Addressing housing needs in minimising the problems of post conflict housing reconstruction

Depleted human and social capital, displacement of people, destruction of property, weakened institutions and ruined economy are some of the legacies of conflicts. Within this context, post conflict reconstruction contributes to overcome the legacies of conflict through reactivating the development process that has been disrupted by the conflict. Among the post conflict reconstruction interventions, post conflict housing reconstruction is paramount important as it contributes to development and peace through restoring the economic and social life of conflict affected people. Despite the importance, the success of post conflict housing reconstruction is hindered by a number of problems such as lack of strategies to address the unique challenges faced by vulnerable households, lack of involvement of local people, lack of use of local building material and technology, lack of local economic development, lack of community linkages, lack of cultural and local consideration, overlooked socio-economic conditions of occupants, standardised housing models, housing models imported from different cultures, lack of beneficiary consultation, poor performance of agencies, bribery and corruptions and lack of post occupancy evaluation. If not properly managed, these issues lead to hinder the success of post conflict housing reconstruction and its contribution to the development and peace. This paper argues that lack of concern on housing needs has directly or indirectly given rise for most of these issues through a comprehensive literature review on post conflict housing reconstruction and housing needs. The paper establishes the link between the problems of housing reconstruction and lack of addressing housing needs. Accordingly, it concludes that adequate housing measures provide a general guideline in addressing housing needs and addressing such needs leads to minimise the problems of post conflict housing reconstruction

Review of reconstruction efforts in Sri Lanka: Post-tsunami phase

This paper reviews the reconstruction efforts in Sri Lanka to ascertain the efficiency of post-disaster reconstruction through identifying the barriers. Even though the immediate humanitarian relief found to be more effective, long-term reconstruction was ineffective due to lack of funding, lack of knowledge to support local community, institutional constraints, and absence of coordinated management. It suggests that the reliance upon the knowledge, skills, capacities and resources of local people together with effective planning can lead the reconstruction process towards the success

Post conflict housing reconstruction: housing needs and expectations of conflict affected communities

Post conflict housing reconstruction plays an important role in establishing the country’s development and prospect of peace. Despite this importance, it was identified that there are inconsistencies between the provision of built housing and the needs of the users. Therefore many post conflict housing reconstruction projects lead to dissatisfaction on the part of residents and remodelling by themselves or rejection and abandonment. Hence it is important and necessary to address conflict affected communities’ housing reconstruction needs in post conflict housing reconstruction. With regard to this, it is worthwhile to examine the concept of housing needs in general and to explore the housing needs of conflict affected communities. Therefore this paper aims to present a synthesis of housing needs literature relevant to usual and post conflict contexts. In relevance to housing needs in general, housing preferences in a market context and adequate housing measures were identified. Following this, housing needs of conflict affected communities were identified. In a market context, housing needs were exhibited in terms of the subjective preferences of households. Adequate housing was recognized as part of the right to an adequate standard of living in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Hence adequate housing measures identified certain aspects of housing that must be taken into account for this purpose in any particular context. Whilst most housing considerations of conflict affected communities were similar to adequate housing measures, conflict affected communities gave greater importance to their social, cultural and religious values in post conflict housing reconstruction. In addition they considered the aspects of safety and security as being vital, and various perceptions of these communities in relation to housing reconstruction and post occupancy evaluation were important in post conflict housing reconstruction. Nevertheless, no relevant data on special housing needs of disadvantaged groups in post conflict environments were found

Reporting Asia the Asian \u27way\u27 - issues and constraints

There is a growing debate in South East Asia regarding Asian perspectives in news reporting. This has been triggered by the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis. Commentators and politicians in the region have claimed that Western media reporting has played a role in undermining their economies. There is a strong feeling that their negative reporting of the region impacted on the loss of investor confidence There are also counter moves to establish an ‘Asian Media’, where the voices of the Asian people will be heard much louder and clearer. This paper attempts to look at some of the issues underlining these moves and how such an indigenous media could develop and what bottlenecks may lie ahead

Islet Regenerative Properties of Ex Vivo Expanded Hematopoietic Progenitor Cells

Human umbilical cord blood (UCB) progenitor cells with high aldehyde dehydrogenase activity (ALDHhi), can stimulate endogenous islet regeneration after transplantation into mice with steptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetes. However, UCB ALDHhi cell are extremely rare, and expansion will be required to develop cell-mediated strategies to treat patients with diabetes. To increase the number of progenitor cells available for clinical application, we expanded ALDHhi UCB cells under clinically applicable, serum-free hematopoietic-restricted conditions. 6 day expansion resulted in a 15-fold increase in total cell number, and a 3-fold increase in the number of HPC retaining high ALDH (ALDHhi HPC) activity. ALDHhi HPC highly expressed primitive hematopoietic cell surface markers, and demonstrated hematopoietic colony forming capacity in vitro. Culture expanded ALDHhi HPC transplanted STZ-treated mice demonstrated improved islet function, increased islet size, and vascularization. Therefore, culture expanded ALDHhi HPC represent a novel population for the development of cellular therapies to promote islet regeneration

