Mr. Gyewali appreciated the forum’s capacity to know about activities of ASF in networking and extending of learnings by various institutions working in shelter and related components. In the 2015 earthquake, 8790 people died, almost 22,300 were injured, there was damage to 800,000 houses, 10,000 schools, 1,200 health facilities, 415 govt buildings, 300 local governments, 1500 water supply schemes, and 2200 heritage monuments and monasteries. The Post Disaster Needs Assessment estimated an economic loss of 7.1 billion USD.

Five and a half years after the earthquake, the progress has been remarkable. Nepal has received huge support, locally and internationally. NRA has completed 80% of the private housing reconstruction. There were many challenges in the reconstruction process as the NRA was moving forward for instance the country itself was transitioning from unitary to federal political system, constitution drafting process, general election including difficult geographical terrain of the country, lack of human and financial resources among others. Nepal has gained extensive lessons, especially in shelter. Some of the major lessons are as follows:

• Owner-driven reconstruction and community settlement approach are key approaches
• Special purpose vehicle like the NRA is needed for guiding, leading, coordination, and ensuring the reconstruction process
• Post Disaster Needs Assessment and Post Disaster Recovery Framework (PDNA and PDRF): the overall frameworks are vital for resource allocation and timely completion of recovery tasks
• Tranche-based financial assistance, blended with STA and monitoring are the main building blocks of the success of the reconstruction program
• Engaging local governments not only helps in faster recovery, but ensures sustainability and institutional memory of the learnings
• Urban housing recovery is more complex and more time consuming than rural housing recovery
• Opportunity of socio-economic recovery embedded in housing recovery program
• On site development training is a huge opportunity for employment of the local population. 100,000 skilled masons were trained and almost 166,000,000 NPR was gained
• Resettlement of vulnerable households shall be considered with multiple optional; 299 vulnerable settlements have been relocated
• Land is an integral component of housing reconstruction
• Technological considerations and Build Back Better are key to successful housing recovery

There are many more lessons that need to be shared. For this, the documentation process is ongoing, through various routes. The NRA timeline is till the end of 2021, after which it will be handed over to concerned government agencies. The Parliament has provided the legal framework for establishing the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Authority (NDRRMA). The NRA has already started collaborating with the NDRRMA so that the NRA’s learnings and remaining tasks can be handed over to NDRRMA smoothly. He concluded his closing remarks by stating that intensive discussion will be required on multihazard Shelter Response, Localization, Urban, Retrofitting and Area Based/ Settlement Approach in the next ASF 2021.

The Asia Shelter Forum reflects the importance of government leadership to bring CBOs and I/NGOs together to share, reflect and identify the most appropriate housing solutions, especially for the most vulnerable in our societies. CRS reaffirms its commitment to governments and civil society organizations across Asia to support your goals for safe & dignified homes for vulnerable households in the countries. This partnership has already moved forward in Nepal, Bangladesh, Philippines, and Indonesia, and this needs to replicate in other countries like India, Vietnam and Myanmar, where there are high shelter needs as well. Last year CRS identified Homes and Communities all other aspects of shelter beyond brick and mortar, to make a house a home and a settlement a community. Homes and Communities is a priority global program area, through which we intend to help at least 10 million to safeguard safe homes and communities by 2030. This is a long-term process requiring coordination between many stakeholders and led by the governments. Mr. D’Silva added work is just beginning on how to use the unique platform of ASF for dialogue between governments, organizations, and civil society, and continue dialogue. He encouraged participation in one or more of the working groups, so that the
key points can be taken to next year and beyond.

MESSAGE FROM THE GOVERNMENT OF BANGLADESH
Department of Director General

Mr. Md. Atiqul Haque applauded the forum’s capacity to share experiences and learning on the expansion of urban housing and settlement, and also stressed the need for multilateral dialogue on urban housing and shelter. He gave an overview of Bangladesh’s vulnerability to the natural disaster including floods, cyclones, riverbank erosion, typhoons. These are the major cause of distress, displacement, and vulnerability of a large number of people in both urban and rural dwellings. Forums and platforms like ASF need to be strengthened from country to country, cluster to cluster and from community to community. Accountable assistance for disaster affected populations is possible through effective partnership and more collaboration, accountable assistance can be provided to people suffering from disaster. Immediate recovery relies on humanitarian assistance. Role of humanitarian organization becomes paramount in crisis situations. In partnership with the government, humanitarian actors can reach the most vulnerable population like people with disabilities, pregnant and lactating mothers, female-headed households, senior citizens, marginalized castes, and, disaster and conflict affected populations. Issues of vulnerable people and underprivileged communities, disaster-affected people, and conflict-affected people need to be addressed accordingly and discussed in different forums. Humanitarian actors need to contribute in formulating humanitarian assistance policy. ASF is a milestone to enhance knowledge of shelter practitioners through sharing of capacity building initiatives on disaster preparedness and response. He is assured ASF will continue to build stronger shelter communities of shelter practitioners of Asia Region to contribute to the global shelter forum. He expressed People’s Republic of Bangladesh’s interest in organizing the future Asia Shelter Forum.

