Applying a more flexible core housing concept in self-recovery setting

Understanding the genuine core housing concept in post-disaster recovery is the path to a more flexible and appropriate housing solution to help affected people in their self-recovery process. However, government and aid agencies should be aware that even though core housing might enable swift rebuilding with fewer resources for initial construction, some aspects could become obstacles to future expansion. Hence, in the last two decades, the focus has been on something other than the core house itself but on homeowners' ability to rebuild or repair their houses.

If the urgency is a quick rebuild, then shelter/housing actors might be tempted to work with the combination of construction technology and materials that fast construction can be implemented. For instance, they were building a house with a modular structure with parts and connections using tools and materials unavailable in the area. It would be difficult for the homeowners if they want to repair or expand their houses according to their needs. Skills and tools become an issue for proper construction.

Another quick rebuild approach can be seen by just providing a set of designs. Government or aid agencies offer a catalog of designs for homeowners to rebuild their houses. However, there are some challenges in this context. Some designs need to fit with the space of land owned by the homeowner. For instance, in rural Nepal, having a square footprint design in the mountainous terrain is challenging since the narrow base available space is mostly rectangular. Therefore, there is a need for design assistance beyond just design provision.

Since housing recovery is a continuum process from emergency to safer houses constructed with access to social services, there is an imperative to connect the housing construction to that access. Connecting the construction process to livelihood and other income-generating initiatives is the most difficult. However, the core housing concept with self-rebuild initiatives can give more opportunities to homeowners to build their capacities, network, and connect their construction activities with other businesses—for instance, improvement of the supply chain of construction materials and builder services. The supply chain can be strengthened with the provision of various construction materials. We should be aware that failing to enhance the supply chain might lead to substantial inflation due to the scarcity of construction materials. It happened in early 2006 during Aceh's post-tsunami housing reconstruction; the price of red brick tripled due to the massive rebuild. Setting up a new factory of construction materials in the affected area affects price stability and income generation for people living there. Training for builders on proper construction at the earliest might help to address the availability of skilled builders.

Hence, how do we ensure the core housing concept works best during housing recovery? Homeowners should construct the core house using their available resources, and government and aid agencies should provide assistance that fits their capacities. Multiple house designs, training and mentoring of builders, and oversight should be provided. During these two decades, these approaches have been getting more acceptance. The focus is not on the core house itself; it has been shifted to homeowners' ability to rebuild or repair their houses. Considering the initial resources would not be sufficient, they need to be assisted in repairing or rebuilding the most required part of the house. Moreover, this assistance should connect more comprehensive access, such as health and livelihood, to ensure community well-being in the future.

Arwin Soelaksono

Return home, recovery pathway difficult to measure

Today (May 6), we mark three months of the Türkiye and Syrian earthquake, and it is reported that about 20 percent[i] of those affected by the earthquake who migrated to the cities they used as refuge have returned. For instance, only in Hatay province, Türkiye, 92,000 out of 565,000 who have taken refuge in areas outside Hatay have returned.[ii] The number is expected to rise since more people are having trouble paying rent due to increased house rent prices. Turkish Housing Sector Group reported that house rents in Türkiye increased by 16 percent on average following the earthquakes.[iii] On the other hand, authorities believe 65-70% of families in tents are from homes that are low or have minor damage[iv], so there is a possibility they might be returning to their homes. So the number of returnees will be around 1 million since about 1.8 million people are currently in tents.[v]

Influencing factors on the scale of return and its challenges

In every affected people, there is always the desire to return home. There are external factors that can influence their decision.  The most influential is their confidence due to the aftershocks diminishing. When they overcome the trauma, they will think about their assets and livelihood back home. Their children need to be back in the classroom. If those living in the refuge share this idea, one family can be a pioneer and create a bandwagon effect[vi]. Then there will be a massive home returning.

But some challenges can impede the smoothness of this process. Unprepared utilities in their home areas will put them in tents or refuges longer. Water can be an issue, such as debit and the quality due to the pipe needing repair. Repairing of pipes needs to wait until rubble removal can be completed. Electricity also needs to be well functioned as they need to run their appliances moreover the coming summer they need for the refrigerator. They might also consider repairing their houses, but more than hardware vendors and builders will be required in the current market.

