CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VIII (1) ContemporaryEurasia81 | Page 116

THE UN “SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION PROGRAMME” IN UNPA SECTOR WEST …
services or neighbourly assistance. The communal administration
documented such input and offset it based at a fixed hourly rate. The
necessary building materials and tools were purchased on the Serbian side.
During this project phase, a total of 33 houses in the Serb-controlled side of
Pakrac could be winterized in time. The Croatian side thought that the legal
framework conditions only entitled aid organizations to “give away”. Since
the concept of “give-away” did not conform to the guiding principle of
CARE – “Help in order to enable self-help” ‒ the project had to be planned
anew, in addition to conducting new negotiations with the financial donors.
During the reconstruction project’s third phase, CARE negotiated the
creation of a revolving fund with the respective communal administrations in
order to finance the repair of 100 houses on each of the two sides in the fixed
destruction categories I through IV. Giving special consideration to the
economic situation in both the Croat and Serb areas, the negotiations led to
the establishment of a credit fund with social aspects, granting interest-free
loans. This, however, meant that the fund would shrink due to its revolving
nature and thus would have to be continuously replenished.
Meanwhile, building materials were again freely available in the
marketplace on the Croatian side. Therefore, the establishment of a store for
additional building materials was no longer necessary and the absence of a
legal framework for aid organizations was no longer an issue.
The process for granting loans from the credit fund worked as follows:
On the Croatian side, the population was informed about the lending
guidelines for the reconstruction loans through posters, newspaper ads, radio
announcements, etc. Credit applicants submitted their requests to the
international project manager in the joint UNOV/CARE office that was
made available by the community in its administrative building.
Since on the Serb-controlled side electricity had been shut off,
applications were announced on posters or through word of mouth and
submitted to the manager of the local building materials store.
Funds committees with community representatives were established
on both sides by the respective communal administrations. The international
CARE coordinator had observer status in the committees. The committees
were responsible for determining lending criteria and deciding on loans and
repayment specifics. Both sides reviewed, among other things, the
applicants’ ownership documentation, the requested loan amount and the
needed work input and building materials.
Applicants had the option of repaying the credit either in cash or in
kind – as for example through building materials that had been donated by
other organizations, or in the form of communal work or neighbourly
assistance. The hourly repayment rate was set by the funds committee at DM
2,10 - a median rate between the local minimum wage and a teacher’s hourly
wage.
In cases in which persons were unable to repay the loans through their
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