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Foreign Assistance: USAID Completed Many Caribbean Disaster Recovery Activities, but Several Challenges Hampered Efforts

GAO-06-645 Published: May 26, 2006. Publicly Released: May 26, 2006.
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Highlights

In September 2004, Hurricane Ivan and Tropical Storm Jeanne passed through the Caribbean, taking lives and causing widespread damage in several countries. After initial U.S. emergency relief, in October 2004 Congress appropriated $100 million in supplemental funding, primarily for Grenada, Jamaica, and Haiti, which were significantly affected. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), leader of the U.S. recovery programs, agreed, in consultation with the Office of Management and Budget, to complete the programs by December 31, 2005, giving the agency a 1-year time frame. GAO was asked to (1) review the nature and status of the programs in Grenada, Jamaica, and Haiti as of December 31, 2005; (2) identify factors that affected the programs' progress; and (3) assess USAID's use of guidance and lessons learned from previous similar programs and efforts to draw lessons from the current programs.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
U.S. Agency for International Development To better facilitate USAID's ability to design and implement future disaster recovery programs and address its previously documented recurring staffing challenges, the USAID Administrator should develop disaster recovery and reconstruction program guidance that incorporates lessons learned from the Hurricane Ivan Recovery and Reconstruction Program and Tropical Storm Jeanne Recovery Program as well as previous disaster recovery programs.
Closed – Implemented
In October 2004 the U.S. Congress passed a supplemental appropriation allocating $100 million hurricane disaster recovery and reconstruction assistance for Grenada, Jamaica, and Haiti following damage caused by Hurricane Ivan and tropical Storm Jeanne that year. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was responsible for implementing the program, which included infrastructure and housing repairs and business rehabilitation programs. GAO conducted an audit of program activities and issued a report in May 2006 entitled "Foreign Assistance: USAID Completed Many Caribbean Disaster Recovery Activities, but Several Challenges Hampered Efforts". USAID has recently posted lessons learned from previous disasters on its intranet as a partial response to a GAO recommendation in the Caribbean report. While reviewing USAID's Caribbean program activities, GAO found that although USAID has managed several recovery and reconstruction programs since 1999, it has not issued guidance that incorporates lessons learned from designing and implementing such programs. As a result, GAO recommended that USAID develop disaster recovery and reconstruction program guidance that incorporates lessons learned form the Hurricane Ivan and Reconstruction Program and Tropical Storm Jeanne Recovery Program, as well as previous disaster recovery programs. USAID's recent posting of lessons learned provides more direct access for staff responsible for managing disasters to learn from previous programs and implement recovery and reconstruction activities more effectively.
U.S. Agency for International Development To better facilitate USAID's ability to design and implement future disaster recovery programs and address its previously documented recurring staffing challenges, the USAID Administrator should revise staffing procedures to allow the agency to more quickly reassign or hire key personnel, either to augment staff responsible for disaster recovery efforts in countries with a USAID mission or to manage efforts in countries where USAID does not maintain a permanent presence.
Closed – Implemented
In October 2004, the U.S. Congress passed a supplemental appropriation allocating $100 million to hurricane disaster recovery and reconstruction assistance for Grenada, Jamaica, and Haiti following damage caused by Hurricane Ivan and tropical storm Jeanne that year. USAID was responsible for implementing the program, which included infrastructure and housing repairs and business rehabilitation programs. GAO conducted a review of program activities and issued a report in May 2006 entitled, "Foreign Assistance: USAID Completed Many Caribbean Disaster Recovery Activities, but Several Challenges Hampered Efforts." GAO found that, although USAID has managed several recovery and reconstruction programs since 1999, it had not adopted recommendations from previous GAO and USAID reviews of past recovery program that could have helped it more rapidly hire and transfer staff for the Caribbean disaster programs. GAO recommended that the USAID Administrator should revise staffing procedures to allow the agency to more quickly reassign or hire key personnel. USAID has taken several steps to improve staffing of disaster recovery programs. First, USAID developed a Surge Roster which includes over 200 former USAID employees who have expressed an interest in working for USAID both in Washington and overseas. The roster is broken down by occupational clusters, and has been used with great success to rapidly staff a wide variety of assignments, including recent disaster recovery efforts. Also, based on lessons learned on staffing in Iraq and Afghanistan, USAID devised a system to ensure that families, who are not permitted to accompany the USAID employee to disaster areas, are able to remain at the employee's post of assignment while the employee is deployed to an area for disaster recovery activities. This system eases the burden of family separation and expedites staffing of disaster reconstruction programs. Finally, USAID launched a Learning Management System (LMS) which plans and tracks USAID employee skills and competency development. The LMS will enhance USAID's response to disaster recovery operations by enabling USAID managers to quickly identify employees with the necessary skill sets.

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Topics

Appropriated fundsDisaster recoveryDisaster relief aidFederal aid to foreign countriesForeign aid programsHousing constructionHurricane IvanInternational relationsLessons learnedNatural disastersProgram evaluationProgram managementInfrastructure rebuilding (foreign)