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Réseau Habitat d’Urgence Francophone

An interagency initiative

Tuesday 14th May 2024

Luca Ginoulhiac - CRS (luca.ginoulhiac@crs.org)

Stephanie Loose - GSC/UNHCR (looses@unhcr.org)

Eva Suarez - CRS (eva.suarez@crs.org)

Enrique Sevillano Gutierrez– CRAterre (e.sevillano.gutierrez@craterre.org)

Antoine Barbier - IOM (abarbier@iom.int)

Xavier Génot - French Red Cross (xavier.genot.fr@gmail.com)

Madeleine Marara - GSC/UNHCR (marara@unhcr.org)

Olivier Moles - CRAterre (o.moles@craterre.org)

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The issue

CARE Breaking the Silence: The 10 most under-reported humanitarian crises of 2023

Of the 10 least mediatized crisis in the world, 6 are French-speaking countries: Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, CAR, Mauritania and Senegal.

NRC - The world’s ten most neglected crises are all in Africa | 2022

Out of the 10 most neglected crisis in the world, 5 are French-speaking countries: Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Mali and RD Congo.

GSC – Global Shelter Cluster Achievements Report-2023

Of the 10 least funded shelter responses in the world, 6 are from French-speaking countries: Cameroon, CAR, Chad, Madagascar, Mali and Niger.

And out of the 9 francophone Shelter Clusters, 7 of them do not have dedicated Cluster Coordinators at National level.

UNHCR - West and Central Africa Regional Shelter and Settlement Evaluation 2022

In the region, “94% of the shelter support provided by UNHCR and partners remains the distribution of Emergency Shelter Kits (Tarpaulin with rope, and sometimes some wooden poles to make a basic frame)”.

WHY ?

Francophone Africa is currently home to seven of the ten countries with the lowest human development index with more than 12 million people displaced by the end of 2023 due to armed conflicts, intercommunal violence and sudden disasters. In spite of this reality, the humanitarian emergency in Francophone Africa is currently one of the least publicized, most neglected and poorly financed, and consequently the actors in the sector have less operational and coordination capacity than in other countries.

🡪 To respond to this a group of humanitarian organizations active in the emergency shelter sector, CRAterre, CRS, IFRC, IOM and UNHCR, supported by the Global Shelter Cluster (GSC), are joining forces in an inter-agency initiative to create a Francophone Emergency Shelter Network.

Here are some recurring characteristics of the Shelter sector in the Francophone world, and mainly in Francophone Africa, which indicate that operational and coordination teams have less capacity than elsewhere. Francophone Africa includes some of the least publicized crises in the world, some of the most neglected crises in the world, some of the most poorly funded Shelter responses in the world.

GSC: The Global Shelter Cluster 2022 Annual report states that within the 10 least funded shelter responses, 6 are Francophone countries. And out of the nine Francophone Shelter Clusters, seven of them do not have dedicated Cluster Coordinators at National level, with teams either merged with the CCCM Cluster, and they are also often double-hatting covering the organisations operational response.

This meaning that the Shelter Cluster teams have limited time and less capacity to fulfill their core functions.

UNHCR report: As shown in the UNHCR Shelter evaluation report, one main aspect of the Shelter interventions on the ground in West & central Africa is the focus on emergency response, with priority given to distribution of tarpaulin over other form of shelter support and modalities.

Clearly an illustration of a lack of capacity for providing a continuum of shelter support across all phases of the crisis (prevention, preparation, to emergency response and durable solutions).

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7 Webinars held online in 2022 & 2024

Objective: To promote an improved capacity of the sector to plan and deliver humanitarian and recovery Shelter & Settlements programming in Francophone countries, through learning/training, cooperation, and research.

WHAT ?

2022
Shelter/NFI capacity building activities for West and Central African countries
	17 November	24 November	1 December
Title	Local Building Culture, Environment and Climate Change & Local shelter typologies	CVA and Rental Market Interventions & HLP and Due Diligence	Participatory approach for Safe Shelter awareness (PASSA) & Settlement approach

2024
Webinaires du réseau Habitat d’Urgence Francophone
	8 February	15 February	22 February	29 February
Title	Adopting a gender perspective	Housing, Land and Property rights	From emergency to sustainable solutions: from theory to reality	Energy, climate change and the environment
Duration	3h57m	3h20m	3h46m	3h05m
Number of participants	149	178	142	112
Average attendance time	1h 43m 14s	1h 40m 53s	1h 54m 19s	1h 38m 56s

https://sheltercluster.org/community-practice/reseau-habitat-durgence-francophone

To promote capacity building, two series of free webinars were held online in November 2022 and February 2024, where up to 150 simultaneous participants gathered, and a list of more than 230 interested French-speaking practitioners was compiled.

