Building Resilience
Proactive slum retrofitting. Urban slum communities will become more resilient when strengthening their existing houses becomes the norm.
Build Change is working on a systems change approach for mitigating climate and earthquake-related effects on urban slum homeowners. It works with the public and private sector to address all barriers to adoption: Money, Technology, People. The right building technology must be widely available and culturally accepted; people must demand better construction practices; and sufficient money must be available and used as an incentive for safe construction.

EXPLAIN YOUR IDEA
The substandard quality of houses which is prevalent in urban slums makes its residents vulnerable to climate-induced natural disasters. Build Change is working on a systems change approach for mitigating climate and earthquake-related effects on urban slum homeowners, working with the public and private sector to address all barriers to adoption: Money – Technology – People. We will first address people by working with urban slum communities to raise their awareness on the effects of climate-related disasters such as typhoons on the substandard houses which they live in, and the measures they can take to mitigate risks, thereby creating demand for housing retrofitting. We will then address technology by developing retrofit guidelines for low-rise houses, the most common housing type in urban slums, in consultation with urban slum dwellers. This will ensure the technologies proposed are culturally appropriate and cost competitive with existing but unsafe methods they may use to reinforce their houses. We will also pursue government approval of the retrofit guidelines to ensure there is a legal basis for housing retrofitting. Last, we will address money by exploring partnerships with government and private sector loan and subsidy programs, which can provide financing to homeowners to retrofit their houses. This project increases the safety of substandard houses, by creating demand and providing residents the tools to mitigate risks.WHO BENEFITS?
The project will be piloted in in Metro Manila, Philippines at high risk of typhoons, floods and earthquakes. The government has taken steps to formalize some urban slums by awarding land title; Build Change will target these areas. Residents will be actively involved in the project, increasing their awareness to the risks of climate-related disasters, and participating in the development and piloting of technical resources to structurally strengthen their houses.HOW DOES YOUR IDEA TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THE CONTEXT OF URBAN SLUMS AND CLIMATE CHANGE?
The development of pre-disaster retrofit guidelines, together with and for the benefit of the urban slum dwellers, will complement the urban upgrading programs implemented by several local government units in Metro Manila. We will work closely with the Department of Public Works to approve and adopt the guidelines. We also plan to work closely with different local government units, NGOs targeting urban slums, and architecture and engineering students for on-the-job training and research. Community-based, pre-disaster housing retrofitting will take into account other challenge design principles: • Plan for the ordinary, not just the extraordinary by enabling the urban slum dwellers to increase their resilience in the “new normal” of frequent typhoons, brought about by climate change. • Consider the system by working with and complementing the efforts of the different stakeholders – governments, NGOs, slum dwellers – all throughout the process. • Build in flexibility by designing for multiple hazards, including typhoons, earthquakes and flooding. • Maximize limited resources by designing for existing construction practices, so that local labor can be used and existing construction materials can be re-used. • Design for gender equality by actively involving both men and women in awareness raising, participatory design and community-based construction activities. • Design with, not for by ensuring the active involvement and participation of slum dwellers in the process, who are considered as key players in the whole project – from conceptualization to implementatiIN-COUNTRY EXPERIENCE
- Yes, for two or more years
EXPERTISE
- I’ve worked in a sector related to my idea for at least two years
GEOGRAPHIC FOCUS
- Yes
TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF
Build Change is an award-winning international social enterprise that prevents deaths, injuries and economic losses in earthquakes and typhoons. We have provided technical assistance for more than 47,000 safer homes, impacting 235,000 people, trained more than 24,000 people, and created 11,500 jobs.IS THIS A NEW OR RECENT IDEA FOR YOU OR YOUR ORGANIZATION? HOW DOES IT DIFFER FROM WHAT YOU ARE ALREADY DOING?
This idea follows Build Change’s Six Step Model for Safe Houses: 1-Learn First 2-Research and Design Safe Houses 3-Build Local Capacity 4-Stimulate Demand 5-Facilitate Access to Capital 6-Measure the Change We have successfully implemented post-disaster, homeowner-driven housing retrofitting programs at scale in urban slums after the 2010 Haiti earthquake and are currently implementing a pre-disaster retrofit project in urban slums in Colombia. In both projects, we developed a code-compliant retrofit evaluation, design and implementation procedure; identified homeowners, worked with them to design a retrofit that meets their needs; partnered with the government, private sector and NGOs and provide homeowners with subsidies; and trained engineers and builders to supervise construction. We have also done a post-disaster retrofit project of wood houses in Eastern Samar, Philippines in 2014, but this is the first time that we will do a pre-disaster retrofit project in Metro Manila.HOW IS YOUR IDEA DIFFERENT FROM OTHER SIMILAR INITIATIVES? WHAT ARE YOU DOING DIFFERENTLY? WHAT UNIQUE ADVANTAGES DO YOU HAVE?





WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR UNANSWERED QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR IDEA?
While government-administered home loans may be available for some residents, we would like to explore further financing options available to vulnerable communities from the private sector. We want to determine the best way to involve government engineers in the inspection and oversight to ensure the quality of construction. We also want to involve architecture and engineering students in order to develop a pool of trained professionals with skills in disaster-resistant design and construction. They can also serve as “ambassadors” for safe construction in the community, identifying strategies to generate demand and measuring drivers to foster a behavioral change in construction practice.WHY DO YOU THINK THE PROBLEM YOUR IDEA SOLVES FOR HASN'T BEEN SOLVED YET?
Retrofitting is fast and economical, and it provides a way to address existing sub-standard houses that may be salvageable but are unsafe for occupation in their current condition, however technical information on how to retrofit residential houses is not widely available or accessible. In soliciting feedback from the target community – urban slum dwellers – the retrofit guidelines developed will be appropriate to the local context and made accessible to those who will use them. Furthermore, we will seek government approval of the guidelines, which will establish a legal basis for residential housing retrofitting.HOW HAS YOUR IDEA CHANGED BASED ON FEEDBACK FROM YOUR COMMUNITY?


13 comments
Join the conversation:
CommentEkanath
Kate null