Investing in humanitarian-development nexus

There is a gap that could impede housing recovery post-disaster, i.e., the absence of the practical application of relief-development continuum principles. Meanwhile, strengthening the humanitarian-development nexus was identified as a top priority at the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit, but the implementation is complex. It started with the nature of funding and the traditional practices; there is a distinction between humanitarian action and development aid, which results in different time frames and modalities. In the housing post-disaster context, humanitarian aid should provide shelter assistance soon after the disaster. On the other hand, Build Back Better, which includes delivering access to better living such as health, education, and livelihood, needs development aid. Hence, the nexus is essential to establish a transition or overlap between the delivery of humanitarian assistance and the provision of long-term development assistance.

In many cases, agencies, with their resources and expertise in humanitarian, are supporting the affected people and local authorities with temporary shelter or other non-food items. Meanwhile, other institutions that are experts on permanent housing are preparing their assistance, which will commence when the recovery period starts. So, the gap seen by the affected people as other agencies just finished their support while they have to wait for further assistance for long-term recovery will resume at a specific time. This gap should be eliminated if there is a clear pathway connecting humanitarian assistance and development support. It is OK if some agencies have their mandate only to support temporary assistance or others only support housing in the development context. The issue is the gap.

From the construction perspective, the transition from temporary shelter to permanent housing should not be disrupted. Establishing the construction market and its supply chain should be started before the recovery period. During recovery, the provision of construction materials, builders, engineers, and architects should be available sufficiently. As proven in many recovery programs, it takes considerable time to prepare all of these since there is no guarantee that those items and resources are already available in the affected area. The ecosystem that enables those items and resources to enlarge along the growing demand for reconstruction should be prepared. For instance, if the affected area is remote, rural, and far from development, good quality of construction materials and builders becomes a big issue. 

This initiative has both positive and negative sides. The negative is that the donors, local authorities, and agencies are unfamiliar with where to put this assistance because it is not relief or development. Some might see this as development assistance, but it will be implemented in the relief period. Also, it won't be easy to justify using humanitarian funding since these are not delivering immediate needs. But the positive side is the nexus will help proper preparation as soon as possible, including planning to improve other essential services such as health, education, and livelihood. Hence, it can work well if the assistance is delivered in settlement approaches instead of sector-wise. It should be through localization and community development rather than a highly centralized response. Lastly, there should be more advocacy investing in the humanitarian-development nexus to the donors, authorities, and agencies to achieve a robust structure that abides by the building code and sustainable housing recovery.

Arwin Soelaksono

humanitarian-development.org  

Photo credit: Madrina Mazhar

References:

1. Chaggar, Andrew. The Analytical and Practical Application of Relief-Development Continuum Principles to the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, focusing on Community-Based Reconstruction in the Context of Phang Nga, Thailand. Centre for Development Studies School of the Environment & Society. University of Wales Swansea. (2007)

2. Strand, Arne. Humanitarian–development Nexus. In: Humanitarianism: Keywords. https://brill.com/display/book/9789004431140/BP000048.xml?body=pdf-60830

3. Stamness, Eli. Rethinking the Humanitarian-Development Nexus. Policy Brief 24/2016. Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. (2016)