The Implication of Hyogo Framework for Action for Disaster Resilience Education

The Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) is the first global strategy to provide a detailed work plan for different sectors and actors to work on disaster risk reduction. Although, the Priority Action 3 of the HFA demand for a global call to governments and others to use knowledge, innovation and education to build a culture of safety and resilience at all levels. Evidence suggests that there are only very few effective initiatives that have been implemented by stakeholders and especially in the higher education sector where the future policy makers and practitioners are trained. This creates a significant challenge as the ten year plan of the HFA is coming to an end in 2015. This paper attempts to view the world in post-HFA and suggested a framework on mapping and integrating disaster risk reduction into formal, informal and non-formal education at policy, practice and community levels. A case study approach was used to examine how the HFA has been embraced into disaster resilience related higher education programme. The study argues that integrating disaster resilience into education is a key factor for reducing the adverse impact of future disasters. The suggested framework provides an insight into current gaps in knowledge, innovation and education and proposes solutions for effective integration of disaster resilience education at all levels

Opportunities and challenges of foreign direct investment utilisation and its impact on construction sector in developing countries

Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows to both developed and developing countries have increased over the past three decades. However, investigation of opportunities and challenges associated with FDI on the host economy and its impact especially on the construction sector through empirical assessment, have received scant attention. The purpose of this study is to address this gap in knowledge within the Nigerian context; and examine the trend of FDI inflows to the construction sector for the period 2000-2013 inclusive. Relationships between contributions of the construction sector to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) are also studied. The study adopted a literature review, a questionnaire survey, and archival data culminated in data analysis. The survey targeted financial experts in Nigerian financial institutions/local banks. Archival data included the annualised data extracted from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) statistical bulletins. The period examined witnessed stable economic conditions. Data collected were analysed using mean score, factor analysis, and correlation. Eight identified opportunities of utilising FDI were group into three principal factors: knowledge spillovers; capital for new investment; and resilience during financial crises. The 10 identified FDI challenges were grouped into three major factors: loss of ownership advantage and additional costs; crowding-out of national firms; and administrative bottleneck and overdependence. Based on the hypotheses tested, the study found a significant relationship between the contributions of FDI inflows in the construction sector and the total GDP of the host country. This study provides greater insight on the effects of FDI on a host economy in developing countries, which would help policymakers to examine existing policies, and look for new ways of increasing foreign investment flow, especially in the area of Construction Facility Investment (CFI). This study is important because it would enable policymakers in developing countries at large to promote FDI with special considerations for the construction sector of the economy

Investigation into the causes of delay in land acquisition for PPP projects in developing countries

Purpose: The land is a critical resource for public-private partnerships (PPPs) in infrastructure development. However, acquisition of land for PPP infrastructure projects implementation increasingly becomes problematic in developing countries. Yet, effort at investigating the factors causing a delay in land acquisition for PPP infrastructure projects through an empirical method in developing countries received scant attention. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify and critically assess the factors predisposing PPP projects implementation to land acquisition delay in Nigeria using an empirical approach. Design/methodology/approach: The study adopted literature review and questionnaire survey. For instance, literature review was used to identify the factors causing delay in land acquisition for PPP projects in developing countries, which was used to design the questionnaire survey culminating in data analysis. In order to capture a broad perception, the questionnaires were administered to three different primary stakeholder groups comprised public sector authorities (i.e. ministries, department, agencies), concessionaires, and lenders/banks involved in PPP projects implementation in Nigeria. Data collected were analysed using mean score, Kruskal-Wallis test, and factor analysis. Findings: The study revealed the mean score ranking of 22 identified factors causing a delay in land acquisition for PPP projects in Nigeria. The result of factor analysis grouped the 22 identified factors into 4 principal factors namely, resettlement issues with political interference; non-availability of land with a higher cost of land transactions; weak planning institutions; and rehabilitation issues with extensive legal delays. Practical implication: These study findings have implications for both policymakers considering PPP projects and private investors seeking to finance a PPP project in developing countries. Also, the study findings would be useful for the governments in Nigeria and other developing countries to formulate clear policies framework that facilitates the smooth acquisition of land for PPP projects. Originality/value: The study will be beneficial to the potential local and foreign private investors, and governments by broadening their awareness on impediments in land acquisition for PPP projects in Nigeria and developing countries at large. These study findings are crucial as not many empirical studies have been conducted in Nigeria, and many other developing countries

Analysing community needs and skills for enhancing disaster resilience in the built environment

