The Durable Approach
For the past thirty years Development Workshop has promoted sustainable settlement and shelter development that respects existing values and the availability of accessible skills, resources and finance fundamental to achieving durable approaches to a better and safer living environment.
DWF believes in promoting local responsibility and capacity. We believe that understanding indigenous building and planning practices and the factors that condition them is fundamental to addressing contemporary settlement and shelter needs. Additionally, needs and resource availability are facing increasing change: approaches that were sustainable over centuries are often failing to cope with today’s needs or relate adequately to today’s available resources. Many populations are faced with the declining viability of traditional and familiar solutions whilst unable to access modern alternatives or make good use of them.
In this context, DWF promotes sustainable approaches for shelter and settlement development that can be used by the population as an ongoing process. This in many instances requires adding to or strengthening local capacities, requires developing new skills and ideas that can be added to those that already exist, working to help communities and nations deal with contemporary and changing needs in a sustainable manner. DWF members have 30 years experience of working in this environment, and have pioneered the reality that understanding existing practices lays the foundation for resolving present and future issues.
A Correct Balance
Sustainability means working to satisfy a mix of characteristics:
- environmental sustainability - using approaches that avoids depleting natural resources bases and avoids contaminating the environment.
- technical sustainability - skills developed and passed on to others, using tools and resources that are accessible.
- financial sustainability - where resources can be accessed to pay for the work that needs to be done.
- organisational sustainability - where informal or formal mechanisms exist that enable people to obtain the support they need, and manage their lives and society.
- social sustainability - where the overall process and the product fit within and satisfy needs in the society.
DWF in Africa and Asia encourages actions that respect and enhance these
principles
see: Sustainable
Shelter article (pdf) | Burkina
Faso
