Good Building Design and Construction

Yiping Zhou 

Director Special Unit for South-South Cooperation, UNDP 

Good Building Design and Construction: the Experience of the Philippines is the second in a series of publications dealing with the same topic. The first one was based from the experience in Aceh and Nias, Sumatra, Indonesia during the rehabilitation and reconstruction process from the destruction wrought by the tsunami of December 2004. Here, we focus on the experience of the Philippines in the course of rebuilding and recovering from the devastation caused by severe flooding and landslides in the past three years. As recent events have continued to confirm, disasters upset and negate hard-won development gains. Disaster risks are increasing and, as awareness grows, these risks have become a major cause for concern worldwide. The fact that disasters are often the results of multiple, interrelated causes, means that societies have difficulties in addressing this global issue. As a result, disasters can have enormous, far-reaching consequences, impacting the survival, livelihoods and dignity of communities, particularly the poor and the deprived, which are located mostly in developing countries. A wealth of experience and capacity in disaster-risk reduction exists all over the world and needs to be shared with others. The Philippines is one source of such knowledge and information. This publication is a practical guide to the design and construction of houses during the reconstruction phase in the aftermath of a disaster as well as during normal times.

The Special Unit for South-South Cooperation (SU/SSC) supports the sharing of knowledge, expertise and lessons learned concerning the enhancement of growth and development as well as the management of disasters that derail development efforts. In particular, we emphasize South-to-South exchanges and strategic partnerships to address the risk of vulnerability of poor and developing countries, which often are the most affected by disasters and the adverse effects of climate change. In 2005 at the United Nations High-level Committee on South-South Cooperation, delegates from the Asia and Pacific region requested SU/SSC to support developing countries that are vulnerable to disasters, especially the small island developing States. For this reason, SU/SSC has been working to support the implementation of the Hyogo Framework of Action through collaboration with the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) and with other organizations through the development and publication of knowledge products on disaster reduction and management.

We in the Special Unit are proud to have a role in this publication along with ISDR and the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ). The importance of safe shelter cannot be overemphasized. Hence, commitment to quality design and construction should be one of the prerequisites in reconstruction efforts. The children are the hope and future of the world and it is unthinkable for them to continue to live and learn in unsafe, poorly built houses and schools. The past tragedies hold lessons from which we can all learn and it is our hope that this publication will help us to build better, safer places in pre- as well as postdisaster environments. 

Sálvano Briceño 

Director United Nations Secretariat of the International 

Strategy for Disaster Reduction 

Climate change, environmental degradation, and unchecked urban growth, are increasing the severity and frequency of disasters. This is a growing threat to lives and livelihoods, and a serious challenge for socioeconomic development in many countries. Against the backdrop of these global trends, the secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR) seeks to strengthen the exchange of concrete experience and knowledge of community-based risk reduction. Practical, simple steps like this publication, which shares clear, useful examples on how to decrease disaster risk at the grassroots, are vital to strengthening the disaster resilience of not only houses, but entire communities and nations.

The Philippines is regularly exposed to climate-related hazards such as intensifying typhoons and floods, as well as seismic and volcanic events that have affected whole regions of the country. In 2006 the Philippines experienced a devastating typhoon season which damaged and destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes, and affected eight million people. However, the experiences of the Philippines, as a disaster-prone country, can serve not just as a warning of the damage that is done by vulnerability to hazards, but as a showcase of the opportunities for integrating disaster risk reduction into the recovery process. 

This handbook on ‘Good Building Design and Construction in the Philippines’ does exactly that, capturing the potential of increased resilience through good construction. The UN/ISDR secretariat is supporting the development and distribution of tools like this handbook, as a part of its mandate for coordinating the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action. In 2005, just after the Indian Ocean Tsunami, 168 governments adopted the Hyogo Framework for Action, in an acknowledgement of the need to build back better, to increase disaster resilience by mainstreaming disaster risk reduction into development, and to avoid the recreation of past mistakes. 

At the international level, UN/ISDR secretariat, in partnership with the UNDP, ILO, World Bank, and the governments of Italy, Japan and Switzerland, have established the International Recovery Platform, which provides guidance for building back better from disasters. At the community level, UN/ISDR secretariat is also actively engaged in supporting partners, particularly NGOs and local authorities, in reconstruction processes, to ensure the integration of risk reduction into the rebuilding of houses, schools, and health facilities. 

Complementing our work, this handbook explains basic but vital principles of design and construction that can withstand natural hazards, in clear, easy to understand language, and with photographic examples of good and bad practices. For communities that are building back from disaster, or committed to building resilience in these times of increasing disaster risk, this handbook should be the one of the first tools out of the box. To make this happen, the handbook, and tools like it, should be widely translated and made available to UN country offices, and national and local governments to learn from, in order to make disaster recovery efforts more effective and sustainable.

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