Distribution by Region

Distribution by Organisation Type, Document Type, Region and Year

Shelter occurs mostly in documents published in Europe, followed by North America, Asia, Africa and MENA with comparatively smaller contributions. Overall, the top five contributors in terms of occurrences are NGO, IGO, NGO_Fed, RC and C/B organisations.

NGO, IGO, NGO_Fed and RC documents provide the greatest number of occurrences, primarily from activity reports published in Europe.

C/B documents only generated occurrences in general documents published in Europe.

Shelter ...

• is a

  • physical object/structure

  • state of being protected from weather, hazards

  • service that provides housing, protection

  • material necessity, foundation of life

  • human right

  • issue, concern

  • sector

  • crisis response activity

  • form of aid, assistance

• is characterised by permanence

  • temporary

  • transitional

  • permanent

• has various qualities

  • adequate

  • makeshift

  • sustainable

  • secure

  • affordable

• has locations

  • urban

• is offered in response to events

  • emergency

  • cyclone

  • disaster

• is provided by groups

  • humanitarians

  • Global Shelter Cluster

• is offered according to inhabitant

  • family

  • women

  • homeless

  • refugee

• is supplied via materials to be used on site

  • metal roofing, thatch, plastic sheets

• is offered in kits

  • tents, tarpaulins

  • assorted construction and repair materials

• is offered along with

  • tools, equipment

  • household items

    • mattresses, blankets, mosquito nets

• includes permanent structures

  • individual housing units

  • large buildings

  • underground structures

• can refer to a designated building

  • school, church

• is supported via microfinance

• has challenges for living conditions

  • overcrowding

  • hygiene, outbreaks medical support

  • privacy

  • safety, vulnerability, protection

• is often unavailable due to

  • supply & delivery issues

  • exclusionary practices

  • premature closing

• has construction challenges

  • inadequate results

  • structural maintenance

  • distance from community

  • differing cultural needs

• has socioeconomic challenges

  • cost of materials for vulnerable groups

  • investing sufficient financial resources

  • social role of state

• has legal challenges

  • documentation, tenure

  • land & property rights

• has organisational challenges

  • inappropriate interventions

  • lack of a transition to permanent solutions

  • top-down approach

  • lack of participation

• requires response frameworks

  • neighbourhood approach

  • mixing methodologies

  • integration with dispute resolution, gender issues

• requires planned transitions to permanent solutions

• requires improvements to conditions

  • hygiene kits, upgrading facilities

  • better accessibility (e.g., ramps)

• requires beneficiary participation

  • especially from women, disabled people

This resource assists the Red Cross in meeting the immediate needs– such as shelter, food and critical mental health counseling–of individuals and families affected by catastrophic disasters like the hurricanes of 2005 and other disasters like house fires, floods, tornadoes and winter storms.

There were 113 participants in total and a number of other clusters including Shelter, Protection and WASH participated.

Meanwhile, women and girls in Uganda formed community watch groups, identifying survivors of sexual and GBV, and referring women to shelters and other service providers.

• area, topic

  • healthcare

  • water

  • food

  • sanitation

  • education

  • emergency relief

• vital, immediate, basic, core, humanitarian need, necessity

  • food, nutrition

  • health care, critical mental health counseling

  • education

  • water

  • sanitation

  • protection

  • sanitation facilities

  • survival necessity

• item, supplies, material consideration

  • aid items

  • non-food item (NFI)

  • clothing, blanket, bedding, cleaning materials, cooking utensils, fuel

  • tools, hygiene kits

  • food, water

• right

  • basic human right

  • term included in the right to adequate housing

• sector

  • non-food

  • health

  • water/sanitation

  • food

  • medical assistance

  • legal counselling

  • protection

  • humanitarian sector likely affected by land issues

    • human rights protection

    • agricultural and rural livelihoods

• foundation, stage

  • for life, family, community

  • for economic reintegration

• crisis response activity

  • water

  • sanitation

  • health

• problem, concern

  • [the lack of which is a] form of severe deprivation

    • sanitation

    • information

    • water

    • food

    • health

    • education

  • recurrent hazard

    • recovery issues

• operational component

  • WASH

  • health

  • livelihood

  • institutional capacity building

• cluster

  • WASH

  • water and sanitation

  • education

  • nutrition

  • non-food items

  • emergency telecommunications

  • protection

• material, humanitarian aid

  • food

  • medical, health care

  • water (clean drinking, etc.)

