Hani Eskandar
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Information about Shelter and the Common Standards - 2007/05/24 14:36
Written by: Sarbjit Singh Sahota, RedR India
Analyzing the recent failures of post disaster shelter interventions, I believe that much of the problem is organizational. We need to use standards in planning, the commitment of resources, and so forth remembering that our challenges are less technological rather our barriers in providing timely Shelter response are organizational. E.g. Agency is unable to deploy right kind of people (could have been better preepared in line with common standard no. 7), they are unable to handle the techno-social process associated in developing design brief (performance specification) and much of the things there after go wrong. The consultative process, the critical success factor, associated with Shelter is long (particularly in post disaster housing), diverse (multi stakeholder) and complex (e.g. durable solutions are closely linked to the transitional solutions) and has to be sustained over the project period.
I believe that common standards of Sphere if used efficiently can help over come many of the blues associated with post disaster shelter. Timely and appropriate delivery of shelter and settlement is hinged to the shelter delivery mechanism/process. These essential processes are listed and clarified in the chapter 1 of Sphere manual as 8 common standards. Common standards fall in two categories: a. those that relate directly to people’s rights, b. those that relate to agency processes which help ensure people acquire these rights.
To facilitate the collection of information about Shelter & the common standards, RedR India has drafted a Matrix (attached) where in the x axis are the 8 common standards and the y axis has 6 shelter standards. Populating this matrix with information (research, anecdotes, pictures, videos/films, case studies, observations, stories, M&E reports) which could illuminate the relationship of individual shelter standards to the common standards is expected to be bit complex but I guess achievable. E.g. if you refer to the cell 4.1 in the matrix, it is about the relationship of design with participation; we would like to hear about your experience of evolving participative design. It may few tips or words of wisdom or……
You can provide your input by simply replying to this post or send it to Sarbjit Singh Sahota from RedR India, email: sarbjit@redrindia.org
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