Disaster Risk Reduction

On January 12, 2010, a devastating earthquake struck Haiti, resulting in the loss of more than 230,000 lives and massive destruction. Global Communities responded immediately. With funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Global Communities launched a major recovery program that focused on large-scale rubble removal and recycling, cash-for-work, construction of transitional shelters and a new type of disaster response using a neighborhood approach.

For example, Global Communities implemented the groundbreaking $8.6 million urban reconstruction program in the neighborhood of Ravine Pintade in Port-au-Prince. In just under 18 months, the integrated approach provided rubble removal and shelter building services, while working with the community on green spaces, plots for schools and proper access roads to cover the basics of sustainable urban improvement.

The program was successful in creating a livable neighborhood with adequate shelter, basic services and other physical improvements. Essential to that success were community mobilization and trust-building efforts, since the support and cooperation of residents were required in order to increase the amount of useful public space. Community mobilization was fundamental in the enumeration process, where local participation fostered consensus on the status of occupancy, tenure and family condition and needs, and in coming up with workable plans for temporary relocation of families while new shelters were built.