Preparing massive return

It is essential to understand the uniqueness of recovery pathways. People must be able to choose which recovery process they should follow. But they can be assisted by preparing the market. As inflation of construction material and labor costs is inevitable, strengthening the local market can reduce the impact of inflation. If cement, steel rebar, and other materials can be available with sufficient amounts and stable prices during recovery, the risk of interruption of the recovery process can be minimized. All of these need government policy and local economic development strategy. It is always challenging to link the housing recovery with sustainable economic growth if extensive umbrella to maintain the market is unavailable.

Other market actors are the builders. As this disaster could be the biggest in decades, skilled or qualified builders are less than needed. Therefore adding new builders or even training the homeowners to repair their houses will be crucial. There should be messaging and training in their home areas to ensure they can repair their houses properly. Otherwise, people just put plaster and paint, such as cosmetics but overlook to ensure that weakened parts need to be repaired.

Lastly, the decision to return home or stay in the tents or refuge solely depends on each household. It cannot be predicted when or how big, but it can be anticipated. Government and humanitarian agencies have an essential role in anticipating the return and preparing the ecosystem so that self-recovery can naturally happen and robust house can be achieved.

Gaziantep May 6, 2023. 

Arwin Soelaksono

Photo: Twitter @StepHaiselden[vii]

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[i] Support to Life. Emergency Situation Report 26 April 2023

[ii] OCHA. 2023 Earthquakes Situation Report No. 11 As of 23 March 2023

[iii] Support to Life. Emergency Situation Report 26 April 2023

[iv] Temporary Settlement Support Sector Turkey EQ Response Sector Briefing 27 April 2023

[v] Shelter Sector Türkiye. Information brief Shelter Sector No. 1 – 28 April 2023

[vi] The tendency for people to adopt certain behaviors, styles, or attitudes simply because others are doing so.

[vii] https://twitter.com/StepHaiselden

3 things I learned from Shelter Cluster Coordination

I just completed my mission as Provincial Shelter sub-Cluster Hub-Coordinator this December 2019.

It was 11 months working closely with the Government and with 70 NGO partners who are working providing and supporting temporary shelter and permanent housing. Interestingly there were also organizations which not working for shelter nor construction but actively participate in the coordination meeting. Moreover they also participated in the project together with some of the shelter NGOs.

In the areas which affected by tsunami, liquefaction and earthquake we encourage people centered housing recovery with owner driven setting . Through many ways we sent essential message in recovery, Build Back Safer (BBS). Lastly we pursued localisation to ensure local NGOs confidently step-in as key partner.

Therefore in this writing, from my own reflection, I want to share 3 things I learned during my mission in Central Sulawesi.

1 . Know Your Mission

Having a complete understanding of the mission is critical in order we can coordinate effort as humanitarian shelter agencies. Agencies should be proactive bolstering people's rights on their own recovery pathways. For instance in the first months our advocacy was – if the affected people need temporary shelter – all stakeholder should strengthen individual temporary shelter assistance. There was a debate on which temporary shelter is more appropriate, collective (barracks) or individual. Later on it is proven that the individual is much better. Even the individual temporary shelter built through process which took time but it was respecting community decision. On the other hand the collective temporary shelter, delivered as a product it seems disconnected with the recipient and their community. Furthermore there were protection issues, sustainability and also the cost is very expensive.

Other aspect that we continuously pursue is BBS. To make it successful the BBS should be everyone concern and embedded in everyone’s program. The coordination team and some of the partners who are in the strategic advisory group formulate the key messages on safer construction. It was quite challenging for engineers and architects to formulate the message since it should be easily understood by non-engineering people. Even more it should be easily understood by low educated people.

Finally the BBS messaging called 7 Principles to Build Safer House after 4 months was launched, received endorsement from government. The IEC material of 7 Principles to Build Safer House can be downloaded here for portrait layout and landscape layout.

Working in recovery post-disaster will always find a lot of noise. Political actors might want to push their political agenda because they want to be recognized and get the vote. Business people and building contractors who want to gain massive profits for their services and products. Affected people who become impatient due to long process to the recovery. And many more!  But with solid understanding about the mission, we can focus to help the people on their recovery. It will take some time, but it helps the people decide their recovery pathway. At the same time they would have safer rebuild.

