Work in Progress: Shelter self-recovery

The majority of people affected by conflict and disaster ‘self-recover’: they rebuild using their own resources with little or no support from outside agencies. In the context of ever-increasing need for humanitarian assistance and grave constraints on humanitarian funding, there is an imperative to understand how communities self-recover and how best to improve support for that process.

At the first of this semester’s Work in Progress seminars, Bill Flinn (CARE International UK) will be introducing the ‘Self-Recovery from Humanitarian Crisis’ project, a research collaboration between CENDEP and CARE, with other humanitarian partners. Funded by a Global Challenges Research Fund Translations Award grant, this project aims to understand the priorities and agency of individuals, families and communities who are rebuilding their lives after natural disaster and conflict. The project will co-develop best-practice guidance for the support of that self-recovery process and investigate the wider impact of shelter humanitarian interventions, using longitudinal and action research fieldwork in Indonesia, Venezuela and Malawi. The guiding principles of the project’s research are that:

• ·       Self –recovery is an inevitable process. So we need to understand how best to support this process.
• ·      The agency of families and communities is of paramount importance. They have a right to choose and their priorities will vary from family to family and also over time.
  

Bill will elaborate on what his previous work with CARE in the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 taught him about the lived experience of people after disaster and how they prioritise their recovery pathways.

Charles Parrack (CENDEP) will discuss the importance of partnerships between academic institutions and humanitarian practitioners. Sue Webb (recent DEP student working as research assistant) will outline initial findings on the connections between shelter and health. The seminar will consist of a short presentation followed by open discussion of the themes introduced.
The seminar is at 16.30-18.00 on Thursday 6 February in room JHB303 in the John Henry Brookes building, Headington Campus. (The full list of seminars for this semester is here.)