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basin South Asia : Habitat
and Livelihoods for the Poor Mona Chhabra mchhabra@devalt.org The visionary and the practitioner both see the same things: congested roads, slums, over exploited countryside, both rural and urban blight, inefficiency, and all other by-products of civic irresponsibility. However, the difference in their approaches, as also argued by several authors lies in their interpretations of what they see. The practitioner looks at the symptoms and works to make corrections while the visionary works to understand the reasons that have led the symptoms being so. Most of us development ‘practitioners’ fall short of the maturity of the visionary, many a times only for want of relevant and timely information on interconnectedness of issues that very often leads to solutions. The relevance of knowledge, especially in today’s’ context where many of us work in a time bound ‘mission’ mode, cannot be over emphasised. b asin South Asia (basin SA) is the decentralised node of the basin network working to bridge knowledge gaps on habitat and livelihoods in the South Asian region. Not only does it aim to bridge knowledge gaps, it also aims to proactively facilitate the spread of good practice on habitat and livelihood development for the poor in the region so that practitioners can enhance the impact and the spread of their work manifold.basin SA believes that sheer access to knowledge on approaches, initiatives, skills and opportunities can contribute to the development of critical capacities for quantum increase in the impact of the work of development practitioners. It also recognises that those who support and guide grassroots work on habitat and livelihood development need to know of already tried and tested innovations, of their effectiveness and suitability, so that their scarce resources could be utilised to the best effect. The Genesis To place basin SA within the evolution of basin International, a brief history of the network is presented here. The ‘building advisory services and information network’ (basin), was set up in 1988 to provide information and advice on appropriate building technologies and to create links between know-how resources for all those in need of relevant information: government agencies, financing bodies, building professionals, producers of building materials and shelter project implementing agencies. The network caters to all those who need up-to-date information and advice on the manufacture, performance and availability of appropriate technology outputs from around the world.
basin has, over the years, evolved to respond to the changing needs of its target groups. Its information and knowledge base has grown to include experiences and learnings from habitat and livelihood interventions. Housing process design, habitat infrastructure in urban and rural areas, enterprise development and sustainability analysis of housing and building projects are some of the issues that the basin knowledge base has been focusing on. Over the years, the membership of basin has grown from the four founding members: CRATerre in France, ITDG in UK, SKAT in Switzerland and GATE of GTZ in Germany to a total of nine members, including five members from the South: Development Alternatives in India, The Centro Experimental de la Vivienda Economica (CEVE) in Argentina, The EcoSur Network in Central America, Shelter Forum in Kenya and the Pagtambayayong Foundation in the Philippines. Following the Second International basin Conference, in India during March 2004, it was decided to formally expand the focus of the network to include larger Habitat and livelihood related issues beyond the limited focus on technology alone. It was also decided to initiate regional network nodes in Africa, Europe, Latin America and South Asia for focused attention on regional issues and thus an increased membership base that contributes to (as well as benefits from) the network. Regional focus – South Asia The re-orientation of basin global network has been influenced by the realisation of responding to "contextual needs" in various regions, especially in southern countries. South Asia, distinguished by the SAARC definition of possible countries in the fold, is naturally a region of importance. The basin platform in South Asia is in its infancy. The nodal agency – the initiator of the regional expansion - is Development Alternatives in India. basin SA is a "knowledge platform". In line with the objectives of the international network, the focus in the South Asian region will be to consolidate information, synthesize it into relevant and useful knowledge packages and disseminate these to target audiences. The regional platform will be influenced by its readership and the virtual user base. Products of the basin-South Asia platform are envisaged as:
Contextual issues : knowledge and learning on Rural Housing The basin knowledge platform’s primary raison d’etre is to enable a knowledge exchange platform across the South Asian region that would:
The activities of the basin-South Asia platform will, in the initial years, concentrate on consolidation and synthesis of knowledge on subjects of specific regional import in the habitat and livelihoods sector. Rural habitat and technology concerns, capacity building, urban habitat infrastructure and (possibly land rights) could be subjects on which know-how, resources will be consolidated. It is recognized that knowledge resources, especially for "rural concerns", have not been adequately consolidated. There is a clear need for such ‘consolidated knowledge’ given that rural development is a priority sector for the entire South Asian region. basin-SA will thus have an increased focus on consolidating, synthesizing and generating knowledge on issues pertinent to habitat processes, technology and related livelihood concerns significant to rural areas in the region. The special focus on learning and knowledge on rural housing issues will manifest in the form of a Rural Housing Learning Initiative. This initiative will, in addition to the usual products of basin SA, also bring out Thematic Overview Papers and host events to combine recent experiences around themes related to rural housing. It will also house a Rural Habitat Observatory as a regularly updated database of trends, resources and opportunities in rural housing. basin SA platform is set to position itself as the single window for a practitioner individual / agency to access the best available and most relevant ‘quality’ analysis on issues of import in the habitat and livelihoods sector in South Asia. The products and services of the basin-South Asia platform will be hallmarked by "high quality and contextual relevance". A large member base in the region would be the source of information, case examples and know-how resources. The platform will derive its strength and credibility from the select number of partners in each country who would contribute to high quality analysis of information and know-how available at the platform.Development Alternatives, as the coordinating agency for basin SA, invites you to join the platform for accessing state of the art knowledge on Habitat and livelihoods as well as sharing your professional experiences with a wider audience in South Asia and the world. Besides direct access to relevant knowledge for our work on habitat and livelihoods, we can together work to influence policy in our countries and states. After all, several single voices can be ignored, but a collective uproar cannot go unaddressed!! q Let us make a difference – together !! For details please contact:
Coordinator, basin South AsiaDevelopment Alternatives B-32, TARA Crescent, Qutab Institutional Area, New Delhi - 110016. India Tel : 11-91-2680 1521, 2680 4482; Fax : 11-91-2686 6031; e-mail: basin@devalt.org
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resources.
The scale of use is based on the affordability of people. A
typical rural house in Assam would have a bamboo truss with GI
sheet roof and bamboo panel walls. Brick and bamboo panels for
walling, double-pitched thatch and GI sheet systems for roofing
and mud and cement for flooring are prevalent building practices.