2 . Coordination Skill + Creativity = More Influence

We conducted a study to evaluate 3 months coordination meeting participants in September – November 2019. There were 50 organizations participated but interestingly only less than half were working with temporary shelter and permanent housing. The bigger part were those who do not work for shelter nor construction. They work for other program such as cash and livelihood, also local organization who work for women and children protection and land issues. These non-shelter NGOs not only active in coordination meeting but also involved in projects together with shelter NGOs.

We tried to understand why non-shelter NGOs participated in coordination meeting? Also, why number of participant has kept growing? NGO partners found the information shared in the coordination meeting were reliable. The coordination meeting consistently held every two weeks[i]. The meetings were not merely for information sharing but also to find partners. There were INGOs and donor came to find local NGOs who could possibly become partners.

Not only coordination meeting, the NGO partners also strengthen their collaboration through projects. There were two projects carried out by NGO partners. The first was the commemoration of one year event of the disaster. The event was intended to send message on people centered housing recovery. In the event, NGO partners presented their program to support the community with owner-driven approach.

The last collaboration was this December 2019, there were 23 organizations supporting this event. During December, the NGOs conducted house owner training which all trainee were women. Our intention was the women might have BBS knowledge and familiar with the construction monitoring tools. Then with confidence, lead the construction of their houses. The event named ‘Women are the pioneer of reconstruction’ gained support from the Sigi District Government[ii]. The government will continue the house owner training for women using government budget. They invite NGOs participation to support government program as they need technical people and community mobilizers.

None of these two events were planned by each NGO partners at the first place. Even though they were willingly to contribute according to their resources. Some of them sent their engineers, architects and community mobilizers. They also donate construction material for practical training and also gave the funding. Why then, they were willing to collaborate which actually gave more burden to their resources and budget?

From my reflection every agencies who participated in the coordination meeting later on have the same concern. We want to respect owner-driven recovery and at the same time ensure BBS can be achieved. These messages were kept on sounding in many ways during the coordination. It need skills and creativity to gather everyone to fulfill the mission.

3 . To serve and to inspire are beyond leadership

How significant is leadership to run coordination? From my own reflection there are other elements which are more crucial than leadership. My role as coordinator is more to serve and if I am lucky I can inspire the partners. It is important for the partners understand the mission and later on they could create the momentum fulfilling the mission.

For instance once I shared that women can lead the construction of their own houses. They should have the ability to decide what kind of house they want to rebuild. They can choose the design, select the building material, and control the pace but the most important is ensure BBS. I told to some of the partners that we need home owner training for women and there should be big event to launch the idea. Then Danni Rossa from Wahana Visi Indonesia stepped in.

Danni with her team consist of technical people from several NGOs designed the curriculum. They designed homeowner training in 5 villages as pilot project. It was a big effort. She had to coordinate 23 organizations to select locations, trainers and logistics including construction material provision. Through community mobilization the team had to gather women as trainees. Around 150 women had received 2 days training on BBS and construction monitoring. Later on at the ‘Women are the pioneer of reconstruction’ event we knew the home owner training was successful. As I wrote above the District Government will continue to run home owner training program for women.

This writing will be too long, if I have to write other person like Danni who understood the mission then willingly took part. They were not just participated but led other people to fulfil the mission. I am grateful that we have Danni and other partners who can multiply our effort. As we know we always have short timeframe compare to the full recovery, but we need to set the solid foundation. Therefore I am gladly served these leaders.

Acknowledgements

I am deeply grateful to Direktorat Jenderal Perlindungan dan Jaminan Sosial – Kementerian Sosial Republik Indonesia, Pemerintah Daerah Provinsi Sulawesi Tengah and Dinas Sosial Provinsi Sulawesi Tengah. My sincere thanks to 70 NGO partners who are closely working with us, supporting us with update on temporary shelters and permanent housing progress. I am also grateful to other NGO partners even not working with shelter but help us to cover many issues and strengthen shelter program. Their support and collaboration are beyond my expectation. Thanks to my colleagues at IFRC and Global Shelter Cluster. I am thankful for the huge support of my colleagues at the Indonesia National Sub-Cluster Shelter, Wahyu Widayanto, Dave Hodgkin, Avianto Amri, Hijaz Jalil, Daris Rafi Fauzan, Darisman and Oko Jiwa Jiny. My thanks to the most awesome team whom I shared my day to day work in Palu, Tina Lamaligi, Hendri Guswanto, Johanes Juliasman and Punjung Widodo. Thanks to my beloved Linda Tobing for the love and encouragement. And above all to my Lord Jesus Christ, whom all glory belongs.

