The Mercy Corps Country Director, Ndubisi Anyanwu has said that shelter is one of the key components of humanitarian and development interventions in Northeast.
According to him, the 2020 World Bank Report, show that 13% of the Nigerian population are in need of shelters.
Anyanwu spoke yesterday (Wednesday) at the Shelter Research Conference held in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
He lamented that 24% of population in the state has shelter living gaps, with 50% of the people living in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps and host communities.
“We’re exploring new and creative ways to provide sustainable shelters for the vulnerable,” he declared, stating that they need it the most.
Besides, he added: “Today’s conference, is to continue explore ways to meet a critical need in the Nigerian society,” noting that this will enable the conference share results of the groundbreaking research work on shelter.
He said the research findings could contribute to the state government’s recovery plans for relief and development efforts.
The development efforts, according to him, are in line with the State’s 25-year development plan and the decade strategic transformational plan.
On the shelter research, he said: “We’ve evidence that innovative collapsible shelter model, termite resistant timbers, stabilized mud bricks for affordable housing are possible.”
He said the shelter study is conducted in Maiduguri Metropolitan Council (MMC), Jere, Monguno, Bama, Ngala, Damboa, Chibok and Gwoza Councils.
While presenting a paper, titled: “Introduction to Shelter Applied Research and Studies,” Umar Njidda, disclosed: “The study findings indicated that there is need for collapsible transitional shelters to overcome displacement of people with forced evictions.”
According to him, the shelter conference is to improve local techniques and practices for the sustainability of shelter assistance in Borno state.
He noted that as the as he quality of mud bricks is low, there is the need to improve the quality of locally sourced materials.
Communities, he added; use locally available materials and practices to fight termites.
