Analysis of Owner Driven Approach of Housing Reconstruction after Gorkha Earthquake 2015: A Case Study of Dhunibeshi Municipality, Dhading

Gorkha Earthquake 2015: A Case Study of Dhunibeshi Municipality, Dhading Sunil Adhikari Santosh Kumar Shrestha Abstract Background: On Saturday, 25 April 2015, a 7.6 magnitude earthquake occurred in Gorkha district, approximately 76 km northwest of Kathmandu leading more than 9,000 estimated casualties, approximately 23,000 injuries and damages on more than half a million structures. For leading and managing the earthquake recovery and reconstruction in Nepal, a legally mandated agency named National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) was established in December 2015 which facilitate and oversee reconstruction, using an owner-driven reconstruction model.


INTRODUCTION
On Saturday, 25 April 2015, a 7.6 magnitude earthquake occurred in Gorkha district, approximately 76 km northwest of Kathmandu. There were more than 9,000 estimated casualties and approximately 23,000 injuries. 31 of the country's 75 districts were affected, with 14 severely affected. More than half a million structures were damaged or destroyed, displacing hundreds of thousands of families. [1] The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA), established in December 2015, is the legally mandated agency for leading and managing the earthquake recovery and reconstruction in Nepal [2]. NRA facilitates and oversees reconstruction, using an owner-driven reconstruction model which has been used in contexts such as Gujarat, India after the 2001 earthquake, and in Pakistan after the 2005 earthquake.
Owner-driven reconstruction (ODR) models center homeowners in the re-building process by giving reconstruction aid directly to owner vs contracting with intermediaries in the private sector to rebuild homes [3]. Most ODR mechanisms rely on multi-disbursement financing -where the government funds/grants are provided to residents in staggered installments -to ensure code compliant reconstruction in each phase, reducing vulnerability to future earthquakes. In theory, ODR models can also minimize displacement by allowing homeowners to rebuild on the sites of their existing homes. [4] During post disaster reconstruction, the main challenge lies in designing and implementing location-specific reconstruction programmes which promote locally-available materials and build on existing knowledge, skills and institution. Thus, different studies have indicated the need for effective participation by beneficiary communities in meeting these objectives [5]. The participation of these affected beneficiaries in reconstruction is addressed in ODR approach. In an ODR program, people who lost their shelter are given some combination of cash, vouchers, and in-kind and technical assistance (TA) to repair or rebuild their houses. They may undertake the construction or repair work by themselves, by employing family labour, by employing a local contractor or local laborers, or by using some combination of these options. [6] The prioritization of needs and the decision-making are in the hands of the affected families, giving them ownership of their project. Owner driven does not imply that the affected family should provide construction labour but it requires that they manage the reconstruction with technical assistance. Owner driven projects are defined by three fundamental requirements: (1) participatory process of decision-making, (2) adequate technical support, and

Research Aim
• To assess the fulfillment of fundamental requirements of owner driven approach in housing reconstruction.
• To analyze the success of owner driven reconstruction approach with respect to satisfaction level of beneficiaries

Research Design
The aim of research was achieved through quantitative research method using questionnaire survey with

Non-governmental organization assisting
To achieve first objective, a draft questionnaire containing 3 fundamental requirements of ODR approach consisting 12 question (4 on each factor) was prepared and later validated through expert review and pre-testing on 30 beneficiaries. The preference of respondents was noted on five-point Likert scale (1= Strongly Disagree, 2= Disagree, 3= Neither Agree nor Disagree, 4= Agree and 5= Strongly Agree).
In order to achieve second objective, beneficiaries were asked to rank their satisfaction level on five-point Likert scale (1= Strongly Dissatisfied, 2= Dissatisfied, 3= Neither Satisfied nor Dissatisfied, 4= Satisfied and 5= Strongly Satisfied) on 9 satisfaction parameters prepared with reference to Karunasena G. and Rameezdeen R. (2015).

Sample size = 250
Population size (N) seem to be dynamic in nature. Above mentioned value for N suggests the number of beneficiaries to receive final grant by the end of Magh, 2075 (January, 2019).

Source: (GoN, NRA)
Also, to address professionals' perception a list of 16 professional (total population) working on reconstruction within Dhunbeshi Municiplaity was chosen.
For selection of sample, Proportionate Stratified Random sampling was done, i.e.
the population itself was split into group of 9 wards and sampling was done proportionately as represented in table 1. And, the beneficiaries from each ward was then chosen randomly.
However, to encounter worst scenario a set of 300 questionnaires (20% extra) was distributed and 80% responds, i.e. 250 responds were collected.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The collected data from 250 beneficiaries and 16 professionals within Dhunibeshi Municipality was further anlysed using "IBM SPSS Statistics 25.0".
This section of report interprets the core results supposed to be identified by the research. As specified previously, the research aims to critically analyze the Owner Driven Approach of housing reconstruction, further specific analysis for each objective is done based upon collected data. And, thus obtained statistically verified results and findings are represented below.

Objective 1: To assess the fulfilment of fundamental requirements of owner driven approach of housing reconstruction.
Prior to assessment of fundamental requirements, the internal consistency of data on Likert's scale is scrutinized using Cronbachs' alpha represented in Thus, mean=4.24 suggests that beneficiaries "Agree" about participatory process of decision making while mean=3.52 suggests professional perception in between "Neither agree and disagree" and "Agree". Similarly, P-value for t-test is <0.05 for case 2, i.e. null hypothesis "equality in mean" is rejected. Thus, mean=4.31 suggests that beneficiaries' perception in between "Agree" and "Strongly Agree" while mean=4.00 suggests professional perception as "Agree" about adequate technical support.
Unlike, in above two cases, P-value for t-test is >0.05 for case 3, i.e. null hypothesis "equality in mean" is accepted. Thus, mean= 3.57 on beneficiaries and mean= 3.23 on professionals suggests common perception in between "Neither agree nor disagree" and "Agree.

Objective 2: To analyze the success of owner driven reconstruction approach with respect to satisfaction level of beneficiaries.
Satisfaction Level (Score) of beneficiaries on different parameters are averaged out of 5 and ranked accordingly, as tabulated in table 4 below.
The satisfaction level is minimum on Response Time of total reconstruction (m= 3.50), i.e. in between "Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied" and "Satisfied". And, maximum on To understand the relation first of all, correlation between Fundamental Requirements and Satisfaction Level was analyzed which is represented in table 5. Taylor (1990) suggests if magnitude of correlation is in between 0.9 to 1.0 represents very high correlation, 0.68 to 0.89 represents high correlation, 0.36 to 0.67 represents moderate correlation, and below 0.35 low or weak correlation.
There is moderate but significant correlation of "Participatory process of decision making" and "Adequate Financial support" with Satisfaction Level whereas "Adequate Technical Support" shows low correlation.
In order to investigate the detail relation, further regression analysis was conducted represented in

Conclusions
This research attempted to examine the ODR approach followed by NRA in private housing reconstruction of earthquake affected areas. The fulfilment of fundamental requirements of ODR approach was partially validated from beneficiaries' perception. They agreed about their participation in decision making process, and availability of adequate technical support but remained neutral about adequate financial support. Unlike beneficiaries, professionals remained neutral about public participation in decision making process as well. Further, aim of research to analyze the success of ODR approach was justified with respect to satisfaction level of beneficiaries. Beside primary objectives, unanticipated facts about relation between fundamental requirements of ODR approach with Satisfaction level of beneficiaries was explored. The factors, participation in decision making process and adequate financial support, showed significant positive relation with satisfaction level.

Recommendations for concerned stakeholders
The findings from the study seems to be to fruitful to judge the achievement of national