Shelter recovery assistance amid the Covid-19 pandemic

Following a disaster which causes house damage, homeowners always want to repair or rebuild their houses according to their own recovery pathways. In some recovery, non-governmental organizations supporting homeowners with various assistance in order they can rebuild safer houses more sustainably. Unfortunately, amid the pandemic, size of assistance are decrease due to limit of staffs movement in the field. Consequently Build Back Safer (BBS) would be difficult to achieve due to lack of technical assistance. On the other hand, there are organizations who had invested on developing capacity of builders and homeowners also adding health and safety measures. They might expect to achieve both, the community might build back safer and improve protection from Covid-19.

Shelter self-recovery and pandemic

In many events, number of houses damage, along with number of casualties are indicating the magnitude of the disaster. Affected people whose houses were damaged tried as soon as possible made makeshift tents or built or find temporary shelter. Shelter is universally recognized as a foundational element of disaster recovery; and while its ability to provide protection from the elements is a core function, it also affords broader social and economic benefits.[i] Many of them are living in temporary shelters. Some of them live with families outside the affected area or dwell in rental houses. Every households have their own pathways to recover.

Learned from the hard way from Aceh, Indonesia, post-tsunami recovery which was heavily donor driven. It was housing recovery led by agencies with little participation from the homeowners. The participation even became lesser due to competition amongst NGOs[ii]. But during last decade the approach has changed. Government and NGOs are more aware on self-recovery. It is an inevitable process. Following a disaster, populations never remain passive[iii]. Most disaster-affected families rebuild their homes relying on their own and local resources, with little or no external assistance[iv]. Even it will take months or years. Hence the role of government and NGOs on providing assistance is to complement the needs of self-recovery. The assistance should be supportive, focusing primarily on enabling and assisting household self-recovery and strengthening systems towards more sustainable outcomes and processes[v].

Nowadays there are various program are currently implemented to support the recovery. For instance, supporting the homeowners with cash-based program. Depending on the program, the cash can be delivered in stages or just in one time. Even the amount only 20% - 40% from the needs, but the cash can be used as a stimulus to kick-start the repair or rebuild houses. Other NGOs currently support on BBS initiatives through builder and homeowner training. Other helping the builders through mentoring to ensure all builders are familiar and can apply the safe structure attributes. Therefore, the presence of engineers, trainers and skilled builders are essential to empower homeowners and their builders.

Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many agencies have to limit their staffs’ presence in the field. Even they might aware that without sufficient support, local builders and homeowners might turn to old practices which result to unsafe structure. Also, there are still people in tents or other cramped spaces which make the risks become higher. It is a dilemma for the organizations. They need to protect their staffs’ but it might leave the homeowners become more vulnerable to the pandemic.

Adaptation through setting example and system

No one was aware of this pandemic when designing the recovery program. It came at a sudden which made every organization has to modify their program. To those who are flexible and have sufficient resources, they can continue and at the same time practice safety measures. They have to work together with the community to break the chain of transmission. As long they can practice physical distancing, always wear mask and the builders and homeowners can wash their hands. Then some organization add hand washing facilities to their shelter and housing recovery program. Hence it is a holistic integrated approach to housing. It is good to have some provision for integrating aspects such as infrastructure, water and sanitation into housing projects as these enhance the quality of settlements in the post-disaster context[vi]

Aside on technical assistance, setting an example become essential. Some organizations are quite strict on imposing physical distancing. When receiving cash assistance, the beneficiaries have to maintain certain space. They require all beneficiaries to wear mask. All these safety measures are new; therefore homeowners and builders are not used to it. They need to be educated that wearing mask is to protect themselves and their society. Therefore, community leaders have to give example that they themselves willingly practice it. They have to wear masks and mandate others to wear masks. In their area should be widespread mask-wearing which might be a very effective complement to hand-washing, physical distancing and other measures to mitigate the pandemic[vii]. Community leaders have to utilize social capital which is function of social norms, participation, and network[viii] in order every member in the community would internalize these safety measures. Therefore, wearing mask is people solidarity to protect their neighbour.

Creating system which would strengthen safety measures should be in place, even it should be provided earlier. Some organization provide thermometer gun to check those with high fever are not be allowed to work or gathered in public meeting. Provision of masks and handwashing station beforehand would encourage builders and homeowners to adapt the new practices. Also setting safe space to ensure sufficient distance during cash distribution or other assistance.

From project management side, homeowner can be advised to limit the number of their builders otherwise physical distancing cannot be met. Limiting the presence of builders is much better rather stopping the construction. The shelter program needs to continue because it is related to the builders’ livelihood. But unfortunately, those measures mentioned above are too luxurious to settlement with dense population and difficult to have sufficient clean water.

