4. Key activities of the Community
Construction Stage
SECTION II: OVERVIEW
As school construction begins, a community-based
approach must carefully pair construction activities with
worker training and a transparent oversight process. Without
training, community members and construction workers do
not understand the hazard-resistant construction techniques
needed to make the school safe. Without oversight, safety
cannot be guaranteed.
• Engaging in construction monitoring and site
supervision. In community-based school construction,
construction monitoring may be a collaborative task:
school management committees and other stakeholders
may monitor daily activities and identify potential problems
while technical specialists ensure design compliance.
Such collaboration helps ensure construction quality even
in remote locations and increases local knowledge of
hazard-resistant construction.
• Building local capacity. When hazard-resistant
construction techniques are new to the community,
tradespeople and labourers need training. The training
needs to be in a format they can easily understand.
Hands-on demonstrations, practice sites and pictorial
construction drawings work well.
• Practising and communicating safety. The construction
showcases safer building practices to the community in
ways that can influence future construction practices.
Conscientious health and safety procedures and
concerted community outreach can help achieve this.
Stage 4. Community construction
Advantages
27
Challenges
Strategies
• Reduces corruption by providing
a constant community presence
at construction sites
• Community ineffective at
construction monitoring due to
poor local knowledge or lack of
experience with accountability
processes
Engage local government offices and other
stakeholders in formal frameworks through
MOUs and other accountability tools.
Provide training and checklists to community
members engaging in construction
oversight. Ensure engineers and inspectors
visit regularly and frequently. Combine
community monitoring with third-party
review and oversight so responsibility for
quality control does not lie solely with the
community.
• Transfers hazard-resistant
construction skills to the
community
• Training adds costs and time to
the project, and skills may be
inappropriately applied later
Combine training with other community
development activities, such as disaster
risk reduction and resilience projects, and
ensure training indicates when technology
is appropriate in other building styles. Cost
efficiencies can be achieved when trained
tradespeople are employed on multiple
projects, allowing local labourers in the next
community to apprentice under those who
have been trained.
• Lowers cost of construction
and keeps funds within the
community
• Appropriate construction
experience lacking in local area
Experiment to find a good financial balance
between hired external contractors and the
use of local, trained, skilled and unskilled
labourers.
• Increases income opportunities
for trained tradespeople
• Tradespeople may lack
experience leveraging training
to boost their own income and
livelihoods
Provide certificates for those who complete
training. Teach strategies for marketing their
new skills as part of the training.