Knowledge management for disaster resilience: Identification of key success factors

The number of reported disasters has increased steadily over the past century and risen very sharply during the past decade. These bring about the loss of lives, property, employment and damage to the physical infrastructure and the environment. Disaster management efforts aim to reduce or avoid the potential losses from hazards, assure prompt and appropriate assistance to victims of disaster, and achieve rapid and effective recovery. While knowledge management can enhance the process of disaster management, there is a perceived gap in information coordination and sharing within the context of disaster management. Identifying key success factors will be an enabler to manage the disasters successfully. In this context, this study aims to identify and map key knowledge success factors for managing disasters successfully through capturing the good practices and lessons learned. The objective of this paper is to present the literature findings on factors which support successful disaster management. Accordingly the identified factors were classified into eight main categories as technological, social, legal, environmental, economical, functional, institutional and political

Disaster knowledge factors: benefits and challenges

Disasters bring about the loss of lives, property, employment and damage to the physical infrastructure and the environment. The number of reported disasters has increased steadily over the past century and risen very sharply during the past decade. While knowledge management can enhance the process of disaster management, there is a perceived gap in information coordination and sharing within the context of disaster management. Identification of key disaster knowledge factors will be an enabler to manage disasters successfully. This study aims to identify and map key disaster knowledge success factors in managing disasters successfully through capturing good practices and lessons learned. A list of disaster knowledge factors was first identified through a comprehensive literature review, covering the whole disaster management cycle. Based on these literature findings, semi-structured interviews were conducted among few disaster management practitioners to explore the influence and lacking areas relating to these factors in managing disasters. The objective of this paper is to present the interview findings on benefits and challenges related to the disaster knowledge factors. A comprehensive list of benefits and challenges of disaster knowledge factors in managing disasters is identified

Appraisal on composting and home gardening programme in Kinniya, Trincomalee

The Present survey was carried out from January-April 2015 to evaluate the current status of composting and home gardening programme in Kinniya. Solid waste was the major problem identified by the PCZRSM project in coastal areas of Kinniya. Several seeds and compost bins were provided by the project for identified households in 2014 to the success of home gardening activities. Main purpose of this activity is indirectly reduce the waste accumulation in coastal areas and make beneficial way as producing compost for home gardening in an effective way. Therefore it is essential for evaluation on the progress of the programme and it was conducted by the formulated questionnaire. The data on socio economic data, waste disposal, and home gardening was collected. Fifty families of samples in particular villages of Alangkerny, Sinnathodam, Eachantheevu and Mahroof Nagar were selected for the survey. The results revealed that the waste disposal into natural eco system was calculated as high percentage (40%) and smell problem was recorded as the main issue (40%) due to unregulated waste disposal before the awareness programme. According to the calculation, the awareness programme conducted by the PCZRSMP created best solution for the solid waste issue. People were encouraged to produce compost and highest portions of families (98%) utilizing compost for agriculture purposes while 2% of them sell their compost. Most of the people (98%) consider compost is an effective fertilizer. The calculation shows that the majority of the people are willing to continue the composting process hence it is an effective waste management method (90%). Most of the villages are satisfied with composting and home gardening programme and willing to continue in future also. Further, the continuous monitoring should be needed for success of the programme as well as for providing best livelihood for the people

Tip enhanced laser ablation sample transfer for mass spectrometry

© 2015 Materials Research Society. Mass spectrometry is one of the primary analysis techniques for biological analysis but there are technological barriers in sampling scale that must be overcome for it to be used to its full potential on the size scale of single cells. Current mass spectrometry imaging methods are limited in spatial resolution when analyzing large biomolecules. The goal of this project is to use atomic force microscope (AFM) tip enhanced laser ablation to remove material from cells and tissue and capture it for subsequent mass spectrometry analysis. The laser ablation sample transfer system uses an AFM stage to hold the metal-coated tip at a distance of approximately 10 nm from a sample surface. The metal tip acts as an antenna for the electromagnetic radiation and enables the ablation of the sample with a spot size much smaller than a laser focused with a conventional lens system. A pulsed nanosecond UV or visible wavelength laser is focused onto the gold-coated silicon tip at an angle nearly parallel with the surface, which results in the removal of material from a spot between 500 nm and 1 um in diameter and 200 and 500 nm deep. This corresponds to a few picograms of ablated material, which can be captured on a metal surface for MALDI analysis. We have used this approach to transfer small peptides and proteins from a thin film for analysis by mass spectrometry as a first step toward high spatial resolution imaging