Historical Case Studies from the Cuny Archive
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Historic Shelter Projects 2008 D Section D Historical Case Studies From the Cuny Archive D.4 D.2 Bangladesh D.3 India Conflict 1975 Nicaragua Conflict 1971 Earthquake 1973 D.7 D.9 D.5 D.6 Thailand Guatemala Sudan Conflcit 1979 Conflict 1985 India, Earthquake 1976 Andrah Pradesh Cyclone 1977 D.8 Tonga Cyclone 1982 83 D-Title page 300808.indd 83 11/03/09 18:33 D.1 Historical case studies - overview - Case studies from the Cuny Center Historic D.1 Historical case studies - overview Case studies from the Cuny Center Summary The main focus of this book has been on shelter responses after the year 2000. However, the loss of housing from natural disasters and conflict and the subsequent need for shelter is not a new phenomenon. This chapter includes case studies from the 1970s and 1980s taken from the Cuny Center in Washington DC, USA. These case studies document responses during which the first guidelines used by humanitarian actors today were developed. Although some of these case studies are from responses that took place over forty years ago, many of the issues and projects are similar and relevant to those being implemented today. Need for guidance efforts must be community-focused quakes in Nicaragua (1972), Guatemala There are occasional records of and take into account the community’s (1976) and multiple disasters in Bangla- shelter responses going back to the own potential for self-help. Secondly, desh (1973-1975) to argue for shelter 18th century, but concerted efforts to that above all else, shelter and settle- responses that helped affected com- research and develop a best practise in ment programmes must provide the munities build back better from day the field only started in the early 1970s. beneficiaries with sufficient levels of one, using local labour and materials, Indeed, the earliest modern guidelines hygiene and remove public health risks and supported by locally adapted haz- for shelter response for any humani- to the greatest degree possible, as ard-mitigation construction training. tarian organisation, dating from 1959, this was the largest danger to human If beneficiaries were to be relocated merely suggested finding a military spe- life after the occurrence of a disaster in camps, then the camps would have cialist and following his advice when or forced displacement. The develop- to be community focused, with the it came to the spacing and grouping ment of minimum standards for shelter shelters clustered into small neigh- of tents in planned emergency settle- over the subsequent thirty years, bourhood groups, and with space for ments. often expressed in numeric indicators, livelihoods and public activities. Post-colonial civil wars, notably derived from this need to equitably Meanwhile, the development of in Nigeria and Bangladesh (then East protect the health and hygiene of those new materials, such as plastic sheeting, Pakistan), and a number of large-scale living in emergency and transitional and the increasing professionalisa- earthquakes in the late 1960s and early shelter and settlements, with limited tion of logistics and communications 1970s, led to exponentially greater resources to support them. systems in humanitarian response numbers of forcibly displaced popula- allowed agencies the potential for a tions and a correspondingly increased First camp guidance more rapid, wider and larger response. role for humanitarian organisations in The first sets of guidelines, drawn the field. Without adequate guidance, up by Fred Cuny in 1971, were for Lead agencies it became quickly apparent that badly shelters within the context of planned By the end of the 1970s and the designed shelter and settlement pro- camps, but were based on the under- various crises in south-east Asia, the grammes could cause more harm than standing that the development of a rapidly increasing number of agencies good. camp was a process taking place over entering the field for the first time or an indeterminate length of time. The with little previous experience forced By 1973, NGOs like Oxfam and guidelines divided the type of shelter advocates of best practice to change CARE, researchers like Ian Davis, response into phases, depending upon their emphasis, in order to ensure and consultants like Fred Cuny were whether the camp was subject to an that the ensuing chaos was not as big engaged in developing comprehensive initial emergency influx of population, a disaster as the original emergency. guidelines for humanitarian response whether the camp was being maintained From that point on there would be and continued practical research into and services consolidated, or whether the inception of ‘lead agencies’ from issues related to shelter. Many of the the camp was being upgraded and the UN that were clearly mandated concepts that are now accepted as expanded for longer-term occupancy. with overall coordination and technical standard practice today derive from guidance. This would be facilitated by a the research