducted interviews (LGU Salcedo February 2015).

4.2 Study population and data collection

During the fieldwork I have talked to 70 people. The informants were locals, employees of NGOs, people working for the government, people who worked at the Visayan State University (VSU) and people who worked at the Eastern Samar State University (ESSU). Table 3 shows an overview of my informants. Thirty-two (46%) of my informants were male and thirty-eight (54%) were female. The youngest of my informants was twenty-one years old and the oldest sixty-six years old.

Number (%) Locals 41 (28,7) NGO employees 18 (12,6) Government workers 2 (1,4) VSU 5 (3,5) ESSU 4 (2,8) Total 70 (100)

20 For data collection I used semi-structured interviews, participant observations and informal talks. During the semi-structured interviews I asked locals about their experiences during and after the typhoon. I have chosen to focus on the conflicts that arose during the relief and recovery aid, giving the positive stories and successes less attention. I started the interviews with some general questions. I asked them for example about their livelihoods and what kind of education they had followed. After these general questions, the interviews took the form of a conversation where I asked them about their experiences during and after the typhoon. In most cases I could stir the conversation towards the difficulties that people had experienced and sometimes were still experiencing, regarding the rehabilitation interventions provided by relief aid organisations. However, a minority of the people that I interviewed responded to these questions by saying that everything went well and that they did not experience any problems at all. Of course this is a possibility, but not one that is very likely.

Table 4 shows an overview of the twenty-two semi-structured interviews that I conducted with locals in Salcedo. There are more respondents than interviews, because during five of the semi-structured interviews family members or close friends joined the conversation. In my opinion this had a positive influence on the interview, because in some of these cases I got more information. When people talked in a group, they gave more extensive answers than when they were talking one on one with me. From my point of view the people were not held back by others who were listening or joined

Table 4: overview of semi-structured interviews with locals in Salcedo per barangay.

Barangay Number of conducted interviews (%) Number of respondents (%)

Jagnaya 4 (17) 4 (14) Asgad 2 (9) 3 (10) Poblacion, barangay 2 2 (9) 2 (7) Poblacion, barangay 3 1 (4) 2 (7) Poblacion, barangay 7 3 (13) 3 (10) Poblacion, barangay 8 1 (4) 1 (3) Poblacion, barangay 11 2 (9) 2 (7) Poblacion, barangay 13 1 (4) 2 (7) Buabua 1 (4) 1 (3) Palanas 2 (9) 2 (7) Balud 2 (9) 4 (14) Naparaan 1 (4) 1 (3) Carapdapan 1 (4) 2 (7) Total 23 (100) 29 (100)

21 the conversation. Refusing others that wanted to join the interview, would have made things more complicated. Striking is the difference in the ratio between males (28%) and females (72%) that I have interviewed. There are a couple of explanations for this gender difference. Firstly, I conducted the interviews during day time when more women were at home than men. Secondly, being a woman myself, women seemed more eager to talk to me than men. In many cases when I approached a man for an interview, the wife took over or the man asked his wife to talk to me instead. Thirdly, during some of the family gatherings that I attended the women and men were separated. Since I sat with the women I mostly talked with them.

Besides the interviews with locals, I interviewed a representative of the LGU who was responsible for the post-Yolanda reconstruction and rehabilitation in order to understand the role of the LGU in the relief aid and rehabilitation process.

Further, I conducted interviews with two representatives from a large INGO, Catholic Relief Services (CRS). CRS is a Catholic development organisation based in the United States with a mission to “Promote human development by responding to major emergencies, fighting disease and poverty, and nurturing peaceful and just societies” and to “Serve Catholics in the United States as they live their faith in solidarity with their brothers and sisters around the world” (website CRS, last accessed at 1 June 2015). CRS is one of the largest organisations that is still active in Salcedo. They have livelihood projects, a hygiene and sanitation program and a project that provides beneficiaries with transitional houses. From these interviews I received a lot of information about the projects that they have implemented in Salcedo and I got to understand how these two employees perceive the problems that they encountered during the implementation of their rehabilitation intervention.

