5) Description of housing product/service offering: The two main products CHF offers include new shelters (approximately 90USD) and shelter improvement kits (between USD20-30) to vulnerable IDP households, traditionally defined as female-headed households; households with one or more mentally- and/or physically- challenged members; families with one or both parents dead or missing; and the elderly. All of CHF’s beneficiaries would be considered low-income or marginalized populations given their IDP status in camps. CHF focuses on major IDP camps in both North and South Darfur for shelter provision, including Zam Zam, Kalma, Otash, and Assalaam. New shelters are given to newly arrived IDP beneficiaries or those with very sub-standard shelter (referring generally to shelters made of two sticks and a thin cloth covering). Improvement kits are given to beneficiaries with relatively acceptable existing shelter that can be improved and modified with CHF kits. In providing these products, CHF coordinates closely with camp management and local leaders to determine the number of new shelters and shelter kits needed in a given camp, designs the shelters in collaboration with beneficiaries to suit their comfort, employs IDP women in the production of grass mats (a locally available item), transports all required materials to camp sites, and assists beneficiaries in the construction of shelters, while also ensuring community input in the design and layout of shelters.

6) Description of innovation: CHF’s approach goes beyond the mere provision of shelter by using locally available materials, including grass mats, which are assembled by beneficiary IDP women as an income generating activity. As the walls and ceilings of CHF shelters, the grass mats constitute a crucial building component for new shelters and shelter kits and are woven by CHF beneficiaries from grass fronds of locally available palm leaves. In this way, the BRICE shelter initiative has an impact on multiple levels – providing shelter to those who would otherwise have meager protection from the elements and increasing incomes of IDP women who are then empowered to provide for their families. Each woman can weave one or two grass mats per day, providing them with an income of $1-$2 per day. The model proved so effective that CHF also employs these women to weave grass mats for community center construction through Darfur’s IDP camps and rural villages. In addition, women who weave grass mats for CHF shelters do so within the relative safety of CHF community centers, decreasing the need for them to wander outside the camp in search of other income-generating opportunities and, thus, also decreasing the possibility of rape or death. The activity of weaving grass mats also acts as a psychosocial intervention by ensuring a safe place for women to exchange ideas and support each other emotionally. In addition to the added income, protection, and psychosocial benefits, CHF has designed our shelters to be collapsible and transportable once return is possible. CHF has also focused on increasing community participation in the design and layout of CHF shelters. For example, following a fire in Otash Camp in North Darfur, CHF worked directly with the community to determine the layout of reconstructed shelters. The newly produced shelter grid is now referred to affectionately as “CHF Town” because of this direct partnership with the community.

7) Benefits to clients: In each camp that CHF provides shelter, we work through the non-governmental organization (NGO) responsible for camp management and local leaders to determine the need among displaced populations for shelter. Our beneficiary selection process includes speaking with community representatives (often sheikhs) in respect of indigenous culture, short-listing initial candidates for intervention, completing ‘door-to-door’ evaluations of short-listed candidates, and regrouping with community representatives to make final selections based on CHF’s assessments and community input. To combat corruption and favoritism while still maintaining strong relations with community leaders, CHF has chosen a more thorough approach by engaging sheikhs in the process and discussing their roles and responsibilities toward communities through a feed-back process.

Once beneficiaries are selected for either new shelters or shelter improvement kits, CHF procures the necessary materials, including wood poles, wood beams, bamboo, tire thread, plastic sheeting, and grass mats, and transports the materials to the camp for construction of the shelter. Though CHF has a standard shelter model, our engineers work with beneficiaries on design of their specific shelter to suit their needs, family size, and comfort. The beneficiaries ultimately take responsibility for the completion and maintenance of their shelter.

8) Key operational partnerships: CHF’s main partners in the BRICE shelter initiative include the Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) and Ministry of Planning of the Sudanese government, community leaders (primarily sheikhs as mentioned), camp management non- governmental organizations (NGOs), the US Agency for International Development/Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA), and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA). CHF works with the HAC and Ministry of Planning on the allotment of land for shelters in IDP camps. They are critical partners as essentially nothing happens on the ground without their approval. NGOs that act as camp managers and local leaders are essential to the selection of beneficiary families. As those with the greatest connections to the camp population, they often know of those who are in greatest need for new or improved shelter. USAID provides all funding for the shelter initiative and is a driving force for constant improvement in shelter design and programming. Lastly, UNOCHA provides general support on coordination for humanitarian interventions and often connects CHF to potential in-kind donations for shelter materials, including plastic sheeting.

