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Resource based planning

Tom Schacher

SHA Construction Course, March 16 – 20, 2009 in Walkringen

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Asking questions before giving answers

Context analysis• What?• Who?• Why?• Wherefore?• When?

• How? Resources

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What?

• What has happened?• What is requested: schools, health centres,

etc.?

• What are we good at (our expertise)?

• Who made the assessment: competence, quality of assessment (e.g. HC in Iran)

• Do we agree with the assessment: can we know better (own assessment), do we see other priorities?

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Who?

• Who requested: Government, aid community, our own strategy (e.g. we want to do schools), public

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Why?

• Why has it happened?

• Why is it requested?• Reconstruction, because it was destroyed by

the disaster?

• Development, because there is a lot of international aid money?

• What shall we do if it’s the second, and it’s a good way to use the funds?

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Where?

• Where are people now?• Where do they want to be in the future?

Why?

• Where are we supposed to build? According to whom? Any particular challenges (e.g. isolated / insecure areas)?

• Who is concerned? Stakeholder analysis (SHA is part of the stakeholders).

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When?

• How urgent is it really?• How important is the competition factor (we

want to be the first ones to show results)?

• Political advantage in being fast?

• Social/economic/psychological advantages in being fast?

• External factors to define deadline (monsoon, winter, harvesting period-missing workers)?

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What: Resources

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Goal-based approach

• What do I want to do,

and

• What do I need to achieve it?

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Goal-based approach

Advantages:• May respond to usual expectations (e.g.

technique used)• No ‘loss of time’ for lobbying or technical

development

Disadvantages:• May be inappropriate for the area (climate,

material, know-how)• Sustainability not ensured (repairability with local

means)

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Resource-based approach

• What do I have,

and

• What can I make out of it?

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Resource-based approach

Advantages:• Responds to local potentials.• Quicker because of local availability (?)• Sustainable in the long run (repairable)

Disadvantages:• May not respond to national expectations (legal,

norms, policy, taste, etc.)• May need technical development and lobbying,

thus take time (e.g. traditional construction methods)

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How? (Hardware)

What kind of resources do we dispose of:

• Hardware:– Construction material– Transport facilities– People (workers, contractors, engineers,

architects)– Money

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Hardware: Construction material

• Locally available: what is available where we want to build (e.g. sand, stone, water, cement blocks)

• Regionally available: what can be brought in at reasonable cost (e.g. cement, bricks, steel bars

• Nationally available: what has to be brought from far (e.g. steel profiles as in Iran)

• Consequence on sustainability: how can bldgs be maintained in the long term?

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Hardware: Transport

• How is the accessibility to the site?• What kind of transport is available and can

reach the site (e.g. big trucks, small trucks, pick-ups, donkeys, people)?

• How does that influence on the type of building materials to be transported (e.g. length, weight)?

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Hardware: People

• Engineers: – Are there qualified engineers in the area? – How to find and choose them (e.g. bidding

process?) and who chooses?

• Architects: – Are qualified architects in the area?– Their usual role in construction (decorators,

planners)?– How to find and choose them?

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Hardware: People

• Contractors: – Qualified ones in the area? – If not, political consequences of taking an outsider?– Agree to hire local workers? – Number and qualification of foremen?– Equipment for the requested construction method?

• Workers: – Locally available and enough? – Avaiability for the whole project duration?– Possible consequences of ‘importing’ workers?

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Hardware: Money

• How much funding available? • How much can we do with it?• Effectiveness: better one big thing or

several smaller things?• For how long (planning for subsequent

years)?• How will int’l fund transfer work (banking

regulations)?• How will people be paid (cash, bank

transfer)?

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How? (Software)

• Software:– Know-how: workers, contractors, engineers,

architects– Legal context: codes, procedures– Culture: public expectations– Politics: political priorities– Programme: our own priorities – Time

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Example:Qualification of engineers:

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Group work on soft resources (software)

• Add more questions

• or add some answers

• Or say where you don’t agree

(15 minutes)

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Software: Know-how

• Engineers and Architects: – What kind of construction methods are they

familiar with? – How qualified are they in disaster resistant

bldg methods (e.g. earthquakes)? – Who assesses their know-how and chooses? – Are they willing to work with int’l experts (i.e.

have their projects reviewed or changed)?– Shall we use our own engineers/architects in

collaboration with locals (question of license)?

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Software: Know-how

• Contractors and workers:– What kind of construction methods are they

used to and equipped for?– Are they willing to have on-site trainings if

necessary?– Financial consequences and delays due to

training and tight supervision?– Are we willing to include/provide on-site

training (sustainability, go beyond mere construction, use construction for training)?

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Software: know-how

• Our own organisation:– What know-how do we have?– What has to be brought in?– Brought in from where (local or int’l)?

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Software: Legal context

• What are the procedures for a building permit?

• Who decides what?

• What kind of permissions are requested?

• What are the relevant construction codes?

• Who makes the codes and how can they be adapted, if necessary?

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Software: Local culture

• What are the expectations/image of decision makers (i.e. what does a school have to look like)?

• What are the expectations of the public: image, use (e.g. boys/girls, evening use, etc), distance, safety, etc?

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Software: Political priorities

• Do we know anything about the political power balance (e.g. who decides what)?

• Are decisions on where reconstruction should start politically influenced (i.e. favours)?

• If yes, is that a problem for us?

• If it is, how can we deal with it?

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Software: Our own programme

• What are our own priorities (public bldgs, housing, access roads and bridges, etc.)?

• Who set them (local assessment, HQ?)?

• Are they appropriate to the context?

• If not, can they be changed?

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Software: Time factor

• How much time do we have to realise something?

• Is this timeframe in tune with the project?• How urgent is construction really?• Would more time allow to understand the

local context better?• To whom do delays cause difficulties:

beneficiaries, on-site SDC, SDC HQ (political pressure)?

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