2022:

Day 1 - 17 November: Local Building Culture, Environment and Climate Change – CRAterre, Local shelter typologies - Croix Rouge Luxembourg & UNHCR

Day 2 - 24 November: CVA and Rental Market Interventions – CRS, HLP and Due Diligence – IOM

Day 3 - 1 December: Participatory approach for Safe Shelter awareness (PASSA)- IFRC, Settlement approach IOM

2024:

Day 1 - 8 February: Adopting a gender perspective - IOM, IFRC, CR Madagascar, DRC, urbSEN Senegal

Day 2 - 15 February: HLP – CRS & Verent Solutions, IOM, IFRC, NRC

Day 3 - 22 February: From emergency to sustainable solutions: from theory to reality – CR France, CRAterre, IFRC, SC Burkina Faso & CRS, IOM & UNHCR Niger,

Day 4 - 29 February: Energy, climate change and the environment – UNCHR, NRC, ECHO, SC DRC, CRS, CR Madagascar, GSC

The intention is for a more product- oriented approach rather than a networking event on general selected topics.

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Results at the date

234 individual participants registered their email for future RHUF activities

WHAT ?

Web page in Global Shelter Cluster website:

1) CoP “Réseau Habitat d’Urgence Francophone”

2) Online documents and resources in French

aime.dundji@crs.org	clarisse.abedi@kvinnatillkvinna.se	clementine.kenkeu@nrc.no	mekaissamsamuel@gmai.com
samkone@iom.int	charge.programmes.ahdd@gmail.com	ramatoulayedicko95@gmail.com	djimbaye.djetadom@crs.org
caideltchadassociation@yahoo.fr	apeffivu@gmail.om	guygassia@hotmail.com	kadidiata.ouedraogo@crs.org
ovddhmo@gmail.com	seydouk@dedi.org	amanid@unhcr.org	birba@unhcr.org
headmanagerfnohd@gmail.com	apadecasbl@yahoo.fr	djeufa@gmail.com	lukahanhanzo@yahoo.fr
aminou.seidou@crs.org	laetitianjiki@gmail.com	jkmu@dca.dk	karim.thiombiano@acted.org
sterline.claude@acted.org	afedemgoma@gmail.com	sambo.kieni@nrc.no	claudeouaga@gmail.com
nyandwip@unhcr.org	corinne.dene@nrc.no	b.moussa-mahaman@hi.org	issakha212@gmail.com
ulrichmowena@gmail.com	andrianina.rakoto@ifrc.org	ndiace.dangoura@crs.org	mn.salissou-nababa@hi.org
britt.christi@gmail.com	vincent.pena@basa-architecture.fr	damien.kabore@crs.org	muhigwasamuel@gmail.com
niaina.shelter@crmada.org	idisoule@unhcr.org	jessi.mavoungou@crs.org	Samuel.Mekaissam@crs.org
and.rakotoarivelo@gmail.com	desire.nanema@nrc.no	abdoulaye.garba@crs.org	makhseck01@gmail.com
synat.ntumba@concern.net	lacine.mounkoro@gmail.com	ndiben16@gmail.com	leduroc@iom.int
emilie.forestier@gmail.com	flore.bernigaud@paris.msf.org	louismichelatendeng.badji@crs.prg	adcvhumanitaire@gmail.com
marine.morin@acted.org	fadimatou.abdou@savethechildren.org	elhadjicheikh.sy@crs.org	magatte@urbasen.org
havedisastercallkelly@gmail.com	annadixie@shelterbox.org	mekaissamsamuel@gmail.com	miguel.meza@crs.org
rakonton@unhcr.org	ibrahim_haboudanmalka@wvi.org	abarbier@iom.int	hector.esteban@outlook.com
looses@unhcr.org	ines.aguettaz@gmail.com	Gildas.ANAGO@crs.org	cbawa@samaritan.org
zaliatou.bagri@crs.org	hermann.pehan@impact-initiatives.org	salifou.malamhassane@crs.org	jrodriguez@samaritan.org
marina.pdds@gmail.com	imentlili.archi@gmail.com	mouscatlufungulo@gmail.com	apeffivunationale@gmail.com
karolkabrach@gmail.com	zade.sompohi@gmail.com	promahdasbl@gmail.com	celine.white@croix-rouge.fr
kgbonsike@iom.int	jhabyarimana@samaritan.org	cbakengesa@tpordc.org	koivogui@unhcr.org
Charles.karake@crs.org	ahmeddia@unhcr.org	abedipascalwerner@gmail.com	sfarhat@habitat.org