Arwin Soelaksono

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[i] Before the meeting we always share the updated partners’ progress from Information Management (IM). We presented gaps and opportunities from each sub-district. From the IM we also share potential of overlap which every agencies need to be cautious and check their plan. We also had conducted mediation for partners whose working area were overlapped.

[ii] https://kabarluwuk.com/2019/12/23/ibu-pelopor-konstruksi-berdayakan-perempuan-bermitigasi/

Community driven temporary shelter

On May 16, 2019; 5 unit of barracks which consist 60 rooms was locked and sealed by the contractor[i]. The barracks were temporary shelters for earthquake affected families. That was the last attempt of the contractor to bring higher attention so they can get paid. Photos of families who were made to leave their spaces in the barracks swarmed social media. Those photos raised lots of questions. Were the contractor have the right to do that? Has the authority forgotten that near to the festive the contractor badly need to be paid? Or is there better approach on providing temporary shelter following the disaster?

Following the September 2018 earthquake, tsunami and liquefaction in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia; government and non-government organizations (NGO) supporting the affected people with temporary shelters. There were various design, size and construction material used to build the temporary shelters. But there were two significant difference in terms of building typology. There were barracks or collective temporary shelters and the other are individual temporary shelter. Individual temporary shelter is for one family while collective temporary shelters or barrack are for several families in one structure.

Which one is better, collective or individual

There are always questions on which one is the best for protecting displaced people. People might argue that collective shelters are faster than constructing the individual one. To some extent it is true. But actually the difference is not much. Collective shelters built by contractors it has procurement process and bidding and awarding. If a constructing company awarded the contract they have to manage sub-contractors or labors and procure construction material. Procurement is proven to be problematic as shown on protest due to unpaid claim. On the other hand individual temporary shelter is more on community or home-owner driven. People build their own temporary shelter and dwell in it after constructed.

The outcome is important which is people need to reside in the while waiting to rebuild their houses. Therefore construction collective shelter and individual shelter should be measured until the beneficiaries live in it. There were empty collective temporary shelters due to no water and electricity. The affected people rejected to stay since those are basic needs for them to live. On the other hand individual temporary shelters which built on their own land, already have water, toilet and electricity.

In terms of cost which one is more expensive? For in-situ construction, the individual temporary shelters are much more economical. The homeowner might use the salvage material. Since they build based on their needs such as adding more rooms they have use their own money. Since the NGOs which are supporting them only give some money or construction material which is not sufficient for completion. Individual and collective temporary shelter can be built upon relocation area. But the cost of individual temporary shelter is still more economical compare to the collective shelters. Even in relocation area the individual shelter owner need to use their own money to complete their house in order to build it as per their need. While in collective shelters the contactors built it and in their cost are profit in it. Which is proven to be expensive.

But the most crucial are on the protection side. For families living in collective temporary shelter only a thin wall made of plywood separate one family to the other. There are social concern might increase frustration amongst this neighborhood. Then protection for women and children become the biggest concern since they have to live cramped in small area including using communal bathrooms. The bigger number of people live in collective shelter compound the bigger the issues need to be addressed.

Therefore provision of collective temporary shelter should be seen as the last option when there is no possible way on providing the individual.[ii]

The missing part, self-recovery

Even in the most difficult situation, people has the intention to survive. It is the nature as human being to preserve their life. In terms of recovery post disaster, some capacities still persist. They have their own decision how to do to survive and continue their live. The bigger their capacities, they are more confidence to decide their path to recovery. Therefore on the first assessment after disaster struck capacities on self-recovery should be studied.

Access to financial resources is one to determine their capacities. It could be from saving or financial support from extended family. Their access to financial services such as loan would also help them to recover faster. Other capacity originates from market system which still function. People can buy construction material and tools, even their supply might need some time to match the demand. If in the area they have local production of construction material the market function is more positive. Even more encouraging if there are local builders such as masons and carpenters. They could repair houses in no time or immediately build the temporary shelters.

But most important is their social cohesiveness. The community itself will decide what will be the best for them. It is far more important than all resources mentioned above. Therefore the decision on provision of temporary shelter should come from the affected people. The capacity to self-recover should be taken into consideration.