Purpose: A better cooperation among all the stakeholders working towards enhancing the disaster resilience of societies can only be achieved if the expectations or the needs of each stakeholder are understood. This study attempts to outline the needs of communities affected by disasters for the purpose of aligning the needs and skill requirements with the abilities of built environment professionals serving these communities. Therefore, the study aims to identify and describe community needs and skill requirements for enhancing disaster resilience. Design/methodology/approach: The study adopted literature review and semi-structured interviews. The semi-structured interviews were conducted with key members of some communities affected by disasters as well as some of the professionals that participated in the restoration/reconstruction of those communities. Data obtained were analysed using Nvivo 10. Findings: The study revealed the current and emerging needs and skills of communities related to the built environment professionals towards enhancing disaster resilience. Thus, twenty nine classifications of skill and needs were derived and classified under five major disaster resilience dimensions to include social, economic, technological, environmental and institutional. Research limitations/implications: This study focuses only of the needs and skills of the ‘community’, which is the major stakeholder that are basically the receiver of all what other stakeholders in disaster resilience have to offer. Practical implications: This study would be beneficial to the built environment professionals involved in disaster resilience to be aware of the specific needs and skills of the communities affected by disasters for the purpose of developing their competencies. Originality/value: The study findings would be useful for both the built environment professionals and higher education institutions (HEIs). Since it is important for professionals to update and upgrade their knowledge towards enhancing their capabilities and meeting the expectations of stakeholders towards enhancing societal resilience to disasters across all domains of resilience

Mapping built environment professionals' educational needs to international policy frameworks for disaster risk reduction: community stakeholder perspective

Purpose – Disaster risk reduction is prominent in the international policy agenda and the year 2015 brought together three international policy frameworks which contribute to disaster risk reduction (i.e. the Sendai framework for disaster risk reduction, the sustainable development goals, and Paris climate change agreement – COP21). However, there is a dearth of effort at identifying and aligning the specific educational needs of built environment professionalswith the three policy frameworks. This is needed to facilitate the incorporation of the contents of the policy frameworks into built environment professionals’ training. Therefore, this study maps the educational needs of built environment professionals with the core areas of the three international policy frameworks. Design/methodology/approach – This study utilised CADRE (Collaborative Action towards Disaster Resilience Education) research project outcomes alongside the earlier mentioned three international policy frameworks. A comprehensive desk review was done to map the educational needs identified in the CADRE project with the core priority areas of the three policy frameworks.Findings –The study revealed the educational needs that are significant towards an effective implementation of the core priority areas of the three international policy frameworks.Practical implications – This study would be beneficial to the built environmentprofessionals involved in disaster risk reduction. They will be aware of the specific knowledge areas that would aid the successful implementation of the aforementioned three international policy frameworks. Originality/value – The outcomes of the study would be beneficial to higher education providers in disaster risk reduction and sustainable development. It has identified the knowledge and competency gaps needed to be bridged in the curricula in order to meet the demands created by the international policy frameworks

Community stakeholder perspective on construction industry-related needs and skills for enhancing disaster resilience

Although scientific research community has shown increased interest in enhancing disaster resilience of societies, yet effort at identifying the needs and skills of stakeholders affected by disasters has not received adequate attention. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify and assess the needs and skills of communities affected by disasters from four different countries. Community as one of the stakeholders in disaster resilience is considered as respondent in this study, due to the fact that they are on the frontlines of both the immediate impact of a disaster and the initial emergency response. Thus, identification of specific needs and skills requirement for the community in enhancing disaster resilience becomes imperative. The study adopted literature review and semi-structured interviews. The interviews were conducted with fifteen purposively selected experts in four different countries to include the UK, Estonia, Lithuania, and Sri Lanka. Data obtained were analysed using Nvivo (version 10). The study identified different needs and skills of communities related to built environment professionals towards enhancing disaster resilience. The identified needs and skills were grouped into five disaster resilience dimensions. This includes economic, environmental, institutional, social, and technological dimensions of disaster resilience of societies. These five groups were further structured into five different stages of the property lifecycle to include preparation, design, pre-construction, construction and use stages of a property development. Also, the overall identified needs and skills at different disaster resilience dimensions were filtered to generate twenty-nine major classifications of skills and needs of communities in enhancing disaster resilience of societies. This study would be beneficial to all construction professionals and other stakeholders in developing their competencies on the main classifications of needs and skills of communities identified in this study

Professional doctorates: applicability to the construction industry in increasing societal resilience to disasters