I also interviewed a representative from a smaller local NGO, Ecosystems Work for Essential Benefits Incorporated (EcoWEB) in order to get a better understanding of their perspective on rehabilitation efforts. EcoWEB is a national, non-profit development organisation that is based in the southern part of the Philippines, on the island Mindanao. EcoWEB focusses on “building partnerships and empowering communities”. Their vision is to build “a peaceful and progressive society living in a safe environment” (website EcoWEB, last accessed at 1 June 2015). In Salcedo they have livelihood projects and interventions that focus on the improvement of local structures of fishers and farmers in order for them to access government funds.

Next to the semi-structured interviews I obtained a lot of information from talking informally to people and spending time with them. I talked to local scholars who worked at ESSU, constantly checking and discussing the information that I received during the semi-structured interviews. Most of the people who work at ESSU are also from the area and have thus experienced the typhoon and its aftermath themselves. The fact that these people were well informed, local scholars led to very helpful and informative conversations.

22 I spend time with a NGO visiting their projects. Figure 4 shows a picture taken from a visit to a one of these projects. During these outings, I got the chance to talk to beneficiaries and observe the interaction between NGO workers and beneficiaries. It also gave me the chance to spend informal time with people working for NGOs. We went out for dinner end spend a lot of time driving in a bus to the projects. During this kind of activities I could obtain a lot of information about the projects that this NGO was involved in. I especially got a better understanding of how the employees of this NGO viewed the rehabilitation projects themselves.

Also, I went to a couple of meetings between locals, LGUs, universities and NGOs where I could observe how these parties interacted. During these meetings a lot of issues regarding the rehabilitation and recovery interventions were discussed. This gave me insightful information on the current situation, which was especially helpful in the beginning of my fieldwork to get a better understanding of the issues and problems at hand. I got the chance to attend a press conference in Tacloban. This press conference was organised by the NGO, Fair Trade Alliances. During this press conference an eminent volunteer, Jack McConnell (a former First Minister of Scotland) informed local media about his experiences in the field. At the press conference local media, representatives from UNICEF and from Fair Trade Alliances were present. At the press conference I could observe the interaction between those parties. It was a very interesting situation where tensions rose quite high. This was very illustrative for the relation between relief aid organisations and locals.

Furthermore, I obtained information by spending leisure time with people in Salcedo. It gave me relevant insights in the local culture and it helped me in understanding the local customs. For

Figure 4: This photograph is taken during a visit of a project. Beneficiaries and employees of a NGO are looking at a field where peanuts have been planted to increase the fertility of the soil. In this way, the farmers can plant new crops in the future and reach higher productivity (photograph taken by author).

23 example, I often went to the same eatery where I spoke with the owners on a regular basis. I also had extensive contact with people who worked at the local state university, with whom I spend time at the university, but also outside working hours. They showed me around the area and they often invited me for dinner. Furthermore, I met some locals by coincidence who invited me into their houses and with whom I later met on a regular basis. I had dinner with them or we just sat in front of their houses, where we had extensive and insightful conversations. After a while many of the residents who lived in the Poblacion, knew that I was doing research in the area and it became fairly common that I was invited to special occasions. For example, I was invited to birthdays and when there was a fiesta in the barangay Balud, employees from the LGU took me with them. This kind of events are part of everyday live in Salcedo and it was very helpful for my research to experience such events.

I complemented the data with documents that I obtained at the LGU in Salcedo. I went to the LGU to gather facts and figures on the demographical, social, economic, environmental situation in Salcedo. I have chosen not to incorporate the role of the local government in Salcedo into this thesis. While the LGU of Salcedo did play an important role in the rehabilitation of the area, this role was largely overshadowed by the huge amount of relief aid organisations coming to the area. Many of these organisations had more resources than the LGU. The role of the LGU was mainly a facilitating one. Some organisations informed and cooperated with the LGU. However, there were also organisations that worked entirely independent without any consent of the LGU. McCarthy explains the exclusion of local government institution during rehabilitation efforts by relief aid organisations for the “short term interests of efficiency, accountability and control” (McCarthy 2014: 150). In most of the interviews locals talked about external organisations. It has to be mentioned that especially in the days before Yolanda the LGU of Salcedo helped to prepare the residents of Salcedo for the incoming typhoon by informing everyone, evacuating people where needed and stalling emergency supplies. Also in the first few days after Yolanda the LGU was very important for clearing the roads in the municipality and for the distribution of emergency supplies, especially in the days before other organisations arrived.

