Transcript Agenda 21 for Sustainable Construction in Developing Countries

Prepared by
Chrisna du Plessis
CSIR
BO UT EK
Challenges
The trap
Millennium Development Goals
• Eradicate extreme poverty and
hunger
• Reduce by half the proportion of
people without sustainable access
to safe drinking water.
• Achieve significant improvement in
the lives of at least 100 million slum
dwellers
Johannesburg Plan of
Implementation(WSSD)
• Clean water, sanitation, energy,
adequate shelter, health care, food
security and protection of
biodiversity.
• WEHAB – Water, Energy, Health,
Agriculture, Biodiversity.
• Forever banish underdevelopment.
Making sure that the
development that does
happen, happens according to
sustainability principles.
The barriers
Limited awareness & interest
• Little understanding of the
problem
• No clear and relevant drivers
• Other priorities
• Pursuit of “progress” and
modernity
• Resistance – new colonialism
Capacity problems
• Low skills levels across the board
• The brain drain
• Jack’s of all trade - superficial
knowledge
• Limited technical capacity (access
to laboratories, computers,
communications, etc.)
Technological apathy
• Rigid, inappropriate and outdated
regulations & perceptions
• Scarcity of information & knowledge
on new technologies
• Force-fed foreign technology
• Few local technologies available
• “Appropriate” is a dirty word
• Limited R & D funding for new built
environment technologies
Access to funding
•
•
•
•
Shoestring, piecemeal budgets
Complicated procedures
Lack of experience in proposal writing
Strings attached
– Matching funding
– Budget eaten by foreign components
(people and technologies)
– Narrow, inappropriate focus (e.g. energy
efficiency)
What developing countries
bring to the party
• Different
perspectives
• Innovation
• Tradition of
cooperation
Enablers
Technology
Institutional
Value
Benchmarking &
assessment
Clarification of roles &
responsibilities
Mapping the route and
landmarks of change
Knowledge sharing
Education
Understanding what drive
current value systems
Advocacy & awareness
Re-evaluating heritage
and tradition
Cooperation & partnerships
Technologies to mitigate
impact
Linking research to
implementers
Develop new ways of
measuring value
Develop regulatory
mechanisms
Codes of conduct
Technologies of the future
Strengthening
implementation mechanisms
Corporate social
responsibility reporting
Changing the construction
process
Using institutions as drivers
Regional centres of
excellence
Opportunities
Training & education
• Train the trainers
– Refresher courses for educators
– Exchange programmes between higher
learning institutions
• Cooperation on continued professional
education
• Scholarships linked to work-back
programmes
• Open systems of sharing knowledge
• Show and tell
Mentorship
• Volunteer assistance programmes
–
–
–
–
Brainstorming
Proposal writing
Technical support
Peer review
• In-house learnerships
– Students
– Professionals
– Educators
Partnerships
• Research
– Putting together labs &
methodologies with local
knowledge and experience
– Accessing joint funding
• Construction projects
– Learnerships graduating to full
partnerships
• SMME development
– Using sustainable building to create
local jobs and industries
Suggestions for the way forward
• Set up networks for knowledge exchange
and capacity building
• Create a volunteer assistance
programme
• Establish regional demonstration and
education centres
• Set up a virtual “marketplace” for
partnerships: research, professional, or
business
• Actively promote the above through the
industry press, professional organisations,
existing networks and government links.
In conclusion
• Don’t give us fish
• Don’t give us
fishing tackle
• Teach us what we
need to be able
to
– fish better in our
own waters,
– using local skills
and
– appropriate
technologies