With the increase in occurrence of high impact disasters, the role of Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) in enhancing the disaster related knowledge and skills of construction professionals is highly recognised. HEIs are expected to contribute to both theory and practice in the development of societal resilience to disasters through the development of curricular and modules to update the knowledge and skills that employees have obtained in the past. Doctoral education is identified as one of the methods in upgrading the knowledge of the construction professionals in this regard. Due to the shortcomings of the traditional doctoral programmes in addressing the needs of the industry and professionals, professional doctorates have become increasingly recognised. As such professional doctoral programmes have been considered as more appropriate in developing knowledge and skills of the construction professionals. Accordingly, a EU funded project, CADRE, aims to develop and test an innovative professional doctoral programme that integrates professional and academic knowledge in the construction industry to develop societal resilience to disasters. As part of this project, the paper aims to analyse the applicability of professional doctorates to the construction industry in developing societal resilience. Based on an extensive review of literature, paper introduces the concept of professional doctoral programmes and its applicability to the construction industry in developing societal resilience

Development of a professional doctoral programme in built environment to enhance societal resilience to disasters

Integrating disaster resilience into education is a key factor for reducing the adverse impact of future disasters. This paper in this context presents the methodology of developing an innovative professional doctoral programme (DProf) that integrates professional and academic knowledge in the built environment to enhance societal resilience to disasters. The DProf programme addresses the career needs of practicing professionals, particularly those in, or who aspire to, senior positions within the construction industry and caters for the researching professional. In developing the DProf programme, a detailed market needs analysis for built environment stakeholders to increase societal resilience to disasters was conducted capturing inter-disciplinary needs across a range of stakeholders and countries. A series of semi-structured interviews on current and emerging market needs with members of six built environment related stakeholders, namely, local and national governments; community; NGOs, INGOs and other international agencies; academia and research organisations; and private sector facilitated the aforementioned analysis. Qualitative data analysis techniques were employed in analysing the interview data. The findings of the interviews revealed the current and emerging needs and skills of the six stakeholders related to built environment professionals towards enhancing social, economic, technological, environmental and institutional dimensions of disaster resilience of societies. These findings were used to develop the appro

Rethinking digital construction: a study of BIM uptake capability in BIM infant construction industries

Purpose Practitioners have reported a minimal and non-use of building information modelling (BIM), especially in small and medium-sized organisations and BIM infant construction industries. This development calls for a reappraisal of organisations’ strength in capabilities required for BIM uptake towards the target of global construction digitalisation. This study aims to assess the BIM Level 2 uptake capability of organisations in a BIM infant construction industry and identify the underlying interactions between the capability criteria. Design/methodology/approach The study used a multivariable analysis of fifteen descriptors identified from the people, process, policy, finance and technology domain. Data collection was done in the BIM infant construction industry in Nigeria. Verification of the descriptors and an evaluation of BIM uptake capability in organisations was done. Seventy-three responses were received within the selected context, and data analysis was done with mean weighting and exploratory factor analysis. Maximum Likelihood extraction and Direct Oblimin rotation were used. Findings Factor analysis revealed three factors that explained 53.28% of the total variance in the BIM Level 2 uptake capability of construction organisations. The factors are workforce capacity and continuous development, an affinity for innovation and strength in physical and operational facilities. Research limitations/implications This study provides an overarching and insightful discussion on BIM uptake capability and construction digitalisation with evidence from a BIM-infant construction industry. Practical implications The findings of this study are a piece of valuable empirical evidence on Level 2 BIM uptake capability. This empirical situation analysis will inform the advocacy for the advancement of BIM and enhanced utilisation of building information. Evidence on the capability performance of the BIM infant industry has been revealed. Originality/value The outcome is expected to stir debate on the preparedness of organisations to further exploit the benefits of BIM in the BIM infant construction industry. Examination of the capability for a particular phase of BIM is scanty in the literature

Factors confronting quantity surveying practice: the case of Nigeria

Purpose: As the challenges confronting a system are better addressed when known and understood, this paper aims to report the findings of a study that investigated the factors confronting professional quantity surveying using Nigeria as a case. Design/methodology/approach: A questionnaire was developed and pre-tested as the instrument for collecting data. A total of 64 quantity surveyors practicing in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Enugu completed the questionnaire out of a non-probabilistic sample of 100. Severity Index and Spearman rank correlation coefficient were used in data analysis. Findings: The outcome revealed that the top five factors perceived to be confronting the profession include poor marketing of the profession, opposition from engineers, the dominance of multinational companies that do not have quantity surveying as a distinct profession in their country of origin, widespread corruption in Nigeria and professional incompetence of some quantity surveyors. Furthermore, the two categories of respondents – professional quantity surveyors and probationers – agree in their ranking of the factors confronting the profession. The ranking of the 17 factors between the two categories of respondents was tested using Spearman’s rho. The result showed that the difference in perception of professional members of the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors and the probationers with regard to factors confronting the quantity surveying profession is not significant at p < 0.01. These findings are then discussed in the light of previous works, and implications for both academics and professionals within the quantity surveying profession were highlighted. Originality/value: This study has highlighted the key issues to consider as stakeholders attempt to advance the course of quantity surveying and construction cost management profession