9) Financial model: Given the emergency nature of the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, CHF does not charge IDPs for our shelters or shelter improvement kits. To provide a sense for the local context, approximately 5,000 people die per month in Darfur, with many of those dying from malnutrition and disease. A mere 4% of Darfur’s people are currently able to feed themselves based on their own subsistence activities, leaving the vast majority of Darfur’s displaced population dependent on food distribution programs. In addition, more than 150,000 Darfurians were newly displaced between January and March of 2006, many for the second and third time. In this protracted humanitarian crisis, it is impossible to require full or partial payment from IDPs for CHF shelters.

          • Costs as percentage of income: 0

          • Financing: CHF’s BRICE shelter initiative has been funded by the US Agency for International Development/Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA) since its inception. As mentioned, beneficiaries do not pay for their shelter given the conditions in Darfur. Therefore, it is not profitable or financially self-sustainable. It is only sustainable in the sense that beneficiaries can dismantle their shelters and take the materials with them to their village of origin, allowing them to construct makeshift, transitional shelters in place of their destroyed homes. Like many interventions in Darfur, CHF’s BRICE shelter initiative responds to immediate needs and is relevant only so long as there is a humanitarian crisis.

10) Effectiveness

          • Project outcomes: Over the life of the initiative, CHF has provided shelters or shelter improvement kits to approximately 39,000 IDPs in Darfur. An additional 15,000 have benefited from increased incomes related to grass mat weaving for shelter construction.

          • Number of clients in past year: Over the past year of the initiative, CHF has provided shelters or shelter improvement kits to approximately 30,000 IDPs in Darfur. An additional 10,000 have benefited from increased incomes related to grass mat weaving for shelter construction.

          • Percentage of clients that are poor or marginalized: 100

          • Potential demand: There are approximately 2 million IDPs in Darfur and several hundred thousand refugees in Chad. CHF’s model, which focuses on the utilization of locally made materials, could be applicable to many of these vulnerable families. However, given limited local resources, concerns for environmental degradation, and accounting for the total number of families who already have suitable shelters, CHF estimates that potential demand for our shelters and shelter improvement kits is in the 100,000- 500,000 person range. Though the primary principles of our model, using local materials and incorporating an income generating activity should be applied in any humanitarian setting to infuse money into the local economy while also providing needed commodities to vulnerable populations.

11) Scaling up strategy

          • Stage of the initiative: Scaling Up stage.

          • Expansion plan: With additional funding, CHF will continue to provide shelter to the most vulnerable populations in our current target areas in North and South Darfur. Currently, we are expanding outside our current areas of operation into Gereida, South Darfur, where the IDP population has nearly doubled between November 2005 and March 2006. Despite numerous appeals by the IDPs, the Government of Sudan, and UN-OCHA, no agency has intervened to provide new shelters or shelter improvement kits. CHF has also begun scaling up its income generation activities by turning CHF’s mat weaving groups into sustainable community based organizations (CBOs). We have already registered 14 of the weaving groups from CHF community centers as CBOs with the Sudanese government. This will allow CHF to give CBOs sub- grants to increase grass mat production and improve local capacity through management trainings.

12) Origin of the initiative: CHF sent an assessment team to Darfur during the summer of 2004 at the height of the conflict. Following our assessment, CHF submitted the Building Opportunities and Livelihoods in Darfur (BOLD) proposal to USAID/OFDA, which was funded by September 2004. Originally, the grass mat weaving was seen only as a compliment to the shelter initiative. However, it quickly became integral to the program and helped CHF develop a more comprehensive income generation strategy. The BOLD program was followed by a phase II (BOLD II) and the current program, BRICE. As a team-oriented organization, it is impossible to point to one individual as the driving force for the initiative, though there were several key individuals involved in the shelter initiative, including Richard Hill, Isaac Boyd, and Scott Mulrooney, all CHF employees and consultants involved in the original assessment.

Contact Information:
MonaLisa  Salib
Program Officer
CHF International
(NGO)
8601 Georgia Ave, suite 800
United States
Tel: 301-587-4700
Fax: 301-587-7315
Email: msalib@chfinternational.org
Website: www.chfinternational.org