MESSAGE FROM THE REPUBLIC OF PHILIPPINES
Officer Incharge, Under Secretary

Mr. Renato U. Solidum, Jr. stated that Asia is prone to natural hazards and global warming. Every year disastrous events are reported in many zones of the Asia-Pacific region. Many people lose their lives, get injured, and are displaced. Physical and social infrastructure of the nation gets disrupted and also severely affects public service. He suggested three action points to make a resilient community, and also to reduce the heavy losses from the disaster; reduce the potential risk of hazards or global warming, needs to have an effective and efficient response, which requires preparedness, and doing many simulation exercises, and appropriate and prompt response to the disaster. There can be lingering horizontal impact and risk, though the possible damages and loss from hazards are minimized from better preparedness and response. Hence, they need prompt response and immediate recovery from the disaster. Lessons from the past disaster should be mainstreamed into the recovery program. Every individual needs to know how to survive before, during, and aftermath of disaster. There should be easy and prompt access to basic access services such as health, schools and most importantly shelter aftermath of disaster. Inter community support should be guided by national policies. Contribution of every sector helps in achieving resilient communities. In particular for shelter, he further suggested to consider the followings three points:

1. make sure settlement is in the safe location
2. follow the safe construction standard, and use quality construction
   materials
3. community must be aware of what to do before, during, and aftermath
   of the disaster

MESSAGE FROM INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF RED CROSS
Head of Office, IFRC Indonesia

Mr. Jan Gelfand stated Shelter as the process beyond the product. It is more than a technical endeavor. Shelter intervention needs standard,
law, policy, finance and skilled human resources. Recent COVID-19
pandemic further sensitized the importance of shelter to deal with
stresses and shocks due to multitude disasters. Shelter and settlement
give a sense of belonging, safety and security, in our sense of belonging.
This is important to build and nurture relationships with the fundamental
building blocks of community. He highlighted the role of government
and political will for sustainability of shelter intervention because shelter
requires law, policy, guidelines, budget and skilled human resources. Sustainable shelter intervention should be guided with an anticipatory method to reduce vulnerability, use of cash grants and most significantly community engagement for accountability.

He thanked all the organizations for engaging in creative dialogue in shelter. He encouraged participants to push limits and think globally. Learning from each other is vital to promote innovation and creative thinking. Coordination events like ASF need to take place in the field to measure success and get realistic feedback. He acknowledged that shelter is fundamental to any agenda of localization, and also expressed IFRC commitment to continuously support and coordinate in shelter before, during, and aftermath of disaster.

MESSAGE FROM REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA
Ministry of Social Affairs

Mr. Muhamad Safii Nasuton, delivered a message to the Government of Nepal for recognizing role of the local government as a first responder to disaster. The local government has diverse experience in shelter response. Therefore, it is critical to facilitate collaboration between local governments with other shelter actors across the Asia region to strengthen shelter capacity. Threats imposed due to COVID-19 pandemic have restricted the mobility of human beings. This has amplified the need of shelter and also provided more opportunities to explore and examine to create breakthroughs on shelter response. In times of disasters, there is substantial demand for shelter. So, it requires collaboration among humanitarian organizations. Coordination is key to ensure that affected families receive humanitarian assistance. He highlighted that Ministry of Social Affairs is standby as the coordinator of shelter sub-cluster to orchestrate a smooth transition for better life of the affected
population. He mentioned that shelter sub-cluster have supported humanitarian actors in assisting over one million disaster affected populations in Indonesia.

Shelter sub-cluster is currently supporting coordination for COVID-19 situation to commence interagency collaboration that is strengthening the capacity of cluster members over 30,000 volunteers of the Ministry of Social Affairs across Indonesia. They have also facilitated the development of policy, guidelines and tools at national and local level for shelter assistance. This policy and guidelines include humanitarian shelter guideline, guideline on construction during COVID-19 situation, standard for temporary shelter etc. He handed over ASF certificate to the joint panel of National Reconstruction Authority and Government of Nepal – Ministry of Urban Development on behalf of Republic of Indonesia.