kiabresse@iom.int	pascalmunganga72@gmail.com	cofac.rdc@sheltercluster.org	kajemba@unhcr.org
jcidon@habitat.org	deborah.mayaud@lyon.archi.fr	syamtel.madjadoum@lutheranworld.org	makangaz@unhcr.org
marina.parrodiazdesonseca@croix-rouge.fr	leonard.bakaiwe@crs.org	catherinepizani@gmail.com	ppanosetti@yahoo.fr
mtherrien@iom.int	effebipatrice@gmail.com	verohanitrarazafindralambo@gmail.com	fiammetta.ferioli@croix-rouge.lu
ndiayemariama2000@yahoo.fr	elyse.ndayihimbaze@hacburundi.org	aalcalde@iom.int	balagiziserge@gmail.com
oscar.tsongo@nrc.no	baya.bakouane@nrc.no	fara.raveloson@adra.mg	protection.nordkivu.rdc@intersos.org
annemonkambulanzaaba@gmail.com	kalombor@unhcr.org	moussa.ouedraogo@crs.org	moussamahamanebachirou@yahoo.fr
abdoul.ide@nrc.no	issifi.issaka@yahoo.com	rtprotection@tintua.net	e.sevillano.gutierrez@craterre.org
stephane.lienou@nrc.no	andoniaina.ranarijesy@crs.org	patkzd@yahoo.fr	ibsoulmous@yahoo.fr
abdoulazizide@yahoo.fr	marara@unhcr.org	elsa.perreau@impact-initiatives.org	pierre.kimbee@nrc.no
lea.adeleke@crs.org	cissehaphane@yahoo.fr	josephjohnreekedson@gmail.com	ITanimoune@samaritan.org
grc.crco@cr-comores.org	alousseini@iom.int	kombasserecaniraoulwendpanga@gmail.com	narcisse.ringar@crs.org
soki@unhcr.org	tsakourav2@yahoo.fr	a.elazher@gmail.com	nahavitatsara@gmail.com
philimas2014@gmail.com	habineza@unhcr.org	bouthaina.toujani@echofield.eu	ephrem.ilboudo@crs.org
ghislain.kpidjoumiango@nrc.no	emesidor@iom.int	voahary.ialijaona@ifrc.org	kal_mal1@yahoo.fr
adcvtrasocial@gmail.com	tresor.luvale@nrc.no	sosthene.nganga@crs.org	adjahoss@unhcr.org
kabanguk@unhcr.org	forghabr@gmail.com	rudy.andrianaivo@adra.mg	njaka.nirinalisoa@medair.org
daosimons@gmail.com	mbangkandji@gmail.com	gambamathieu@gmail.com	gamba.bibata@yahoo.fr
daosimon@aol.fr	ahddong2019@gmail.com	pascal.nana@tintua.org	luca.girardi@impact-initiatives.org
arnaudbonkian@gmail.com	hamadou.sidibe@nrc.no	emmanuelle.martin5602@gmail.com	o.moles@craterre.org
giuliagrampa@gmail.com	samuel.silimbili@drc.ngo	alexandra.ravelomamonjy@adra.mg	camille.gauron@wanadoo.fr
jmichon@solidarites.org	Diakaban@unhcr.org	aslogcrt@gmail.com	mavantemsche@gmail.com
barbara.mccallin@drc.ngo	yasmine.toure@crs.org	rpierrelouis@iom.int	apeffivu@gmail.com
leonard@ica.org.bi	anatole@helpageprogramme-rdc.org	nniyoyankunz@iom.int	aefevrdc@gmail.com
gaby.breton@savethechildren.org	fernando.medina@nrc.no	r.andryjose@gmail.com	clara.afecto@acted.org
iboukoun.nanako@crs.org	i.lemee75@gmail.com	nivo.rakotoarivelo@adra.mg	abdoullabbo@gmail.com
corine.zida@nrc.no	adolphe.kabore@crs.org	Fabiola.Nono@crs.org	amale@dca.dk
jbretouklein@urd.org	e.sevillano.gutierrez@gmail.com	e.cauderay@craterre.org	exauce.mbaiasra@crs.org
eugene@diasporamedicaleplusrdc.org	jtshibamba@iom.int	jamuelas@iom.int	sakouvog@unhcr.org
asso_apeo@yahoo.fr	kajakaona.tiers.lieu@gmail.com	leoncey@dedi.org	im1.rdc@sheltercluster.org
nonos.fabiola@gmail.com	amelia.rule@nrc.no	caroline.t@ongasmade.org	anja.rafiarenana@ifrc.org
Ayuk.Tabe@crs.org	adhakizimana@iom.int	klacroix@icrc.org	mouedraogo@usaid.gov
doudousere70@gmail.com	miriam.lopez@crs.org	nyundabazibuhe@gmail.com	alkassoum.maiga@acted.org
jeanmarie.nimubona@croixrouge.bi	coordo.niamey.tillaberi.ahdd@gmail.com	safarimugar@gmail.com	elia.enrech@gmail.com
raphaelmbogoserge1@gmail.com	andayizeye@iom.int	adamou.seyni@acted.org
yamwenziyo@caritasdegoma.org	alse2001@gmail.com	mariama.amaranga@gmail.com

