By PETER BATE

That was the question facing some 400 delegates from donor countries and multilateral agencies who attended the Dec. 10 11 meeting of the Consultative Group for the Reconstruction and Transformation of Central America at the IDB's Washington, D.C., headquarters.

During their deliberations with officials from the nations devastated by Hurricane Mitch, donors reviewed damage evaluations, discussed the coordination of relief efforts and analyzed how they could contribute to the development of a new and better Central America.

In the consultative group's first round of pledging, donors promised $6.2 billion in emergency aid, long-term financial support and debt relief for Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador.

"This effort has sent a clear message of the international community's solidarity," IDB President Enrique V. Iglesias told reporters after the close of the conference, which the Bank organized just weeks after one of the worst hurricanes on record swept through the Central American isthmus and the Caribbean.

Iglesias also pointed out that the meeting was just an initial step. The consultative group will meet again on May 25-28 in Stockholm, Sweden, under the auspices of the Swedish government and the IDB. By that time, Central American nations will have prepared master reconstruction plans, and donors will be expected to make firm commitments to support those programs.

According to the organizers, the funding commitments could produce a record level of international support for a developing region and, with it, a unique opportunity for helping Central America to overcome its legacies of poverty and inequality.

However, as the December meeting demonstrated, the region must still deal with the terrible aftermath of Mitch, an emergency that spawned numerous crises that could dash all expectations of prompt recovery.

The destruction wrought by the hurricane was even more bitter because it hit four nations that were getting their first taste of success from recent economic reforms and hard-won peace after decades of civil wars. The momentum for regional integration seemed unstoppable, and even social indicators such as infant mortality were improving.

All of this progress was wiped out in a matter of days. As Honduran President Carlos Flores pointed out at the meeting, the floods not only ruined most of his country's export and domestic consumption crops but also valuable arable land, washing vast areas clean of topsoil and leaving behind barren fields of rock and sand (see article "Farmers without Soil" in this issue).

The flooding and the mudslides destroyed 50 years of efforts to build Honduras' infrastructure and forced nearly one-quarter of its people out of their homes. More than one million took refuge in schools and sports facilities around the country.

Flores warned that this catastrophe could jeopardize Central America's peace and democracy and urged the world to help his region avoid a relapse into instability.

"To lose now the ground Central America had gained would be an inexcusable step back for us and for the international community, and it would be an inadmissible punishment for the next two or three generations," he added.

The international community showed its readiness to help during the emergency and the reconstruction phases. The United States deployed one of the largest foreign relief campaigns in its history, sending hundreds of millions of dollars in food, medicine and rescue equipment, along with some 5,000 military and civilian personnel. European and Latin American nations also participated in the rescue efforts, providing equipment and supplies such as helicopters, tents and bailey bridges.

Recognizing the impact of the hurricane on Honduras' and Nicaragua's export sectors, bilateral creditors were quick to offer debt relief that would consist of deferring service payments or writing off obligations. These gestures, coupled with a trust fund established by the World Bank to help those countries meet their multilateral debt commitments, will free up hundreds of millions of dollars for emergency and reconstruction efforts over the next few years. In addition, it is expected that creditors will accelerate their review of both Central American nations as candidates for the international debt relief initiative for heavily indebted poor countries, known as HIPC.

Nevertheless, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Michel Camdessus told the donors' meeting participants that debt relief should not be seen simply as a panacea. "Much more important will be the continuity and certainty of a flow of concessional external resources in the months and years ahead," he said.

Donors applauded the Central American leaders' intentions of involving the private sector and civil society organizations in the planning and execution of these national programs, which will benefit from decentralization and management by local communities. Looking further ahead, they warmly received a proposal by Mexico that an international meeting on disaster prevention and mitigation be held in coordination with the IDB, an exercise that could yield valuable lessons for developing countries.

But despite the wealth of good intentions, Central America's recovery still could fall victim to events. The director of the Pan American Health Organization, George Alleyne, called on the international community to protect the health of the citizens of the affected countries, pointing out that diseases such as cholera could hobble the whole reconstruction effort.

"There exists today the risk of a reappearance of outbreaks of infectious diseases in Central America, whether caused by the damage in some countries to the water and basic health services, limited access especially in rural areas, or the risks from crowded shelters and the movement of people between countries," Alleyne said. "Water-borne diseases, leptospirosis, dengue and malaria, can return, but I want to put special emphasis on cholera because of the damage it can cause."

Another factor that could quickly dampen international and domestic support would be corruption, and the Central American leaders showed they were keenly aware of this issue. Nicaraguan President Arnoldo Alemán stressed that foreign donations must be managed with the utmost accountability.

"The best counterpart contribution we can make to those who have been so generous with their support is to guarantee transparency," he said.