Future of shelter recovery assistance

This covid-19 pandemic gives us time for us to pause and reflect, on what will shelter recovery assistance in the future. No one knows when this pandemic will be over. But we know there would still a need to support shelter recovery. Since both pandemic and shelter post-disaster recovery are across the globe, there should be reshaping on type of assistance. Safety and health measures should be taken into account which should be reflected on the planning and budgeting. Therefore, shelter assistance should be redesigned. It should consist the most essential part which can meet the need of owner-driven recovery strategically. At least there should be three measures in place on recovery assistance can be described below.

Support owner driven recovery using technical assistances. Government and non-government organization should invest on developing homeowners and builders capacity. Training on BBS should be provided.  They may do so by bringing specialist builders in, by imposing standards, or providing assistance[ix]. Provide mentoring for local builders also smart investment in order they can adopt safer construction standards. Messaging on BBS also important. Every post-disaster recovery is unique. Hence all organization should find how to help the builders and homeowners on understanding the principles of BBS[x]. They should have the confidence that they can rebuild their houses properly. All of these are intended to build internal capacity within the community. At some point the external support could be disrupted or ended, but they still have the ability to continue their recovery process.

Connect shelter recovery with livelihood. Shelter and housing recovery post-disaster in many occasions viewed as overly time consuming and costly. The bigger the gap between available resources to the needs, it could be more sensitive to inflation and speculation. Bricks, cement, timber, steel rebar, masons and carpenters scarcity happened many times along with the size of the recovery. Therefore, shelter and housing construction work should be complemented with creation of market and strengthening supply chain. In this view, lockdown to an area to protect the community from Covid-19 would not be the best solution. Builders and supplies from outside cannot reach the affected community and at the end would affect local livelihood. As written above reducing the number of builders to maintain physical distancing is still an option. Even it would slow down the construction pace, the builders still can work and earn their income. The market still survives.

Link construction work with hygiene promotion. In many shelter recoveries there are initiatives to give the homeowners access on clean water and sanitation. Some organizations provide toilets as part of the shelter program. But seeing from this pandemic there should be upgrade on the assistance. Hygiene promotion become essential part of the shelter recovery. Provision of handwashing facilities and education on proper handwashing should be part of the service to the community. It does not mean that the shelter organizations have to provide all assistance in one package. Partnering with organization who are expert on hygiene promotion will be one of the solution.

Arwin Soelaksono

Photos:

Top:  Courtesy of Arsitek Komunitas (Arkom) Indonesia

Middle: Courtesy of Catholic Relief Services

Bottom: Courtesy of Wahana Visi Indonesia

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[i] Opdyke, Aaron. Resilient and Sustainable Infrastructure Systems: A Comparative Analysis of Post-Disaster Shelter Coordination, Stakeholder Participation, and Training. ProQuest LLC. 2017.

[ii] Soelaksono, Arwin. NGO and Donor Coordination to Speeds up Reconstruction and Avoid NGO Competition. 4th Anual International Workshop & Expo on Sumatra Tsunami and Recovery in Banda Aceh. Proceedings. 2009. https://www.scribd.com/document/60616872/NGO-and-Donor-Coordination-To-Speeds-up-Reconstruction-and-Avoid-NGO-Competition

[iii] Schofield, Holly., Barriers to urban shelter self-recovery in Philippines and Nepal: lessons for humanitarian policy and practice

[iv] Twigg, John., et. al. Self-recovery from disasters. An interdisciplinary perspective. Working paper 523. Overseas Development Institute 2017

[v] Humanitarian Shelter and Settlements Guidelines. DG ECHO Thematic Policy Document n° 9. 2017

[vi] Hidellage, Vishaka., and Usoof, Aziza. Scaling-up people-centred reconstruction: Lessons from Sri Lanka’s post-tsunami owner-driven programme. Building Back Better Delivering people-centred housing reconstruction at scale. Practical Action Publishing Ltd. 2010

[vii] Manjoo, Farhad. It’s Time to Make Your Own Face Mask. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/31/opinion/coronavirus-n95-mask.html

[viii] Nakagawa, Yuko., and Shaw, Rajib. Social Capital:A Missing Link to Disaster Recovery. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters. 2004

[ix] Schilderman, Theo. Putting people at the centre of reconstruction. Building Back Better Delivering people-centred housing reconstruction at scale. Practical Action Publishing Ltd. 2010

[x] Shelter Cluster with some organizations develop key messages on Build Back Safer. The key messages are principles which is very concise and expected to be easy to memorize by the builders and homeowners. For instance following the earthquake in Central Sulawesi in Indonesia the key messages can be downloaded at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aYNaRQcWBZlyg3GBa1g02N4F6To623gY/view . Another key messages was from Gorkha Nepal earthquake which BBS key messages can be downloaded at https://www.sheltercluster.org/sites/default/files/docs/english_151124_10_key_messages_0.pdf