WRITTEN REPORT:

TRANSITIONAL HUMAN SHELTER

Shelter in post-disaster contexts is an essential contributor to survival, security,

personal safety, protection from the climate, and resistance to ill health and disease. After
the immediate emergency response, governments and others responding to the disaster
face urgent decisions over ‘how to develop transitional shelter options that are responsive to
both the immediate risks and to the longer term reconstruction and recovery needs’.
Transitional shelter potentially needs to last years until a permanent solution can be
achieved. Much of the literature on approaches to transitional shelter in post-natural disaster
contexts in developing countries and lessons learned is gray literature published by
organizations working on shelter in such contexts, as well as a few academic articles and
independent evaluations. The literature reflects the variety of different approaches and
definitions, which complicate understandings of transitional shelter and lessons learned.

There are three main approaches to transitional shelter:

1. Shelter Centre, IOM: Transitional Shelter Guidelines.

The Transitional Shelter Guidelines define transitional shelter as ‘an incremental

process which supports the shelter of families affected by conflicts and disasters, as they
seek to maintain alternative options for their recovery’ rather than a multi-phased approach.
They stress that the 4 GSDRC Helpdesk Research Report 1387 process should only be
considered as part of an ongoing and comprehensive strategy for shelter, settlement and
reconstruction.
Transitional shelter can be:
a. upgraded into part of a permanent house
b. reused for another purpose
c. relocated from a temporary site to a permanent location
d. resold, to generate income to aid with recovery
e. recycled for reconstruction
Transitional shelter can be used to support both displaced and non-displaced
populations in a variety of settlement options. The process can last years and is only
appropriate for tenants when land rights and safe shelter close to their sources of livelihood
cannot be achieved immediately, and for owners only when repairs or reconstruction cannot
start immediately.
 Under this approach prefabricated structures procured overseas, construction of
semi-permanent shelters, core housing and the supply of tents would not be considered
transitional shelter. Transitional shelter should not be a complete shelter built at one time
but a process, whereby the shelter is built incrementally using all the shelter materials
distributed.
The ten principles of transitional shelter are to:
1. Assess the situation (transitional shelter may not be an appropriate shelter
response in all situations or for all people affected in any situation);
2. Involve the community as their knowledge contributed to a more efficient
and cost effective response;
3. Develop a strategy to use transitional shelter as part of the inter-sector
support for appropriate groups within the affected population until durable
shelter solutions can be reached
4. Reduce vulnerability and contribute to disaster risk reduction;
5. Agree standards with affected populations which consider the implications
of local hazards, climate, available labor and skills, available material,
traditional building practices, cultural requirements and social and household
activities;
6. Maximize the choice of shelter and settlement options for each household
by allowing beneficiaries to recycle, upgrade, reuse, resell and relocate their
shelters as required;
 7. Buy time while sustainable reconstruction is taking place;
8. Undertake an incremental process that allows beneficiaries to upgrade,
reuse, resell or recycle at their own pace until durable shelter solutions are
achieved, and not treat it as a phase of the response to be succeeded by
reconstruction;
9. Plan the site on land that is safe, legal and appropriate;
10. Ensure reconstruction occurs at the same time as transitional shelter
programmes, with the shelters designed to complement and contribute to a
reconstruction programme through the process of being upgraded, reused,
recycled or resold.

