QATAR SHELTER INITIATIVE

Overview and Background

Presentation Agenda

• Background and Overview

• Key overarching findings regarding the sector

• Training and Education key findings

• Research and Innovation key findings

• Knowledge Management findings

The Qatar Shelter Initiative is focused on uncovering and designing solutions that address the systemic challenges that reduce the effectiveness and efficiency of community-based sheltering solutions while building on the strengths of the disaster management sector.

The objective of Phase I is to uncover the assets and systematic issues in the shelter sector, as well as, the strengths within Qatar as a means of mapping out a pathway to reach our Vision.

PROJECT VISION

SCOPING STUDY FRAMEWORK

Knowledge Management

Training and

Education

Researchand

Innovation

Who, What, When?

History of Sector

The sector is not clearly defined; making it difficult to explain what the sector does, why it is important, what ‘best practice’ looks like.

“Sector is fragmented in many aspects”

“The fragmentation is damaging to the system”

Key Issue: Defining Shelter

• Concentration of actors on relief and recovery phases

• Few actors in pre-disaster preparedness or prevention

• Local actors are typically more engaged across all phases of the disaster management cycle

• A number of ‘developmental’ housing actors moving into the relief and recovery phases

Funding, mandate and capacity drive the engagement of actors in different phases of the disaster management cycle.

Key Issue: Stakeholder Engagement through the Disaster Management Cycle

7

Key Issue: Disaster Management Cycle Scope of the Sector

•Limited and inappropriate funding mechanisms contributes highly to lack of capacity

•Heavy reliance on individual consultants to fill capacity gaps

•Limited pool of shelter practitioners

•Lack of training/opportunities to gain experience prevent entry of potential future practitioners

Key Issue: Lack of Capacity

“Donors are in a very powerful position but often poorly staffed in terms of technical backgrounds. Major decisions which effect project implementation are often made my bureaucrats.”.

“In 2004, there were only three large international nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) that had a dedicated shelter technical person within their team. Today that number is around 10 to 12 agencies.”.

Lack of capacity is a critical issue within the sector

• Governments and Donors one-directional relationship and under-represented in existing coordination mechanisms.

• Limited interaction between global level actors and local implementation actors

• Supporters of the sector (i.e. universities, think tanks, Network Orgs, Training Orgs) could provide a much stronger role

“Communication between donors and NGOs is not happening, this is a fundamental problem”.

Key Issue: The Sector is ‘Fragmented’

Relationships between actors in the shelter sector are often weak, leading to a feeling that the sector is ‘fragmented’

“There is a disconnect between what’s happening in Geneva and what’s happening on ground”

• Long chains of relationships cloud lines of responsibility and accountability

• While the role of the cluster is defined its responsibilities are not

• Weak relationships with private sector

• Those directly affected by disasters have very little influence over decision making

“The sector are not talking to people who will live in the houses”

Key Issue: The Sector is ‘Fragmented’

“The shelter sector is not the 10-15 organizations that make up the shelter cluster. It is the 250 organisations that turned up the 1st cluster meeting in Haiti.”

Training and Education

There are no widely agreed occupational standards for the humanitarian sector

No Sector Skills council or professional association for humanitarian work

There are Organisational Quality and Accountability standards

www.jointstandards.org

Key Issue: No Existing Standards for the Humanitarian Sector

• Major lack of entry and mid level qualifications, particularly vocational and technical courses

• Lack of provision in field locations and in local languages

• Lack of entry schemes with major employers- internships and apprenticeships

• Lack of collaboration and investment in southern universities and local training/education providers

• Lack of an evidence base and impact measurement

Key Issue: Training and Education Gaps in Humanitarianism Generally

Common routes include: • already engaged in a disaster response • joining an aid agency during relief/recovery• transfer from private sector company• generalist humanitarian called upon to manage a shelter project• responding to an advertised post for a shelter person

Key Issue: Shelter Career Pathway

There are no current standards, skillsets or agreed competencies for shelter practitioners.

There is currently no prescribed route into shelter and settlements; it is arguably yet to be defined as a ‘career’.

• Urban approaches

• Starting with relief and recovery rather than development

• Critical review of current practice

• Accessible information

• Process over product

• Innovating: thinking ‘outside the walls’

• Focusing on settlements

• Using existing skills

Key Issue: Training and Education Gaps in Shelter

“innovations in post-disaster shelter and housing have been limited”. This finding stands in stark contrast to the huge number of product innovations presenting ‘solutions’ to the problem of emergency shelter over the same period” (OCHA, ALNAP)

“given the increasing scale and severity of humanitarian crises, the need for new approaches and innovations is greater than ever.” (DFID)

Research and Innovation

Do we really need much more research or is it more that we need to improve access to the research we already have?

“I heard that UN Habitat did a project that documented the vernacular housing of the delta, but they only give things to government. I have no idea how I could get access to that information but it would be really useful.”Myanmar shelter manager

Key Issue: Access to Existing Research

Sheltering innovation is required in processes – not products…

Even when products are developed, the process by which the development is made is critical to it being adopted…

“Need to take the black magic out of shelter decision-makin

g.”Indonesia shelter manager

What Innovation is Needed?

• How do you maximise long term impacts of a response?

• Which settlement strategies work under which circumstances? (non-camped solutions)

• How much does international funding contribute to shelter response and recovery?

• How do you provide assistance to families without land tenure?

• How do you approach risk in responses?

• Do cluster and donor systems help with integrated planning?

• How do you get the right people to the right place at the right time?

Strategic Questions

• How do you measure impacts of shelter projects?

• How do you manage an effective mass communications and training programme?

• How do you streamline project management and logistics processes?

• How can cash interventions take place more quickly?

• Develop simple testing regimes for key shelter items…

• Which rubble removal strategies are the most effective?

• What is the most effective way of implementing repair and upgrade programmes?

• How does shelter inter-relate with other sectors and cross cutting issues?

• Are beneficiaries satisfied with the shelters they are receiving?

Programmatic Questions

Knowledge Management

22

The Knowledge Lifecycle

23

• Limited funding

• Inappropriate funding mechanisms

• Government barriers

• Coordination

• Leadership

• Complexity of shelter

Key Issue: Challenges & Barriers To Knowledge Management

24

• Shelter sector has connections and impacts with other sectors

• However the links are one way and are weak

• However there is the unique potential to be an integrator

• The Sector provides a contextual understanding

• Other sectors are more mature in their approach to knowledge and can provide some useful benchmarks

“WASH cluster are at the point where they are discussing validation of information. Shelter cluster probably doesn’t have the partner engagement that would allow this to happen”.

Key Issue: Learning from Cross-Cutting Sectors

25

The overall conclusions are that to improve on the current practices of knowledge management within the sector there is a need to:

•capture and make available all knowledge (including lessons learnt) at the end of projects;

•find ways to retain knowledgeable people within the sector, and by default retain their critical tacit knowledge;

•enable these people to work on future projects or mentor / support people within the field.

To tackle some of the route cause issues, would require the donors taking a different perspective on how they fund projects, so as to better drive knowledge retention and sharing across the sector.

Knowledge Management Recommendations