Disaster Diplomacy: The spatial impact of international reconstruction aid in the aftermath of the 2015 Gorkha earthquake in Nepal

Abstract

This thesis aims to investigate the spatial implications of international reconstruction aid in the aftermath of the 2015 earthquake of Nepal, particularly in the urban municipality of Lalitpur.

I explore how emergency reconstruction aid, operationalized as support from international NGOs, bilateral agencies and multilateral organizations, has a spatial impact and imprint on cities. Particularly, I examine the impact of the aid community on the rent, land values, and infrastructural/amenity distribution within the wards of their operation. Second, I examine the impact of post-earthquake reconstruction projects leveraging international funding on urbanization patterns in the wards in which they are situated. To understand counterfactual trends, I examine the overall patterns of neighborhood externalities in earthquake affected wards of Lalitpur where no international aid funded projects or aid personnel are located.

The argument advanced includes two suppositions that decipher the spatial implications of aid project presence and operational presence: 1) The increasing spatial cluster of physical outposts of international aid organizations’ headquarters, i.e. what I call here their operational presence, creates negative neighborhood externalities ad change that is privileging the rentier class rather than distributing housing, amenities, and infrastructure equitably to the city; 2) The presence of international aid funded reconstruction projects, i.e their project presence, creates a change in both amenities and small business distribution within wards within which they are situated to create neighborhood change, which accelerates inequity, but in ways unlike that of operational presence. I find that two wards within Lalitpur show significant negative neighborhood externality and change due to the presence of international reconstruction aid as opposed to the rest of the municipality i.e. Ward no.2 and Ward no.16.

Particularly, these wards saw an exponential increase in rent and housing values (in the case of Ward no.2), a change in the nature and function of locally owned small businesses, and a tendency to cater to a rentier class that comprises international aid workers and tourists, as opposed to the rest of the municipality (both Ward no.2 and Ward no.16).