Australian (ACFID) Shelter Reference Group’s Annual Shelter Forum 2013

The first ACFID SRG Shelter Forum was hosted by Habitat for Humanity Australia on Friday 21st June 2013.  A pdf report summarizing the forum is available here while the agenda and audio recordings of each of the sessions are below.

Keynote presentation
  • Graham Saunders, IFRC: Current trends in shelter programming
Case studies
  • Dr Esther Charlesworth and Dr Ifte Ahmed, RMIT University: Scoping study – shelter and disaster risk reduction in the Asia-Pacific Region
  • James Schell, HFHA and Dr Ifte Ahmed, RMIT University: Building resilience of urban slum settlements – a multi-sectoral approach to capacity building in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
  • Brett Moore, WorldVision: Culture, conflict and climate change: housing, land and property issues in stateless Somalia.
  • Rod Johnston, Partner Housing Australia: Resilience of shelter – minimum structural design for cyclonic wind, earthquake and tsunami resistance.
  • Kirsten McDonald, Arup: Urban climate change resilience (UCCR)
Breakout sessions
  • Tessa Kelly, IFRC: Regulatory barriers to shelter – housing, land and property issues, land use planning and building code enforcement after a disaster.
  • Graham Saunders, IFRC: What are the components that make up a resilient built environment?
  • Dr Ifte Ahmed, RMIT University: Community engagement driven processes to improve conditions in urban slums.
1. Welcome
2. Opening Remarks
3. Importance of Shelter
4.  Importance of Shelter (part 2)
5. Shelter and DRR
6. Regulatory Barriers
7. Community Engagement
8. Built Environment
9. Resilience of Shelter 
10. Resilience of Shelter (part 2)
11. Resilience of Shelter (part 3)
12. Conflict and Climate Change

PechaKucha 2009

On Thursday 5 February 2009 Arup and Oxfam hosted an evening of presentations and discussions focusing on the relationship between the built environment and development sectors.

  • What can individuals in the built environment offer the development and humanitarian sectors?
  • What can commercial organisations learn from NGOs, charities and volunteers?
  • How do these worlds relate?

Using the Pecha Kucha format of 20 slides each shown for 20 seconds, 12 speakers shared their designs, thoughts and experiences of shelter.  The event was attended by a mix of academics, humanitarian practitioners, policy makers and construction professionals and is thought to be the first of its kind in Europe.  Money raised by the Pecha Kucha evening was donated to the UK homeless charity shelter.

The 12 presentations are summarised here.