The decision on provision of collective temporary shelter can be perceived as delivering a product[iii]. It will undermine their self-recover ability. For this kind of community this approach will not meet their expectation. The community would prefer stay in their own built temporary shelter, and it is individual shelter.

In the shoes of affected people

Decision on providing temporary shelter whether it is collective or individual should come from proper assessment. It should not from previous intervention from other disaster response. Every event is unique, different hazard, different area and different people. Based on learning from previous events, the decision on provision collective temporary shelter become less popular. From the affected people point of view there is considerable risk on protection and too many social issues. From programmatic point of view it is expensive and the occupancy rate might lower than the expectation. 

The idea on provision temporary shelter is the affected people will peacefully dwell while their new permanent house being built. Whether in relocation land or in-situ they need assurance that they are protected. It is if they live in individual temporary shelter.

Arwin Soelaksono

Photos:

Top: Collective temporary shelter at Kelurahan Mamboro, Kecamatan Palu Utara. 

Middle: Individual temporary shelter of KUN-Humanity funded by IMC Worldwide

Bottom: Individual temporary shelter of MDS funded by TEAR Netherland 

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[i] "Hunian Sementara Korban Bencana Palu Disegel Kontraktor" https://properti.kompas.com/read/2019/05/16/185934821/hunian-sementara-korban-bencana-palu-disegel-kontraktor 

[ii] CARE. Emergency toolkit. Collective Centres. In the first instance after a disaster, a collective centre is likely to be a community building such as a school, church, hall etc. Destitute families will sleep communally, often in very crowded conditions with inadequate privacy and access to water and sanitation. A shelter programme can support these families with NFIs and materials to improve privacy and dignity. However there is often pressure to vacate collective centres as quickly as possible so that they can revert to their original use, classes can commence etc. Collective centres can also be purpose-built, normally by the government. Generally CARE would consider then to be an option of last resort. https://www.careemergencytoolkit.org/core-sectors/25-shelter/4-what-to-do-response-options/

[iii] Kennedy, Jim. Newby, Tom. P. 73. The State of Humanitarian Shelter and Settlements 2018. Global Shelter Cluster. Successful shelter programmes do not just deliver a shelter product; they support a process of sheltering. But the shelter sector still has a way to go to understand this process, not as one of building an object, but as one of responding to the varied needs and aspirations of people and how they choose to live their lives.

Supporting the most vulnerable in owner-driven house reconstruction setting – Lessons learned from Nepal

On every houses reconstruction post-disaster there is always challenging situation where there are some people will potentially left behind. The most difficult to assist are those who are the landless or those whom will be relocated. Their timeline and reconstruction cost will be much higher compare to those who are on-site reconstruction. Based on this circumstances both landless and relocated will not be discussed in this article. Therefore the scope of discussion are those who will rebuild their houses in their previous land or upon their own land. Even though there are families with economic vulnerability, whom struggling to fulfill their daily needs. There are also families without workforce, the old people and people with disabilities which made them have no confidence to rebuild their houses. When the government launch the recovery program across the affected area these people most probably will only wait for the right time to start but soon will they realize it is already late. These people are based on common criteria[i] known as the most vulnerable.

But there is always possibility on supporting the most vulnerable families to rebuild their houses. Even most of them don’t have confidence that they might even start the construction. There are many question on their capability to rebuild their houses in owner-driven setting. To answer the question, firstly we need to understand how they perceive their limitation and perception on reconstruction.

Different timeline

The most vulnerable families have different timeline on rebuilding their houses. They might think for months to have decision to ground-breaking. They might worry once they start and then they could not finish it. For instance, in Nepal one room house can be completed within 2 months or even less. But for most vulnerable families might take a year to complete. Nepal government provide cash assistance for all eligible beneficiaries to rebuild their houses in 4 tranches. For those who can afford to buy construction material or pay the labor they can use their own resource to keep the construction going. But not with the most vulnerable, which they can only work when they have the cash assistance on their hand. It happened many times there were time lag which made them to wait[ii].

Therefore since we know that the most vulnerable need more time to rebuild their houses, the support should be start earlier. Whatever the support to them such as the top up or other assistance should be started sooner. The recovery assessment should identify the most vulnerable and work at the earliest to get buy-in from their own community and local government.