I have chosen to anonymise my informants throughout this thesis in order to protect their privacy. I have also chosen not to mention the particular names of the NGO or INGO in relation to specific interventions or actions, except for the names of the two organisations of which I interviewed representatives. I made this decision, because in many cases my informants were not entirely sure which organisation was responsible for which intervention. This was caused by the enormous amount of NGOs that were active in the area after Yolanda. Furthermore, naming the relief aid organisations in relation to specific projects is not necessary for the purpose of this thesis. It is not my intention to accuse certain NGOs of wrong practices. Instead, I aim to show what happened in particular situations,

24 what kind of problems occurred during the relief phase and recovery phase and what the different perceptions on the rehabilitation efforts were.

4.3 My role as a researcher

During my fieldwork I often received the question whether I was working for a relief aid organisation. It was rare to see western people in Eastern Samar and most of the western people who were there worked for an organisation. At the beginning of every interview I underlined that I was a master student who did not work for an organisation and that I was doing research. However, it is very likely that people would still see me in such way and that this has influenced the data. For example, when people thought that I could help them, they would emphasise the difficult situation they were in. It took some time before people got to know me and that I was able to build a relation of trust. People with whom I spend more time, told me different kind of stories.

Another difficulty that I encountered, was the language problem. Even though many of the people that I met, could speak English there were many occasions in which I missed out on information, because I did not speak Filipino languages. Especially during meetings or unofficial gatherings people often switched to Visayan languages or Tagalog and it was not always possible to ask for a translation.

4.4 Influence of using an interpreter

Not only my role as a researcher and how I influenced the data has to be discussed, also the effects of using an interpreter have to be discussed. Through ESSU I received help in translating during the interviews when this was needed. My interpreter was a thirty-eight year old male, who works at ESSU at the sports department. In the past he had been a community worker. He is originally from Salcedo and knows many people in the area. Due to the fact that he has been a community worker, he has many contacts in the whole municipality. This was very helpful in gaining access to informants. Many of my informants were able to speak some English, but speaking in their first language definitely made it easier for them to give me more information. When informants spoke almost or fluently English, the interviews were conducted in English. Otherwise I received help from my interpreter. Although it would not have been possible to get the information without an interpreter there are some issues to consider when an interpreter is being used. For example, when translating my questions from English into Waray-waray a question can be rephrased or slightly changed sometimes without me noticing. These kinds of discrepancies can influence the answers that were given by my informants. Also during the translation of answers information can get lost or slightly changed. However, I have tried to discuss these issues with my interpreter whenever I had doubts, which reduces the chance on major misunderstandings. I also reduced this chance by doing some of the interviews with an interpreter and

25 some interviews without. The fact that my interpreter was a man has likely influenced the gathered data as well. Through him it was easier to obtain access to men. I also spoke to people he did not know, to prevent a too biased sample. However, he did help me getting access to some key informants who knew a lot about the rehabilitation process. Mainly because they were people who were effected by Yolanda, but at the same time had worked together with relief aid organisations. They had a good view on both perspectives and at the same time show that there is no such thing as a clear cut divide between the affected people and the relief aid organisations. However, in this research I will use this divide for analytical reasons.