  • sanitation

  • immediate support

  • protection

  • lifesaving relief

• humanitarian service, relief, vital assistance

  • food

  • medicine

  • protection

  • healthcare

  • clean water

  • sanitation

  • cash transfers

• asset

• physical component of protection

• service provider

• haven, safe space

• permanence / time frame

  • temporary shelter

  • transitional shelter

  • permanent shelter

  • new shelter

  • immediate shelter

  • post-disaster shelter

  • night shelter

• quality

  • adequate shelter

  • safe shelter

  • makeshift shelter

  • sustainable shelter

  • basic shelter

  • good shelter

  • appropriate shelter

  • durable shelter

  • secure shelter

  • decent shelter

  • proper shelter

  • affordable shelter

  • inadequate shelter

• location

  • urban shelter

• event

  • emergency shelter

  • cyclone shelter

  • disaster shelter

  • flood shelter

  • evacuation shelter

• provider / service

  • humanitarian shelter

• inhabitant

  • family shelter

  • women's shelter

  • homeless shelter

  • refugee shelter

  • household shelter

  • IDP shelter

  • youth shelter

  • community shelter

  • collective shelter

  • communal shelter

• structure type

  • tent shelter

• shelter material

• shelter kit

• shelter solution

• shelter assistance

• shelter construction

• shelter microfinance

• shelter support

• shelter programme

• shelter home

• shelter response

A few weeks later, our ECHO-funded shelter program distributed medium-term shelter materials such as corrugated iron sheeting, and provided tools, training and shelter safety messages through additional partnerships with Child Health and Environment Save Society (CHESS) Nepal and BBC Media Action.

GOAL, in partnership with the UK Department for International Development (DfID), distributed emergency shelter kits composed of corrugated galvanized iron (CGI) sheets, flat sheet, various nails, sealant and tie wire and an unconditional cash transfer of Php16,000 (€306) in two tranches to 1,500 households.

In particular, shelter microfinance and community finance mechanisms have grown considerably during recent decades. This chapter discusses the use of microfinance approaches to shelter lending. The loans are almost universally to individuals, generally those with some security of tenure, for investment (construction, improvement and extension) in housing rather than land and infrastructure. ■ The growth of microfinance for shelter The growth of microfinance agencies since their inception during the 1980s has been considerable and there are now many such organizations. To exemplify the situation in one country, in India the number of such grassroots-level organizations engaged in mobilizing savings and providing micro-loan services to the poor is estimated to be in the range of 400 to 500 organizations. Evaluations of microfinance organizations have demonstrated that, whatever the loans were taken for, a proportion as large as 25 per cent could be diverted for shelter investments. Findings such as these have encouraged the exploration of microfinance lending specifically for shelter.

The Global Shelter Cluster (GSC) is co-led by UNHCR during conflict-related emergencies and by the IFRC during natural disasters. In 2017, UNHCR led 12 and co-led one of the 28 activated country-level shelter clusters. UNHCR supported the coordination of 417 partners providing shelter and NFI support to more than 8 million people. To facilitate sector coordination within countries and on a global scale, UNHCR hosted the annual GSC coordination workshop–bringing together 122 participants from 38 different organizations–and a GSC meeting, providing a forum for shelter cluster coordination teams and GSC partners to share best practices and develop tools and methodologies.

In Haiti, 59 organisations were listed on the UN's shelter cluster website, though this number probably does not include all those involved in the sector. Despite the considerable involvement of small and local organisations in on-the-ground implementation of post-disaster response and reconstruction, most organisations listed on the shelter cluster site are large and based in the global North. To understand how organisations responding to the 2010 earthquake acted on the Sphere standards, the authors interviewed representatives of 14 organisations presenting a cross-section of those working on post-disaster shelter issues in Port-au-Prince.

Where clusters have been implemented, national authorities have recognized their value in bringing more structure, accountability and professionalism to response and in providing a focal point for the authorities on humanitarian programming. 29. For example, the emergency shelter clusters that operated in Indonesia, Lebanon, Pakistan and Somalia improved coordination with and support to national efforts by providing a single interface for national Governments on shelter response.