2. IFRC: Post-disaster shelter

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
understands shelter after disaster to involve an overlapping process of emergency,
temporary, transitional, progressive, core, and permanent housing. T-shelter is a term used
to describe either temporary or transitional shelter, an overlapping definition which can
provide flexibility when the terms temporary or transitional may be politically unacceptable.
Shelter designs must not increase the vulnerability of occupants to natural hazards.
● Temporary shelters are post-disaster shelters designed as a rapid shelter
solution. They prioritize speed and limit construction costs, which means their
lifetime may be limited. However, temporary shelters might have to have a long
duration in some locations, such as camps, where there is no planned end state,
so shelters cannot be “transitional”.
● Transitional shelters are rapid, post-disaster shelters made from materials that
can be upgraded or reused in more permanent structures, or that can be relocated
from temporary sites to permanent locations. They recognise that the affected
population often start post-disaster shelter themselves, and that this
resourcefulness and self-management should be supported.
● Progressive shelters are rapid, post-disaster shelters planned and designed to
be upgraded later to a more permanent status, with future transformation and
alteration possibilities integrated into the structural basis of the unit. They are
immovable and built on permanent sites with the goal of becoming part of lasting
solutions.
3. USAID: Transitional shelter.
Transitional shelter addresses short to medium term needs – up to three years – of
disaster affected households. It involves the provision of inputs, sometimes including
salvaged materials, construction assistance, technical advice, and oversight needed to
create shelters consistent with internationally recognised guidelines.

Alternative post-disaster approaches include:

● Temporary shelters or housing, in which people can reside for up to three years
before moving into permanent housing. They often consist of a prefabricated house and
have been criticized due to problems of sustainability and cultural appropriateness
● Semi-permanent shelter, which involves building parts of some elements of a house,
such as the foundations and a roof, in order to offer shelter while the remainder of the
house is completed
● Sites and services, which involves preparing the site for the permanent house and all
wet services and utilities, such as the bathroom, sewage and electrical supply
● Core house or one room shelter (ORS), which involves building at least one complete
room of a final house, to offer shelter while the remainder of the house is completed by
the household, using their own means and resources.

INTERNAL HOSPITAL DISASTER

 An internal disaster occurs when there is an event within the facility that poses a
threat to disrupt the environment of care. Such events are commonly related to the physical
plant (e.g., loss of utilities or fire), but can arise from availability of personnel (e.g., a labor
strike). Regardless of the cause, the management goal is to maintain a safe environment for
the patients, continue to provide essential services, ameliorate the problem, and restore
normal services.
Internal disasters cause disruption of normal hospital function due to injuries or
deaths of hospital personnel or damage to the physical plant, as with a hospital fire, power
failure, or chemical spill. Internal disasters or system support failures can result in a myriad
of responses, such as evacuation of patients and staff; decreased levels of service provision;
diversion of ambulances, helicopter transport, and other patients; and relocation of patient
care areas.
During an internal disaster situation, staff need to be sure that the environment of
care remains safe and essential services are provided to all patients. The physical plant,
utilities, staffing, supplies, and equipment must remain available and functional.

PHASES OF INTERNAL DISASTER

1. Alert phase - during which staff remain at their regular positions, service provision is
uninterrupted, and faculty and staff await further instructions from their supervisors
2. Response phase - during which designated staff report to supervisors or the
command post for instructions, the response plan is activated, and nonessential
services are suspended.
3. Expanded response phase - when additional personnel are required, off-duty staff
are called in, and existing staff may be reassigned based on patient needs.

HOSPITAL DISASTER PLAN

 The staff in any health care organization should be fully conversant with the agency’s
emergency response plan. During the emergency response is not the time to begin to teach
staff about the elements of the plan. Employees should know their emergency response
functional roles, and these should have been practiced beforehand.
Each agency needs to have an emergency response plan that is specific to that
agency, and consistent with the underlying mission of the organization. Whereas hospitals
need to be able to address operating room capacity for mass casualty events, this would not
be expected of a long-term care facility.
Lewis and Aghababian (1996) list the essential elements for a hospital disaster plan.
● Definition of a disaster (determines point of activation)
● Plan activation protocol
○ Notification
○ Chain of command
○ Phase
● Command center
○ Emergency operations center (EOC)
○ Reporting center (for staff)
● Traffic flow
● Triage
● Decontamination
● Treatment areas
● Specialized areas
○ Family
○ Volunteers
○ Media
○ Morgue
● Individual departmental plans
● Internal disaster plans
○ Individual disasters (utility failure, strike plan)
○ Evacuation of the facility