26

5. Interaction between locals and relief aid organisations: two worlds

apart

After Yolanda had devastated the municipality of Salcedo, it took relief aid organisations a few days to reach the area and start helping the residents of Salcedo to recover from the typhoon. As described in the theoretical framework, a situation emerged where many external actors entered the lives of the local people in Salcedo. There were so many relief aid organisations that came to the area that most people cannot even recall exactly how many organisations there were, and they also do not remember which organisation was responsible for which project. A “cacophony” of international and national relief aid emerged (Zanotti 2010). Before Yolanda only one NGO was active in Salcedo. Directly after the typhoon more than fifty-three organizations became active in the area (Recovery and rehabilitation plan Salcedo December 2013). Later even more organisations arrived. There were intergovernmental organisations (IGOs), including United Nations Development Program (UNDP), International Organisation for Migration (IOM), World Food Program (WFP), and United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). Besides IGOs, there were international non-government organisations (INGOs), such as United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), Plan International, Kinder Not Hilfe, Ananda Marga Universal Relief Team (AMURT), Christian Relief Services (CRS), Christian Aid, Acted, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Médecins Sans Frontière (MSF) and Community and Family Services International (CFSI). There were also national non-government organisation (NGOs), like Ecosystems Work for Essential Benefits incorporated (EcoWEB) present. However, they were less in number.

As mentioned in the theoretical framework, lifeworlds are the lived-in social worlds of individuals that are closely related to their socio-geographical space and histories. Long states that: “All forms of external intervention necessarily enter the existing lifeworlds of the individuals and social groups affected, and in this way they are mediated and transformed by these same actors and structures” (Long 2001:13). This also happened during the rehabilitation interventions after typhoon Yolanda. The coming together of different lifeworlds - those of locals and relief aid workers and organisations and the conflicts that were caused by this - will be the main focus of this chapter.

This chapter will provide insight in the post-disaster situation where different actors came together, had to work together and the conflicts that emerged from the differences in lifeworlds. It is a first step in showing how the process of rehabilitation is a game of negotiation, where individuals as well as organisations all defend their own interests. It is important to notice that there is great heterogeneity in terms of response in case of the locals or beneficiaries of interventions as well as among the relief aid organisations. People responded differently to the provided aid, depending on

27 the situation they were in. Also every relief aid organisation had their own manner of operating. This will become apparent in the next paragraphs where examples of conflicts that arose from these differences in lifeworlds will be presented. I will describe how the interaction between external actors and the internal actors was experienced differently by the people involved, with focus on the residents of Salcedo who were affected by the typhoon. I will also discuss how this interaction sometimes led to conflicts between people over relief aid.

I have divided the reasons for conflicts that arose from these differences in lifeworlds as experienced by the locals into four categories. These categories are based on the main points that came up during the interviews held with the affected people. The categories are as follows: conflicting views on the use of criteria in selecting beneficiaries, conflicts arising from inaccurate assessments, a mismatch between planned interventions and local realities and conflicting views on attitudes and unfulfilled promises. At the beginning of each paragraph there will be an explanation of the issue at hand after which the issues will be illustrated with concrete cases from the fieldwork.

5.1 Conflicting views on the use of criteria in selecting beneficiaries

When relief aid organisations came to Salcedo to provide relief and recovery aid to the affected people, they needed to select their beneficiaries since time and money were limited and not everybody could be helped. Most of the organisations used criteria to define the most vulnerable people. Different organisations used different criteria. On the one hand it was common to prioritize the following groups: senior citizens, pregnant and breast feeding women, dependent children, large families (more than five members) and disabled people. On the other hand, people who worked for the government, people who had family living abroad and people who owned small businesses that could relatively easily be restored after Yolanda were often excluded from projects.

As noted, not all IGOs, INGOs and NGOs selected beneficiaries in this manner. Some organisations did exactly the opposite. Instead of looking at who were most vulnerable they selected people who were most resilient. They looked for example at the capabilities of the beneficiaries and provided aid to the people who were most likely to bring the project to a positive outcome. In this case the strongest and most capable people were provided with help, mostly in the form of workshops, trainings and the distribution of farming and fishing supplies. A representative from EcoWEB, one of the smaller local NGOs told me that they selected beneficiaries in this way. One of the projects of EcoWEB is called: “Local Capacity Building For Livelihoods Resiliency” and the goal of this project is described by this NGO as follows: “the overarching goal of the project is to hasten the recovery while reducing the vulnerability of the Haiyan-affected communities by enhancing the capacity of community-based and the local structures of farmer- and fisherman organizations to develop and

28 manage sustainable and resilient livelihoods and to partner with and access resources from the government and other agencies” (EcoWEB, Field Progress Report July 2014 - January 2015). The representative of EcoWEB said: “we choose the beneficiaries with the most potential” (Interview 24 February 2015). They also dropped one barangay for their project, because “residents proved to be uncooperative except for a few” (EcoWEB, Field Progress Report July 2014 - January 2015). The representative of this NGO explained during the interview that the residents from this barangay did not put enough effort into the project, which stood in the way of a successful outcome. EcoWEB believes that when they target beneficiaries with the most potential, the rest of the barangay can also benefit. This case shows that there is a link between the way in which beneficiaries are selected and the kind of aid that is provided.

