Building Back Housing in Post-Disaster Situations: Basic Engineering Principles for Development Professionals
Summary: A primer written for development professionals rather than engineers, setting out the basic engineering principles that govern post-disaster housing reconstruction.
Key Findings
- Donor or NGO built housing cost US$12,000 to US$20,000 per house including indirect costs.
- Owner-driven reconstruction with technical assistance cost US$3,000 to US$8,000, a difference of roughly four times.
- Written for development professionals rather than engineers, so it explains why the rules exist rather than only stating them.
Full Description
A primer written for development professionals rather than engineers, setting out the basic engineering principles that govern post-disaster housing reconstruction. Its most useful content is comparative cost: it puts a figure on what donor-built housing costs against owner-driven reconstruction with technical assistance, which is the choice reconstruction programs actually face.
How to cite
United States Agency for International Development (USAID), 2014, Building Back Housing in Post-Disaster Situations: Basic Engineering Principles for Development Professionals, accessed via HaitiDocs, https://www.haitidocs.org/doc/usaid-2014-building-back-housing-engineering-primer