UN-HABITAT AND UNDP

JOINT PROGRAMME IN ACEH-NIAS

Participatory Reconstruction Process at Work:
Re-Building Homes in Aceh and Nias

As the lead agency for human settlements within the United Nations system, UN‐HABITAT in collaboration with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in January 2005 designed the Aceh Nias Settlements Support Program (ANSSP). The programme supports affected families to rebuild theirhouses in six districts (Aceh Besar, Banda Aceh, Pidie, Simeulue, Nias and Nias Seletan) in Aceh and North Sumatra Provinces.

Through this programme UN-HABITAT is directly involved in: rehabilitation and reconstruction of housing and community infrastructure, mapping of basic information, spatial planning support, housing sector monitoring, and policy support for the Aceh and Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency (BRR).

The ANSSP strategy ensures that affected families are at the centre of the recovery process. Moreover its people-centered approach fosters local innovation in dealing with local problems. It encourages people toresolve land disputes, to determine village priorities, to share common resources like water and timber and it assures the production and procurement of building materials.

The end result is a cohesive community, in which families are fully engaged in shaping their future and the future of their community. As communities take these responsibilities, they gradually regain confidence and begin to revive networks for mutual help in times of distress. This improves efficiency and plays a central role on the way to sustainable recovery. As of December 31, 2006, 3,446 house units have been constructed and occupied by the beneficiaries. UN-HABITAT is among the programmes with the highest delivery numbers within the past two years.

Bo Asplund, Resident Representative of UNDP Indonesia, noted that ”the key to ANSSP’s success has been in the community involvement at every step of the rebuilding process – fromchoosing a design, choosing a supplier, taking responsibility for managing finances, and organising all phases of the construction. It is a process,in which we are proud to have participated, developing a permanent housing project that has given great satisfaction to the people who need it most.”

Similarly Mrs Anna Tibaijuka, Under Secretary General of the United Nations and Executive Director UN-HABITAT pointed out that “the ANSSP’s success must be attributed to the process it applied in providing assistance to the communities. Eventually the people felt that they had rebuilt their own home.”

What has been demonstrated is that the beneficiaries of a housing project, with proper facilitation, can contribute in design decisions, select material and labour,manage construction phases and manage finances. This form of total user participation has increased beneficiary satisfaction. As a result UNSYIAH’s third party monitoring has shown that the beneficiaries find the UN-HABITAT’s people’s housing process is excellent in terms of transparency and satisfaction.