NEW !
OCHA LSU is hosting the Shelter Meeting 08a at the Palais des Nations on 15 & 16 May 2008. You can find more information on the Shelter Meeting (agenda, venue, registration) here.
At this meeting, OCHA LSU, in cooperation with Shelter Centre, will launch their latest publication "Transitional Settlement and Reconstruction After Natural Disasters", which is the field test version of the revised 1982 UNDRO publication "Shelter After Disaster". Please see below for more information on this project.
In conjunction with this event, OCHA LSU is launching a format survey of the publication "Transitional Settlement and Reconstruction After Natural Disasters". Please take our survey to help us better the design the final version of the publication (scheduled 2009). Your contribution is important!
Over the past years, OCHA was often approached for copies of the old UNDRO publication "Shelter After Disaster - Guidelines for Assistance" (Geneva, 1982), which had been out of print for the last several years. This publication, a key document on the immediate shelter needs of survivors following disasters, was prepared by the Office of the United Nations Disaster Relief Co-ordinator (UNDRO, now OCHA), together with a group of renowned international experts. It differs from other manuals by encompassing the entire disaster spectrum, such as disaster preparedness, disaster relief, post-disaster reconstruction and prevention. Some of the findings of this study are relevant to non-natural disasters (for example, refugee situations) and to slow-onset disasters (such as droughts), but its main concern is with rapid-onset disasters (such as earthquakes, floods, and cyclones). Lessons from it are still relevant, but, despite their simplicity, many of them remained to be implemented.
Free on-line copies of the original versions in English and Spanish (“El Alojamiento Despues de los Desastres”) are available.
In a second phase, this book is being reviewed and updated, in cooperation with a number of interested governments and international experts. In May 2006, the revision process started with the publication of a scoping study, commissioned by UN/OCHA and coordinated by Shelter Centre. The aim of this document is to explore key changes and developments in post-disaster settlement, shelter and housing between 1982 and 2006, in order to inform the actual revision of "Shelter after Disaster" (due to be finalized in 2008).
Click here to download a copy of the Scoping Study - Shelter after Disaster