Start the ball rolling

My first question when we conducted the assessment 3 months after the earthquake who will do the land clearing when we visited old people. They seems did not have man power for land clearing. The access also difficult to bring the material to their houses. If the job should be done by labor, they don’t have money to pay the wages. They stuck in this condition and need external support from government or humanitarian organization. This external support needed to start the ball rolling.

There are various ways on supporting the most vulnerable that they might kick-start the rebuilding. There was cash top up as per government plan to support the most vulnerable. Some organization using the local custom to gather several homeowners to form a group to build their houses. They started from one house then to another house as they agreed. It went well since it is traditional practice, but it takes time. They need to finish one house at certain stage then to move to other houses. It take even longer time due to seasonal work in the village[iii]. Some organizations provide construction assistance through training for builders. The training was started from land clearing until the house completed. The homeowners just provide the material. The builders get the benefit of experience to work on complete construction; on the other hand, the beneficiaries’ also get the benefit since they have their houses constructed in good quality. It went well but the number of beneficiaries not so many.

After several studies and discussion with several organizations in the HRRP[iv], the most effective support was provision of mobile mason. Mobile mason is providing a group of mason who works up to certain level of construction. The masons will clear the land and dig foundation. They will work to construction of the foundation until the foundation beams are concreted. Up to this level the beneficiaries are entitled to get the cash disbursement which is the largest tranches of government scheme. Once the ball rolling they will continue to finish their houses. This intervention was the most efficient since it took only a week[v]. Also it is cost effective since the beneficiaries can provide their salvage material to be used for construction of foundation. They only need to purchase steel rebar and cement for the foundation beam. For the organization who support the most vulnerable this is also cost efficient since they have to pay labor for a week to finish the work. But the organization have to provide construction expert to provide technical assistance to the homeowners and the builders.

Therefore the most vulnerable people will have their capacity. The government and the humanitarian organizations need to break their limitation by providing accurate support. We need to respect their time line and at the same time help them to build their confidence and to kick-start  their house construction.

Arwin Soelaksono

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[i] Every organization have their own criteria which based on their organization mission. The criteria might be old people, people with disabilities, single headed women, family with children, food security etc.

[ii] There is a process that they can receive the cash after at certain stages their construction work can be verified based on quality checklist. After the verification there will be several steps in local government process to ensure eligibility and correct amount to be disbursed. These process always take time and in some area it might take longer due to local capacity.

[iii] There were planting and harvesting and also festivals. There were also monsoons which hamper the transportation due to landslides.

[iv] The Housing Recovery and Reconstruction Platform (HRRP) is the organization who provides coordination services for the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA), Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) and Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD) Central Level Programme Implementation Units (CL-PIUs), other relevant government authorities, and Partner Organizations (POs).

[v] The American Red Cross in March 2017, supported 7 families by providing mobile mason in Thulogaun. The support was from land clearing to the completion of the foundation. Therefore the beneficiaries can proceed to obtain the second tranche cash grant which is the largest chunk of government support. It took around 7 months up to  a year for them to complete their houses.

Other factor more crucial than government deadline to boost reconstruction progress

There were a lot of discussion on deadline for homeowner driven reconstruction. Whether it is important or helpful to speed up reconstruction progress. In Nepal, the Nepal Reconstruction Authority (NRA)[i] issued a deadline for distribution of cash grant[ii]. It mentioned that on mid-January 2018 will be the last disbursement of the 2nd tranche[iii]. There were pros and cons but the effect of the deadline was contributed to increase the pace of construction.[iv][v] Many homeowners have started their house construction to catchup the deadline. It was reported that the deadline was successful to motivate homeowners as number of house construction jumped to certain level[vi]. But there are two important ideas which easily overlooked and many people just fascinated with homeowners enthusiasm. First, the successful of government deadline only just like the tip of the iceberg. Only organizations who are invested their effort months before the deadline can ripe the benefit of this deadline. Second or lastly, every house reconstruction stakeholders should thoroughly measure the increase of construction pace of house construction number. This degree of increment should be maintained until the project completion or to the end of construction season.

