Noorullah Kuchai is a civil engineer, a humanitarian and a refugee twice over. He lived in a tent in a Pakistani refugee camp for a decade and is now dedicating his life to helping people who have been displaced by war like he was. And the challenge is enormous. More people are being displaced by conflict and disaster than ever before. Today 71 million people around the world are in need of shelter, either as refugees having crossed borders to get to safety, or by becoming homeless inside their own countries. And in most cases these people will not get to go home for years, sometimes even decades. New approaches are therefore needed to ensure that shelter is sustainable, durable and socially beneficial for displaced people and the communities that host them. To enable this, collaboration is needed between humanitarians, local governments, academia and technical professionals to bring together those that manage disaster on the ground, and people who are developing better shelter. We head to the UK Shelter Forum in London to find out more about how this knowledge gap is closing.

Episode partner is Mott MacDonald

Guests

Dima Albadra, Research Associate, University of Bath

Tom Corsellis, Executive Director, Shelter Centre

Jamie Johnston, Head of Global Systems, Bryden Wood

Anne Kerr, Global Head of Cities, Mott Macdonald

Nooroola Kuchai, PhD Candidate, University of Bath

Dr Francis Moran, Research Associate, University of Bath

Brett Moore, Head of Shelter and Settlements, UNHCR

Ana Ruiton, Façade Engineer, Mott MacDonald

Jake Zarins, Associate Director Disaster Risk Reduction, Habitat for Humanity

Resources

• UK Shelter Forum website
• Healthy Housing for the Displaced project
• Engineering Hope

Partner

Mott MacDonald: Opening opportunities with connected thinking.

Mott MacDonald is a US$2bn engineering, management and development consultancy involved in: 

• solving some of the world’s most urgent social, environmental and economic challenges
• helping governments and businesses plan, deliver and sustain their strategic goals
• responding to humanitarian and natural emergencies
• improving people’s lives 

Its expertise by sector includes buildings, communications, defence, education, environment, health, industry, mining, oil and gas, power, transport, urban development, water, wastewater and more. Its skills encompass planning, studies and design, project finance, technical advisory services, project and programme management, management consultancy and beyond.