USAID/OFDA Shelter And Settlements Training Course – Module 1

Module 1: Approach To S&S Activities

Humanitarian Shelter and Settlements (S&S) assistance provides living spaces and related settlements interventions to meet the most basic needs of disaster-affected populations while conforming to internationally accepted guidelines on the provision of habitable, safe, private and secure living environments such as the Sphere Project and Pinheiro Principles, among others. S&S interventions should emphasize community approaches, and reliance on local materials and labor to enhance prospects for sustainability and impact. S&S interventions are cross-cutting, integrating other sectors such as livelihoods, WASH, and DRR, and should aim to facilitate transitional recovery processes. This module discusses both shelter and its setting (settlements) and why shelter should be viewed as more than just four walls and a roof.
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This course introduces the basics of humanitarian community shelter and settlements (S&S) activities, including some history and trends related to the sector, best practices in assessments and programming strategy, basic shelter responses, the relationship between shelter and its context (settlements), and how to promote the recovery of affected settlements. This training course is based on many years of USAID/OFDA and humanitarian organization experience in S&S activities, so discussions and case studies are based on real-life situations. Discussions are non-technical and geared towards how to develop strategies and options to appropriately deliver humanitarian shelter and settlements assistance. Additionally, the course provides an opportunity for participants to understand the relationship of S&S activities, disaster risk reduction, sectoral activities, and larger trends such as urbanization. This version of the course incorporates participant feedback from over 15 USAID/OFDA S&S training courses conducted in the US, Canada, Costa Rica, Taiwan, and Thailand.

This course is divided into five modules. Each module will take between 45 minutes to an hour to complete.

Module 1: Approach to S&S Activities
Module 2: Description of Humanitarian S&S Activities
Module 3: Shelter
Module 4: Settlements
Module 5: Disaster Risk Reduction & Re-conceiving the Road to Recovery

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You can also download all five interactive sessions at the above website for offline use. Please contact shelter@interaction.org with questions and comments.