https://sheltercluster.org/community-practice/reseau-habitat-durgence-francophone

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Proposed initiatives and CoP

The objective of the Réseau Habitat d’Urgence Francophone is to promote capacity building for actors in the shelter sector to plan and implement humanitarian aid and reconstruction programmes in the French-speaking countries, through the following actions:

Knowledge-sharing

To continue to invest in exchanges between French-speaking shelter practitioners and in training
Identifying, translating and making available tools, training, case studies and good practice.
Establish partnerships with academic and professional training bodies.

Cooperative actions

Formally structure the Francophone Shelter network around a Community of Practice.
Disseminate documents and digital resources in French as part of a shared knowledge repository.

Research

Thoroughly assess the capacities of the Shelter sector operating in the Francophone countries
Develop strategic, operational and financial partnerships.

HOW ?

The aim of the network is to promote capacity building among French-speaking actors in the sector to plan and implement humanitarian aid and reconstruction programmes, through Knowledge-sharing, cooperation and research.

In Line with GSC 2 strategic objectives:

1) Extend the impact (integrating responses, reducing environmental impact, safe secure protective environmental, recovery and durable solution from the begin) – comprehensive & sustainable, consider diverse needs, sustainability & resilience, more than a physical structure, address immediate needs and recovery & stability

2) Optimize the reach (timely response, target the vulnerable, great coverage) – advocate timely & well-resource shelter response, efficiency &effectiveness, scale-up –

And GSC 3 enablers:

1)Improve & wide coordination -> unified & effective response

2) Localization -> close to local communities

3) Accountability -> transparency & accountability to build trust

We are expressing our commitment to pooling our efforts to contribute to a discussion between humanitarian practitioners in the shelter sector, civil society actors, academics, policy-makers and financial institutions.

Together, we aim to make the funding and delivery of shelter assistance in the French-speaking world more effective, and to better prepare for crises, better prevent disasters and better respond sustainably to situations of protracted displacement.

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Some key question for discussion

1) What is your general opinion regarding the creation of the Francophone Shelter Network and does your organization want to be part of it / support it?

The idea is to know if this initiative makes sense for the sector, what the objectives could be (changes/sustainable improvements), and what its structure and composition could be.

2) What capacity building are we talking about? What are the challenges, gaps and learning needs specific to Francophone countries? What are the interventions that can contribute to better deliver and coordinate shelter assistance in Francophone countries?

The idea is to benefit from your personal and organisations’ experience in delivering and/or coordinating shelter assistance in Francophone countries.

3) Following the series of two online and free French-language webinars we organized in November 2022 and February 2024, the participants expressed the wish to see the following topics addressed/prioritized in the future: a) Linking Shelter with other sectors (wider impact), b) Shelter support options and modalities (in-kind, market-based approach, etc.) and c) HLP.

The idea is to find out whether these topics are in line with those of your organization's priorities, especially in Francophone countries.

HOW? THE WAY FORWARD

Knowledge-sharing, cooperation, research