The seemingly simple? Community engagement and construction management in Samoa, post tsunami 2009

Abstract

Community Engagement and its associated community participation seem to be a key factor for “successful” post disaster reconstruction. Yet not much is understood on what happens in such an “engagement” and how it occurs.

This paper presents one case study on the impact of constructing new fale for those affected by the Samoan tsunami in 2009. A return research visit is made 2 years after the original assistance was completed to reflective look back at the relatively short two week programne (which was part of a larger aid programne under Habitat for Humanity HFH) completed by volunteer carpenters from Unitec’s Building Technology Department. The research suggests that there were strong cultural linkages established in what was built, it identifies by surveys and interviews areas where value was perhaps “added” but concludes that it was in doing the seemingly “simple” things that “engagement” was fostered. Such “simple” things maybe not so simple in reality but perhaps underline the need for construction managers to have a “situational awareness” in post disaster construction.