This article questions whether the humanitarian cluster system’s mechanisms for strategic thinking really allow plans to be adapted as situations change, with a particular focus on the Shelter Cluster during the Haiti earthquake response Using strategy documents, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)’s Financial Tracking Service and minutes of the Strategic Advisory Group (SAG) of the Haiti Shelter Cluster (the coordination structure for shelter agen- cies), we ask whether different decisions could have been made in early 2010.

The chart below represents the distribution of shelter between 2005 and 2019 in terms of the number of occurrences and relative frequency of occurrences. It also allows you to view the distribution across Regions, Organisations and Document types.

• living conditions

  • overcrowding

  • hygiene, outbreaks medical support

  • privacy

  • safety, vulnerability, protection

  • gender-based violence

  • comfort

  • lack of dignity

  • lack of facilities

  • accessibility issues

  • within settlements

  • exterior crowd control

• availability

  • failure to provide to refugees

  • lack of shelters

  • delayed shipping, construction

  • exclusion of land vulnerable groups

  • exclusion of disabled people

  • premature closing, unmet needs

• construction

  • inadequate & uninhabitable results (i.e., when rushed)

  • structural maintenance

  • distance from community

  • integration with urban planning

  • cultural factors that introduce design flaws

  • possible need for relocation

• socioeconomic concerns

  • cost of materials for vulnerable groups

  • investing sufficient financial resources

  • challenges of shelter microfinance, loan security

  • importance of savings & investment in shelter development

  • reducing costs

  • economic model & existence of poverty

  • social role of state

  • underlying corruption

• legal concerns

  • lack of legal documentation

  • requirement to prove tenure

  • land ownership & interaction with beneficiaries

  • integration of housing, land & property rights into shelter programs

• organisational concerns

  • inappropriate interventions

  • lack of a transition to permanent solutions

  • role of agencies in temporary vs. permanent response

  • missed opportunities

  • top-down approach

  • lack of participation

  • supply chain

  • foreign manufacturing

  • importation

  • data collection & utilization

  • improving standards, organizational power dynamics

  • inadequacy as part of other key humanitarian challenges

The hygiene conditions in the temporary shelters were deplorable, access to safe drinking water, sanitary facilities and food was inadequate at best.

While living in temporary shelters, women are more vulnerable to sexual violence and lack basic privacy.

The traditional model of building transitional shelters solely for those with access to land must adapt to meet the needs of the 'land vulnerable'.

Emergency shelters often exclude persons with disabilities.

Its major role is in reducing lender risk and it is widely recognized that a key challenge for shelter microfinance is that of loan security.

But the move from supplying tents to the construction of transitional shelters is much longer and more complicated and all the more so for long-term construction. Coordination is currently focused on the supply of transitional shelters, which has been held up a great deal. This area has met with numerous difficulties in parallel to a major effort being made to use shelters of a high technical standard in terms of cyclone and earthquake resistance which are adaptable to different types of terrain... About a third of the planned 110 000 shelters have been built. The slow supply of materials held up at the border, the foreign prefabrication of parts for assembly, the production of rarely modular, uniform units and the training of staff to assemble the units has not produce the expected dynamism during the reconstruction, particularly as the installation of these shelters in urban contexts creates numerous land ownership problems. Furthermore, repetitive housing units which are placed side-by-side horizontally are not adapted to urban densification which rather should be based on vertically overlapping housing units.

• response frameworks

  • taking a neighbourhood approach rather than a sectoral one

  • using multiple methodologies and types of support

  • combination with dispute resolution

  • integration of gender issues

  • ensuring incremental progress

  • secure tenure in shelter strategies

  • having proper knowledge of legal systems/factors before operations

  • increasing preparedness

• fostering successful transitions to permanent solutions

  • transitional shelter as a foundation, first step

  • conversion of shelters into secondary assets

• improving conditions

  • distribution of hygiene kits

  • upgrading, improving facilities

  • adding ramps, accessibility features

• increasing beneficiary participation

  • of women, disabled people

  • in management, committees, and design

• increasing availability

• policy enforcement (for quality assurance)

• joint ownership for female empowerment

• developing an efficient housing finance system

• reducing payment costs

• increasing worker income

The review also highlighted the effectiveness of combining dispute resolution approaches with shelter programming, which ensures that our projects don't increase harm and that they provide more sustainable outcomes. Applying dispute resolution methodologies is also key to facilitating access to housing and land. Our DRC programme helped internally displaced people negotiate temporary access to land for agriculture and sustenance. In Jordan, ICLA teams facilitated agreements between refugees and landlords to pre-empt disputes that could lead to eviction.

