Following the April 2015 earthquake in Nepal, the Government of Nepal launched a private housing reconstruction program for the affected people. This is an owner-driven reconstruction in which the homeowners have the initiative on the type and size of the house to be rebuilt and also the timeline. The government provides support as the methodology has already proven successful in other countries, such as Indonesia, following the Padang earthquake in 2009. However, in Nepal, there are some specific concerns about the availability of skilled builders as many young people prefer to work abroad.
Draining of local workforce
For some people, this recovery program is foreseen to be unsuccessful due to the scarcity of manpower to work in reconstruction. For many years, Nepali working abroad has tended to increase as more income they expected compared to working in Nepal. The number of Nepali workers going abroad has more than doubled since the country began promoting foreign labor in recent years: from about 220,000 in 2008 to about 500,000 in 2015[i].
In the villages, the situation is even more challenging. Thousands of able-bodied men leave Nepali villages for cities and go abroad for employment and to escape poverty, many villages no longer have any adult men—only kids, women, and elderly remain[ii]. Therefore, the ratio of women and old people becomes significant if we count the workforce availability in the villages. Even most of the young people are unskilled for construction work. Hence, the presence of women and old people will not have a meaningful impact on the reconstruction progress.
Migration not only reduces manpower but also causes slower decisions on when to start the house. This is because money is mostly directed by the men who are the head of the household.
During the reconstruction phase and especially in temporary shelters, women take on a triple duty of reproductive work, community organisation and productive work in the informal economy, while men tend to return to their traditional role of waged work outside home. The tremendous impact of the disaster on children and elderly are largely shouldered by women. Generally in post disaster situations the officials in charge for reconstruction activities finds it difficult to obtain timely and accurate information. This is partly because of decision making which does not follow its usual procedure due to the urgency and the pressures and flow of information to lower ranks does not work in its routine way. In certain cases the implementation does not happen effectively. Thus, the contribution of women to this will be of great help. (Thurairajah, 2008)
Construction work is not for women - skeptic says
Even in development settings, which is not a post-disaster situation, the presence of women in the construction business is in a small number. Women make up just 11% of the entire workforce, but even this figure includes many who work behind a desk, often in design, management or secretarial roles. On building sites themselves, it is estimated that 99% of workers are men[iii]. The current perception is that this construction is a male-only job, and this comes both from the employers and from society.During the preparation of the reconstruction program the government launched a mason training programs. But even women have been encourage to participate their presence still below expectation. Their range of participation may vary across the country but some evidence recorded around 5%.[iv]
Limited opportunity and increasing vulnerability
When fulfilling their responsibility as family members, women will have additional burdens due to disaster. They might work to clean out debris and work on their own house repair, but at the same time, they still have to take care of their children and do housework. Their husband might lose their job due to the disaster, which made them have to work for extra income to meet their needs.
If they want to enter the available job market in their villages, they have to compete with their male neighbor who are losing their assets and jobs. These men would work for any kind of work available to get income.
One opportunity for everyone in the village is construction work. The current workforce is definitely not sufficient to meet the demand due to massive reconstruction across the country. As happens everywhere globally, this recovery program may take years. A growing number of skilled builders is really needed in due course; otherwise, this recovery might be halted or even fail.
Even though there is a growing demand for builders and training in which women can participate, it doesn’t mean that women can easily get jobs. Community acceptance is still a serious challenge that hampers women's ability to work directly in construction. Most people still perceive this work with wood, stone, and cement as a men’s job.
Limited access to construction work for women might be linked to limited access to income if there are not sufficient job opportunities in the village. Furthermore, limited purchasing power for basic needs and health. Then, the highest concern is increasing their vulnerability if the woman is a single-headed household with children in her family. The marginalized role of women in post-disaster reconstruction further contributes to women's vulnerability in post-disaster situations[v].
Empowerment of the stairways for more opportunity
Women should have access to participate in any recovery activities, including reconstruction works, as per their needs or interests. Therefore, they should be empowered with skills and knowledge in order to enter the job market with fair competition. The government should provide access and mechanisms in order for them to contribute their skill to rebuild more robust houses in their community. Aside from that disaster as a tragedy, disasters can provide an opportunity to redress gender disparities. Good practices are context-relevant and empowering and use women’s skills and leadership to build resilience and Disaster Risk Reduction. There is a need to improve livelihoods and enhance community disaster preparedness, mitigation, and prevention, with the involvement of women and men[vi].
Therefore, agencies that work in reconstruction should find the best strategy that can be implemented in their working area. Every disaster recovery in each country might be unique, so copying the same strategy from another recovery program does not guarantee success. However, this empowerment initiative should be emphasized in every strategy. Aside from opening new opportunities for women, the strategies themselves will benefit the government, humanitarian organizations, and research institutions working on women’s empowerment[vii].
However, even though there are good policies and good strategies, limited access still persists. The larger share of benefits and resources go to men while women continue to remain marginalized.[viii] Many research prove men still play a dominant role, not only in the decision-making process but also throughout the entire response, reconstruction, and recovery processes[ix]
Therefore, it shows there is still a long way from the policy level to the actual implementation on the field level. There are still conceptions and old values hampering the process, which hampering those empowerment strategies can be active and real. There should be an initiative from the grass-root level to tap the opportunity.
Small steps big impacts
Having a certificate of builder training does not guarantee having a construction job. As mentioned above, the challenge of acceptance still persists. There are already proven initiatives that have made a big impact on the reconstruction progress in Nepal. One of the essential milestones for starting a house construction is land clearing and groundbreaking. Rather than waiting for builders to do the job, a group of women cleared the land, broke the ground, and made the foundation. Having seen that women worked later on, other men in the community joined.
These people work in turn from one house to another so all group members have their foundation finished. In Nepal, it is called aalo palo, or working in turn. It is a very small step, but it brings recognition and appreciation. Women, too, can also work in construction. Time passed, and then they could not only work on land clearing and foundation work but also in steel rebar fixing [photo above] and concreting.
The idea is to make a connection between policy and strategy at the country level and the community at the village level. It should produce a paradigm shift in the community that empowered women can also work in construction if they are willing to do so. Women can fill the manpower gap because many people are working abroad. Moreover, it should not stop at the implementation level. Women should also participate and be involved in decision-making processes in a non-discriminatory manner. They must be fully recognized and supported to build resilience, reduce disaster risks, and contribute to sustainable development[x].
Arwin Soelaksono
[i] https://www.statnews.com/2016/12/21/nepalis-die-working-abroad/
[ii] https://pulitzercenter.org/project/asia-nepal-mass-migration-women-children-rural-poverty
[iii] https://www.theguardian.com/careers/careers-blog/2015/may/19/where-are-all-the-women-why-99-of-construction-site-workers-are-male
[iv] https://reliefweb.int/report/nepal/nepal-earthquake-changing-attitudes-brick-brick
[v] Thurairajah, Nirooja (2013) Empowering Women during Post Disaster Reconstruction
[vi] Drolet, Julie et.al. (2015). Women rebuilding lives post-disaster: innovative community practices for building resilience and promoting sustainable development
[vii] Thurairajah, Nirooja (2013)
[viii] Thurairajah, Nirooja (2013)
[ix] Drolet, Julie et.al. (2015).
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