1. Supporting and empowering communities
to build.
This is the principle with the most widely available
information on various types of support. The most
common of those is capacity building (some call
it training), which a lot of reconstruction projects
already include. Additional information on this can
be easily accessed; see also case study 1 in PCR
Tool 3: Learning from disasters. Agencies such as
UN-Habitat and the World Bank have recognised
that communities and their local builders can
achieve a lot in construction and subsequently they
support community contracting. Communities can
often improve their own settlements more quickly
and cost effectively than commercial contractors,
whilst building community cohesion and learning in
the process. Community contracting is increasingly
used to provide infrastructure, such as water,
sanitation, roads and drains, as well as community
facilities. It often follows community action
planning (CAP), as CAP priorities can be turned
into community contracts. This concept has also
been applied in reconstruction, e.g. in Sri Lanka
after the tsunami. See the Resources section for
further details.
Financing housing can be a problem. Lending
institutions usually demand a formal land title,
which many people do not have. However, they can
act as examples for other organisations wishing
to operate cash-for-shelter schemes. Where these
options do not exist, community savings and credit
schemes can sometimes help. These systems
allow members to spend on a major investment
when needed, e.g. a new roof or additional room,
or small business, etc. Where such schemes are
well embedded in strong communities, they can be
linked to formal lending institutions, or supported
by NGOs, donors or authorities. Community-led
savings are an important tool for Slum/Shack
Dwellers International in their housing construction;
see: http://www.sdinet.org. The Shack Dwellers
Federation of Namibia has a revolving fund that
brings together savings from all its member groups,
as well as government contributions. This case was
a finalist in the 2007 World Habitat Awards.
The Community-Led Infrastructure Finance
Facility (CLIFF) has been established by Homeless
International specifically to boost community-based
savings and community contracting. Amongst
others, CLIFF provides loan guarantees for loans to
community groups, offering banks greater security
in their money lending. See: http://www.homeless-
international.org/standard_1.aspx?id=0:36953&id=
0:27820&id=0:27813.
2. Planning with communities
A well-known tool is Community Action Planning
(CAP). This has been used on a very large scale
in Sri Lanka’s Million Houses Programme in the
1980s (see IIED, 1994, in the Resources section),
and later applied in some of the post-tsunami
reconstruction projects. See also: PCR Tool 7:
Planning with the People, for more information.
3. Including all, especially the most
vulnerable
The most vulnerable households in a community
often need special attention, and there are
generally more vulnerable households after
disasters. This issue is addressed in PCR Tool
4: Assessment of Reconstruction Needs and
Resources and PCR Tool 7: Planning with the
People.
Women are more vulnerable to disasters
than men, particularly in locations where
gender inequalities exist. It is important that
this vulnerability is not worsened by a poor
reconstruction process. Furthermore, women have
different housing and services needs to men, which
must me acknowledged. A number of organisations,
such as SDI, pay special attention to the role
of women in housing and reconstruction; see:
http://www.sdinet.org/ritual/women. The Huairou
Commission is a network of grassroots women
organisations currently working on tackling gender
discrimination in land and housing development,
and creating communities resilient to disasters.
See the Resources section for further details. See:
http://www.huairou.org/campaigns.
4. Avoiding relocation
When a disaster strikes, experts will often suggest
relocation to more secure sites. In cases of extreme
risk this may be necessary but, where possible,
relocation should be avoided; it can threaten
livelihoods and break up social networks, both of
which are key to reducing vulnerability. Relocation
is also often suggested in housing improvement
programmes. There are alternative solutions:
• Neighbourhood re-planning involves working
with a community in a participatory planning
process (see PCR Tool 7: Planning with the
People) to re-arrange the use of space so
that families do not have to move out when
a settlement is improved. There are many
examples of this approach in upgrading.
• Land sharing originated about 30 years ago
in Thailand. Here, squatter communities,
supported by NGOs negotiated with land owners
to give up part of the land they had occupied
for commercial development, against the right
to secure tenure on the remainder. As a result,
settlements had to be densified. See Angel and
Chirathamkijkul (1983) and Povey and Lloyd-
Jones (undated) in the Resources section.
• Vertical development is used to free up land
for other uses or to accommodate additional
families. Its applications can range from simple
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