Although most of my informants recognized the need to prioritize in a certain way, the way in which beneficiaries were selected by relief aid organisations still led to discontent. The most common comments were similar to the following quote: “everybody was a victim of Yolanda. Yolanda did not use any criteria. So why are criteria being used?” (Interview 7 February 2015). These comments were made by a forty-one year old male who is currently a tennis teacher, but has worked with a large INGO for a couple of months after Yolanda. Most people thought it was unfair to use criteria, because everybody was affected by the typhoon. People who did not meet the criteria complained about not receiving help. For example, the wife of a barangay captain said: “It is better to be an ordinary citizen in these times” (Interview 6 February 2015). Another informant said that the prioritisation of vulnerable people led to feelings of anger and jealousy among the people who received less or nothing (Interview 1 February 2015). A government employee who was excluded from many projects, because he was not considered as vulnerable said: “I am also poor” (Interview 7 February 2015). In an interview with a government employee who lived in the Poblacion, this person said: “All of us were victims of the typhoon” (Interview 24 February 2015). But even people who met the criteria had remarks on the way things were handled by the relief aid organisations. A forty-three year old man who had eight children and a wife to take care of and was therefore seen as vulnerable according to the criteria that were used by many organisations, told me that he did not see himself as vulnerable, because according to him, he was able to cope with all the difficulties he was facing after the typhoon (Interview 23 February 2015). These differences between how people see themselves and how they are seen by relief organisations can be marked as differences between their lifeworlds.

Another point at which lifeworlds collided was the high expectations that locals had of the aid that came to Salcedo after Yolanda. Some respondents mentioned that they had expected that organisations would help everybody and not only the selected beneficiaries. Some of the organisations had projects in over more than 1000 barangays, therefore it was necessary to use criteria. A forty-one year old man told me that he thought positively about most of the interventions. However, because

29 many organisations used the same criteria, the same groups were always included and the same groups were always excluded. This came forward in almost all discussions that I had with locals about the criteria that were used by relief aid organisations. In many of the interviews locals told me that the used criteria evoked jealousy among the residents of Salcedo. It was not always clear on which information this decision to in- or exclude someone was based. This led in some cases to feelings of envy among the population or towards certain organisations.

Another issue with the used criteria was that the assumptions which formed the base of the criteria did not always fit the lived experiences and real life conditions on the ground. One of my respondents, a forty year old woman who lived very close to the coastline, told me that people who had family living abroad were sometimes excluded from projects, because organisations assumed that the people in question would receive remittances from abroad. However, some of these excluded people did not have any contact with their family members who lived abroad and therefore did not receive any money from them. Another criteria that was used by some organisations excluded people who were not in the area when Yolanda stroke from rehabilitation projects. Even though their house was totally destroyed, they did not receive any help. According to some of my informants, organisations assumed that they could go somewhere else if they had been away during the typhoon. However, some of these people had lived their whole or most of their lives in the affected area and were not at all able to go somewhere else. Figure 5 shows a picture of a house that was totally destroyed in the barangay Jagnaya. People told me that this person was not in the area when Yolanda

Figure 5: This picture shows a destroyed house of someone who was not in the area when Yolanda stroke in barangay Jagnaya. The sign says: I am also a Yolanda victim. Why have you abandon me?? (photograph made by author).

30 stroke and therefore he did not received help with rebuilding his house. The sign that says “I am also a Yolanda victim. Why have you abandon me??” indicates that this person disagrees with the fact that he is excluded from relief aid. A similar case that proofs this point was the case of a sixty-six year old woman who was in Manila for the funeral of her brother at the start of a housing project. Even though her house was totally destroyed and she is a senior citizen, this woman was excluded from the housing project. She only received a tent for the simple reason that she was not present at the time that the housing project started and beneficiaries were selected. These examples shows that there was a discrepancy between the criteria applied by relief organisations and the realities on the ground.

