International Federationof Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

International Federationof Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Shelter and Coordination

“why are more than a million and a half Haitians still homeless – most of them living under tarps and tents in spontaneous camps?”

International Federationof Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Operational Environment

• Densely populated urban area• Frequent aftershocks….followed by rainy season….then hurricane season• ‘Spontaneous camps’ - IDPs, but in an urban context with limited space• Land availability & rubble clearance

• Huge number of agencies (& high staff turnover) Media pressure (focus on response not situation) Hollywood factor Funding Difficulties with T shelter designs The temptation to do the same thing in each emergency

International Federationof Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

IFRC Shelter Cluster Convener 12th of Jan till 10th of Feb - IOM lead IFRC assumed responsibility 1st week of February Middle of IFRC’s largest disaster response with more than

100 RC Societies More than 100+ agencies attending shelter cluster Divided into sub hubs

International Federationof Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

The shelter challenge The pace of shelter relief was actually

faster than several recent disasters

Shelter Cluster agencies have now completed 19,000 T-shelters (14% of declared overall target of nearly 133,000)

Pace of construction picking up

BUT prospects for T-shelter uncertain. Best scenario is 11 % of the camp pop rehoused in T-shelters by the anniversary

International Federationof Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Land in Haiti  80% PAP residents renters / squatters before earthquake

Haitian government “participatory enumeration” clarify tenure in the community

Success using “street by street” solution (shelters on individual plots to establish title).

Need for a Pluralist approach - T-shelters in people’s former neighbourhoods would play a role, combined with

shelters on the sites of people’s former homes (“house by house”), The repair of “yellow” (reparable) houses, “transitional” shelters that become semi-permanent, incentivizing people to return to “green” (safe) houses longer-term support to thousands of families in the provinces still hosting quake

victims.

International Federationof Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Land and shelter: IFRC advocacy

International community must honour its pledges of assistance  

Haiti’s recovery led by Haitian communities.

Rebuilding process must favour recreation of neighbourhoods over resettlement.

Residential reconstruction must be sustainable - not reproduce vulnerability

Shelter agencies must think outside the box, adopting a “whatever works” approach.

International Federationof Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Land and shelter: IFRC advocacy (cont)

Government to appoint a single figure responsible for rehousing, designate a single agency to handle the process and decide what to do about uncertainty over land tenure.

Judiciary must act impartially in adjudicating disputes .

Interests of the tenants (overwhelming majority), not owners, must be safeguarded.

The (still-expanding) NGO community must “do no harm”.

International Federationof Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Questions we need to ask

Are we ready for urban disaster? Who is responsible for leading on

shelter? How do we link regional coordination

to cluster approach?

International Federationof Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Thank you for your attention