In #recovery post-#disaster, investment during low season of owner driven #house #reconstruction (incl. strengthening field level capacities) is far more important then focusing on deadlines. Details https://t.co/iWrW6bGkdC #Nepal #earthquake @HRRP_Nepal @ShelterCluster pic.twitter.com/nzUcPXfWzo

— Arwin Soelaksono (@arwinsoelaksono) August 10, 2018

Field investment is more important than just focus on deadline

In every post-disaster house reconstruction there always be deadline. Donor deadline or government deadline. Therefore every reconstruction organization should invest their effort on strategic initiatives which can be used as a solid foundation to propel the construction pace. The impact of government deadline may vary from one organization to others. Only organization who had these investments would ripe the benefit of the deadline.

Same like owner driven reconstruction in other places the enthusiasm of homeowners are crucial. This enthusiasm should be maintained and this can also be obtained from confident on having skilled builders. Builders who knows well on seismic resistant construction which ensure their house will be built robust and strong enough to withstand future earthquakes. These builders will also construct houses which will pass the government engineers checklist which will allow them to access the next tranches. Therefore investing on continuously building capacities of the builders are strategic undertaking. There are many organization participate on providing training for masons as per government curricula[vii]. But it was only 7 days or even 50 days on the job training. If we want to change practices or habits to adopt the new understanding of seismic resistance the approach should be coaching. It would take months, but for sure it is worth it.

Since coaching of builders will take months hence builders should be retained. There should be proper project management to ensure their continuous work in the field. Builders always want to have continuous income so the project management has to guarantee there will no idle for them. Therefore the task of project management is to produce house design as per homeowner needs. Provide layout and conduct site measurement. Put homeowners on ready to build as many as possible. The indicator of this success is there are homeowners queueing for builders. Scarcity of builders to some extent is good for construction progress. More builders could come from other area and at least there is job security for current skilled builders.

Not every stage of construction need skilled builders. There are unskilled ones can participate at certain stage of construction. Land clearing, digging foundation and working on foundation theses unskilled builders can work alongside with the skilled builders. Same like skilled builders due to massive construction post-disaster these unskilled builders also will not sufficient. Therefore rebuilding post-disaster even construction of private houses should be understood as community effort. Each homeowners need to be supported by their neighborhood by giving their hand to work building the foundation. Then in turn they have to work for their neighbors houses. In Nepal this known as aalo palo and it is a community tradition which a group of 5 to 10 homeowners will work in rotation. Even though the unskilled builders still insufficient hence women also can participate.[viii]  This valuable tradition is proven to be a big help for speeding up the construction pace. This working in turn also has economic benefit to minimize the risk of inflation. Since there is no payment to all who are working in rotation, there will be no inflation in unskilled builders. If the unskilled has more opportunity to work, more house they can build it means more construction skills will they get. This will be reduce the risk of inflation on skilled builders even the scarcity is quite big.

 

All of the initiative above need cash grant to be disbursed timely. The cash grant usually a half or one third or even less compare to the cost of the house. But most of the house owner are really need the cash support in order they could continue to build the house.  The effectiveness of the organization who support this owner driven construction can be measured on how long the beneficiaries receive the funding after certain eligible stage on construction. There are layers of government stakeholders who need to approve paperworks in order the bank can send the money to each beneficiaries. Therefore coordination and establishment of system is crucial in order the process can be streamlined and at the same time maintain its accuracy. From the organization itself, good financial management is needed to ensure there will be sufficient funding available in the bank. So when the request for money transfer issued the bank can immediately wire the money to the beneficiary account.

Effort to increase pace of construction is more important than just focusing on government deadline

There is always limited timeframe on every reconstruction post-disaster. For massive reconstruction usually special institution is established by the government.[ix] The institution is not permanent and therefore they have finished certain task within specific time. Hence it is understandable if government issues on deadline. This is same with organizations who work on recovery which also have limited time. This limited timeframe then translated as deadline in the field.

But in Nepal context there are other more important deadline since the construction might only effective in a certain window of opportunity. The construction will not effective in planting and harvesting season since the homeowners and builders reside in the area are working in the field. There are festivals like Tihar and Dashain which everyone enjoy the holiday with their families. There is monsoon which rainfall can affect the transportation with landslide or road damage. Transportation of construction material like steel rebar and cement will be halted. Therefore construction will boom somewhere after festivals and before monsoon. It means if we want to have flourish reconstruction it will be between October to July. The nature itself has given its own deadline.