conducted in the 1970s In the face of well-meaning but decisive change of guidelines emphasis, by Cuny, Davis and their collaborators. misguided attempts to create a perfect universal prefabricated shelter and towards universal, often numeric, Overarching principles shelter design competitions conducted minimum standards against which all The two sets of overarching prin- thousands of miles from any disaster, agencies’ performance could be held ciples in the development of these it was important for Fred Cuny and accountable, but which at the same guidelines were, firstly, that commu- Ian Davis, with the support of various time ran the risk of failing to take into nities must be supported in regaining NGOs and then the UN, to use their account needs for local adaptation. sustainable livelihoods, and that all own experiences in responses to earth- 84 84 D1-historical overview.indd 84 11/03/09 17:15 Historic Shelter Projects 2008 D.1 1980s Throughout the 1980s, the numbers adequate response. Knowledge of best ments and extreme weather conditions of refugees caught in protracted situa- practice among all actors was a prereq- attributable to global warming. tions increased, while the willingness of uisite before the start of a programme, Experiences such as those in Aceh, host governments to provide options rather than something that could be Indonesia following the 2005 tsunami for permanent resettlement dimin- just learned in the field. This would have raised important questions about ished. The UN first expounded a policy become the Sphere Project (www. the unintended effects of shelter response of voluntary repatriation as sphereproject.org). responses in accelerating urban the single preferred durable solution, Transitional shelter and migration and extending the sprawl of and decried camps as the option of settlement the cities further into hazardous or en- last resort. Under such circumstances, At the same time as the Sphere vironmentally fragile locations. the focus of those working on best drafting process, other initiatives gave practice in the shelter sector started the shelter sector its first set of inde- to pay more attention to the political pendent, sector-specific vocabulary aims to which settlements could be since the 1970s. The shelter process twisted. This was often based on their for the affected communities and for own experiences of witnessing un- humanitarian organisations is now sustainable camps being used as ‘pull seen as having transitional phases, with factors’ or to house hostage popula- an insistence that the first emergency tions, in places like Sudan or the Horn response must somehow demon- of Africa. strate support for the eventual durable 1990s and Sphere solution. The crisis in Rwanda in 1994 Urban challenges gave the impetus to many organisa- The last four years have seen tions to capitalise on the movement moves to widen the accountability and started in the early 1990s with the Red predictability in all sectors of humani- Cross Code of Conduct. This aimed tarian response through the develop- to not only systemise the qualitative ment of the Cluster System. But those and quantitative aspects of minimum years have also seen greater challenges standards across all sectors including brought closer to the spotlight. shelter, but to also ensure the widest possible awareness of those standards, In the last two years, the number of and the maximum possible adherence people living in urban populations has and buy-in among humanitarian or- reached 50% of the world’s population ganisations. This was done in the re- for the first time, and many of those are alisation that in complex emergencies living in hazard-prone areas on marginal the UN lead agency system could lands. This is especially relevant with not always be relied upon to ensure the potential threat to coastal settle- Fred Cuny Fred Cuny trained as an urban planner in Cuny conceived humanitarian response as centred the mid-1960s, and worked professionally with upon the affected communities, and serving to disadvantaged communities in southern Texas, support them in a return to sustainable livelihoods. before his experience as a pilot of small planes He advocated for camp designs that clustered gained him a position working with relief agencies shelters into small communities, shelters made during the Biafran War in 1970. Between 1971 of traditional materials that were built by the and 1995, Cuny and Intertect, the consultancy refugees, and the training needed to ensure that that he set up, worked with NGOs, the UN, and those shelters and houses would be built back safer major donors in a number of high-profile disasters. and hazard resistant. Cuny also advocated a holistic Through all of these, Cuny sought to develop approach to humanitarian response and worked to guidelines for best practice and to advance the combine shelter responses with those for water/ state of the art in humanitarian response. Cuny and sanitation, food security, livelihoods and public Intertect were responsible for the writing the first- health.