Rural housing: Skill transfer and the milestones for scaling-up: The case of Sustainable Rural Dwelling Units (SRDU) in Ethiopia

摘要

It is a glaring fact that the Ethiopian rural population, about 80% of the estimated eighty million people, is living in housing units that are substandard and inadequate. This dire situation calls for an immediate intervention for systematic improvement. However, the issue of rural housing is largely neglected by both academics and policy makers. Observing this gap a research project was initiated at the Housing Chair of the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building construction and City development (EiABC). This essay discusses the research project, which is entitled “Sustainable Rural Dwelling Unit” (SRDU). The focus of the research is on developing, constructing and disseminating improved housing units using alternative building materials and construction techniques. The essay discusses the hands-on research and its implementation with emphasis on strategies for capacity building, scaling-up and scaling-out. More often than not projects are prone to remain as one-time interventions short of dissemination. Transferring skill is relatively easier than fostering innovation getting it accepted by the wider population. Achieving scale may take a long period of time and a careful, culturally adjusted strategy. So far the findings of the research indicate that giving hands-on training to farmers, recruited from different parts of the project area, is one of the key methods for scaling-up.