Case study 4.: Sharing knowledge and information through the Haiti Shelter Cluster
Images of Haiti’s 2010 earthquake have brought to the attention of the entire world the vulnerability of
the built environment, especially in urban areas. The huge tasks ahead include provision of adequate,
affordable and safer building practices, regulated land use, improved technologies and material
production, regeneration of entire neighbourhoods with both a short and a long term vision. Communities
need to be informed and take part in the choices that involve them, and access timely the required
information to make these choices.
The Shelter Cluster, regrouping over one hundred agencies, has jointly started to produce and disseminate
information through:
- Widely accessible website and Google-group where all information on reconstruction and updates are
posted
- Poster and leaflet campaigns, based on the drawings from Fred Cuny on housing typologies in Haiti and
hurricane/earthquake resistant features in the Caribbean
- A DVD with technical guidance for assisted self-help shelter construction used in the Caribbean,
adapted and translated into French/Creole to suit Haiti.
- An outreach strategy which uses SMSs, radio and TV broadcasting, and other communication tools to
spread information on safe construction.
Source: IFRC
Poster jointly produced by several agencies, showing safe
reconstruction in Haiti.
Acknowledgements
The Toolkit on PCR has been developed through
institutional collaboration between Practical Action
and the International Federation of Red Cross
and Red Crescent Societies. The collaborators
are particularly thankful to Otto Ruskulis, who
produced an early draft of this tool, and to Sophie
Ault, Vasant Pullenayegem and Aziza Usoof for their
contributions and comments.
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