Hence as a project management strategy every recovery organizations have to maximize the house construction during this construction season. It means in every month until the monsoon it is important to ensure that every month should has increase number of finished house. It can be seen that it should be steeper curve in the S-curve[x].

(2/5) To manage the time, cost & quality, applying proper construction project mgmt is a must. One of the tool, the S-curve, should be used in #shelter #construction in rural, urban and even in humanitarian works. #ConstructionSeason post #Nepalquake @ShelterCluster @UNHABITAT pic.twitter.com/mIjo2H6u17

— Arwin Soelaksono (@arwinsoelaksono) July 9, 2018

Investment during low season of construction to gain benefit of any deadline

Considering there is only small window for construction season therefore investing in low season is significant. Qualified engineering team with back-up of community mobilization expert need to bring all homeowners in ready-to-build mode. Therefore house designs should be available. This is crucial to motivate home owner. When they can see the house design they can imagine what kind of house they will get, they can be encourage to start and complete the house. Engineering support also needed in calculating the budget. It means they will choose the design which suit to their budget. Investing on builders’ expertise is also crucial. Then houses can be constructed faster and comply with the building code. If all of those are in place then the government deadline become additional boost for the progress.

Arwin Soelaksono

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[i] The NRA was established in August 2015 with a mandate to complete the reconstruction drive within five years.

http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/news/2018-04-25/nra-private-houses-to-be-built-within-next-fiscal.html

[ii] In the immediate aftermath of the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake, the government decided to provide Rs 200,000 per household as private housing rebuilding aid, which was later increased to Rs300,000 to be distributed in three instalments—Rs 50,000, Rs 150,000 and Rs 100,000. The amount is being disbursed in three instalments for ensuring that the quake survivors rebuild quake resilient homes in line with the compliance and design set by the government

http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/news/2017-07-18/nra-sets-mid-july-2018-deadline-for-beneficiaries.html

[iii] The 1st tranche was distributed on early September 2016. Then reconstruction program then went on across the 14 most affected areas. NRA has published a deadline (Annapurna Post July 21, 2017) which all the beneficiaries must sign agreement by November 16, 2017 and must receive 1st tranche. Those beneficiaries who have already received 1st   tranche within January 13, 2017 must receive 2^nd tranche within January 14, 2018 and those receiving 1st tranche within November 16, 2017 must receive 2^nd tranche within April 13, 2018. Those beneficiaries who will be receiving 2^nd tranche within January 14, 2018 must receive 3^rd tranche within June 13, 2018 and those who will be receiving 2^nd tranche within April 13, 2018 must receive 3^rd tranche within July 14, 2018. Then again the deadline was extended - Government extends deadline for second tranche of grant.

http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/printedition/news/2018-02-10/government-extends-deadline-for-second-tranche-of-grant.html

[iv] There 37% of homeowners start to rebuild their houses due to NRA tranche deadline https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/building-homes-on-a-deadline/

[v] Ghimire calls the deadline pressure a success, as construction rates have risen over the last year. Today, more than 800,000 households qualify for government subsidies, which are distributed in three separate payments totalling $3,000, depending on the stage of construction. More than 440,000 have received the second of these payments – a year ago, only 55,000 people had. https://www.irinnews.org/news-feature/2018/08/06/nepal-rushed-earthquake-rebuild-leads-mountain-debt

[vi] Nepal has witnessed a dramatic spurt in progress in home reconstruction over the past few months, driven in part by government deadlines announced last year. https://thediplomat.com/2018/04/nepals-desperate-race-to-rebuild/

[vii] http://hrrpnepal.org/resource-detail/view/directives-for-7-day-lead-mason-training-2074unofficial-translation170601

[viii] Reconstruction a pathway for women to contribute more on sustainable development. http://disaster-response-reconstruction.blogspot.com/2018/03/reconstruction-pathway-for-women-to.html

[ix] For instance for recovery following the tsunami 2004 in Indonesia there was Agency for the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of Aceh and Nias (2005-2009).

[x] S-curves are an important project management tool. They allow the progress of a project to be tracked visually over time, and form a historical record of what has happened to date. Analyses of S-curves allow project managers to quickly identify project growth, slippage, and potential problems that could adversely impact the project if no remedial action is taken. http://www.maxwideman.com/guests/s-curve/using.htm