Two main problems have come forward in this paragraph. Firstly, since all residents from Salcedo are affected by Yolanda they do not understand why criteria are being used. And secondly, the used criteria did not always fit the realities on the ground. The way affected locals reasoned, was not compatible with the realities that relief aid organisations have to deal with. They have limited funds and are in most cases under time pressure. It is simply not possible to help everyone. A representative of a local NGO said about this issue: “There is so much need, it will never be enough” (Interview 24 February 2015). A representative from a large INGO said: “Not all people in the target barangays are included in our projects, because there is a limited budget” (Interview 6 March 2015).

5.2 Conflicts arising from inaccurate assessments

Not only the used criteria used by relief aid organisations to select beneficiaries led to conflicts, but also the assessments carried out prior to the implementation of projects caused conflicts among the involved actors. These assessments, which are carried out by relief aid organisations, are an important factor in the access to aid. In some cases incorrect assessments had negative consequences. In this paragraph I will describe some of the issues with the assessments that were carried out prior or during interventions and what the consequences of these incorrect assessments were. The issue of poor assessments is discussed by McCarthy. According to him there is often a need to “spend money quickly and visibly” (2014: 151) which is one of the causes for poor assessments. It was stressed by two key informants how important it was to take the time to do good assessments, because good assessments are fundamental for a useful project. One of those two key informant was a forty-three year old male and former community worker who had worked together with NGOs during and after Yolanda. The other informant who discussed this issue was a forty-one year old male who had also worked with an NGO during the rehabilitation efforts. Poor assessments lead to a “poor understanding of context” which causes inappropriate interventions (McCarthy 2014: 151).

A first example of a problem regarding an assessment can be found in a project that was supposed to hand out a cash grant of 10.000 pesos to all the fishermen in a certain barangay in order

31 for the beneficiaries to replace their fishing utensils. However, when selecting the beneficiaries for this project, not all fishermen were selected and some people who were not fishermen were included. Another project of which the aim was to supply new boats to fisherman, accidentally included non-fishermen as well. People who were not non-fishermen now possessed a boat and did not use it, while there were still people who needed a boat, but did not receive one. These are two example of incorrect assessment with the consequence that fishermen who were promised to receive a cash grant or a boat did not receive what was promised. This kind of issues created tensions among the involved people and at the same time it resulted in distrust towards the involved NGOs.

A specific case that is related to the two previous examples is that of a so called ‘watchman’. The watchman is the person who keeps an eye on the fishermen and monitors them. He makes sure that people fish according to the rules set out by the LGU. After Yolanda there was an organisation that carried out an assessment to determine who needed a boat. This watchman, like many others, lost his boat during Yolanda and was put on the beneficiary list. When boats were distributed to all the fishermen who lived in the barangay, the watchman did not receive a boast for unclear reasons. Partly because of the fact that there was no watchman anymore and because there were too many boats distributed in the area, too many people started fishing. As a result, there is now hardly any fish to catch. The story was told by the former watchman himself, but also backed up by the barangay captain. When I discussed this issue with two people from ESSU they confirmed this story as well.

The above examples show how an incorrect assessment, or an assessment that is carried out too quickly can have a negative impact on the already difficult situation these fishermen were in. Good assessment prior to interventions could have helped to gain better understanding of the local situation and would have led to the development of more suitable interventions. Good assessments even have the potential to bridge the gap between the lifeworlds of organisations and locals. However, as the examples above showed, when assessments are carried out too fast, in an unappropriated manner or when the results of assessments are not being used, they do not make the gap between lifeworlds smaller, but make them even bigger than they already were.

5.3 A mismatch between planned interventions and local realities

In the previous paragraphs it has become clear that the relief aid organisations often had a different view on the used criteria as well on the assessments that were carried out than the people living in Salcedo. In this paragraph I will give more examples of how the realities on the ground sometimes did not match the practices carried out by relief aid organisations and how this often led to conflicts or problematic situations.