At the International Pledging Conference donors made two major demand: (1) the provision of full and unfettered access for relief workers; and (2) the preparation of an objective and credible needs assessment. Than Shwe’s meeting with Ban Ki-moon facilitated the first requirement and the second became the responsibility of the TCG, which responded by commissioning the Post-Nagis Joint Assessment (PONJA). PONJA was launched on 8 June; Yves-Kim Creac’h and Lilianne Fan refer to it as ‘a massive multi-stakeholder joint assessment effort involving the Myanmar government, ASEAN, the UN, international financial institutions and INGOs’ (2008:6). Approximately 350 people were involved and they spent ten day’s in the cyclone-affected area detailing, and thus prioritizing, what needed to be done. The relief and recovery component of the PONJA was analysed through a Village Tract Assessment (VTA), while the long-term recovery component was reviewed through a Damage and Loss Assessment (DaLa). The division into VTA and DaLa reflected the different means of assessment that the UN and the World Bank sought. Initially the World Bank wanted to subsume the UN relief-assessment report under its scheme, but ultimately the compromise solution of running both was agreed.