Clearing away the rubble: moving beyond blockages to reconstruction progress

The following report aims to unpack some of the main issues that are contributing to this plateau in progress. It presents the collective analysis of the Housing Recovery and Reconstruction Platform (HRRP) and the Inter-Agency Common Feedback Project (CFP) of the key factors that are preventing progress in the reconstruction programme. Based on the analysis of a wide range of data sources, including community perception surveys of a total of 10,500 respondents, information and communications needs assessment of a total of 4000 respondents and Housing Recovery and Reconstruction Platform (HRRP) 4W, Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD) and Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) data and NRA 5W data, this report presents evidence of issues, as well as recommendations, around three thematic areas: 

• Misinformation: access to correct, up to date, and timely information is an essential component of the owner driven housing programme to complement the GoN’s financial assistance to households.
• Inclusion: meaningful engagement of vulnerable, women, marginalised and poor in the reconstruction process.
• Physical inputs: including labour, materials and finance.

Based on experience from previous post-earthquake reconstruction efforts, it is expected that there will be a steep increase in the rate of construction during the building seasons in year 3 (September/October 2017 – April/May 2018) and year 4 (September/October 2018 – April/May 2019).

Understanding what encourages or enables households to rebuild compliant homes, and conversely what the barriers are to compliant reconstruction, is critical to ensuring that reconstruction support is targeted towards overcoming the barriers and expanding the drivers. With so many households yet to start construction, and preparing to invest such large amounts of savings and loans in the construction, it is important to make every effort to support these households to build compliant houses.