USAID's Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance has promoted the idea of shelter and settlements, arguing that it is necessary to consider the wider spatial needs of 'settlement-based assistance' and a 'neighbourhood approach' to engaging with communities, as opposed to being driven by sectoral priorities such as shelter (USAID/ OFDA, 2013).

Participation of beneficiaries in shelter reconstruction enhances the appropriateness of housing. For example, involving women in house design can correct misconcep- tions about family life and thus prevent inappropriate interventions, such as the design of nuclear houses for extended families. Active participation can also help to improve local skills and industry, re-establish social networks and relationships, and promote psychological recovery. Disaster survivors almost always would prefer to be engaged in reconstruction than be made passive recipients of aid in refugee camps. The most provocative question raised by a number of authors commenting on the Indian Ocean Tsunami is why relief agencies should contemplate doing housing recon- struction at all.54 Why not meet the need for shelter through temporary provision and leave more permanent solutions to the developmental sector, private businesses or the govern- ment, once the immediate, acute disaster phase has passed? UN-Habitat’s Sustainable Relief and Reconstruction proposal recognizes that the transition from relief to reconstruction is not always clear on the ground.

Any response should be informed by the steps taken by the affected population to provide temporary or permanent shelter using their own capacities and resources. Shelter responses should enable affected populations to incrementally upgrade and/or make the transition from emergency to durable housing solutions. The repair of damaged public buildings or the provision of temporary structures to serve as schools, healthcare centres and other communal facilities may also be required. The sheltering of livelihood assets such as livestock may be an essential complement to the provision of household shelter for some affected populations. The response should be informed by existing shelter and settlement risks and vulnerabilities regarding location, planning, design and construction, including those made worse by the disaster or due to the impact of climate change. Consideration of the environmental impact of settlement solutions and shelter construction is also critical to minimising the long-term impact of a disaster. Better shelter, settlement and non-food items disaster response is achieved through better preparedness.

Shelter and settlement responses use a variety of methodologies. These include in-kind support of materials (for example, plastic sheeting, timber, nails, bamboo or bricks), products (such as tents or shelter kits), tools, labour assistance, cash, vouchers or market interventions, advocacy and sharing of technical guidance and infor- mation. The GSC advocates for responses which combine different methodologies in order to meet the different needs of affected populations. Rarely does one single methodology meet all needs [....]

Shelter support:

• Technical and cross-cutting guidance.

• Strengthening of technical capacity and capacity building.

• Cash and markets-based shelter responses.

• Emergency, temporary and transitional shelter.

• Housing repair, construction and reconstruction.

• Rental support.

• HLP support.

• Advocacy

She currently lives in a makeshift shelter, but plans to improve her housing with the additional income she will earn.

Both the refugee housing unit and the new self-standing family tent offer better shelter solutions and protection-related improvements.

International law specifically protects the right to adequate shelter The right to access adequate housing is protected by international law. It is the right to live somewhere in security, peace and dignity. This right contains freedoms such as the right to choose one’s residence and entitlements such as security of tenure. It enshrines protection principles such as protection from forced eviction. States are obliged to ensure this right when individuals or groups, including refugees and internally displaced persons, are unable to access adequate housing, including in crises ⊕ see Annex 1: Legal foundation to Sphere. The concept of “adequacy” means that housing is more than four walls and a roof. It underlines the importance of including a settlement lens, cultural identity and the availability of services in a shelter response. “Adequate” housing or other forms of shelter should provide security of tenure and be: • affordable, allowing the household to attain other essential goods and services to live in dignity; • habitable, providing physical safety, protected and adequate living space, access to safe drinking water, adequate water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities, and food preparation and storage; • culturally acceptable; • accessible and usable, including for persons facing mobility barriers; and • located to provide access to livelihoods opportunities and essential community services.

With other government departments, we welcomed 25,000 Syrians to Canada, reconnecting with our proud tradition as a country of refuge .

School must be a refuge in times of crisis, a place where children can reclaim some sense of normalcy and begin to heal.