Resilient and sustainable rural housing

About 67% of the population in Mozambique lives in rural areas, out of a universe of approximately 30 million inhabitants, with 90% of families surviving on rural production, namely agriculture, livestock and hunting.

The vulnerability of families is revealed at the level of buildings for residences and agricultural infrastructure, for example barns and corrals. Only 6% of families have houses made of conventional material. The rest live in traditional houses, which, given the climate challenges of today, can be considered precarious construction. The environmental risk mitigation techniques used are those with limited effectiveness, for example, placing weights on the roofs of houses to minimize the impact of winds.

One might think that the solution is to expand conventional housing, but it turns out that not only is it not cost-effective for poor people, it is also unsustainable for the environment. Conventional home construction comes at a tremendous expense to the planet. Building 1.7 million homes with traditional wood, steel and concrete frames consumes the same amount of energy as heating and cooling 10 million houses each year, according to the Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials. The environmental costs stem largely from the manufacture of the materials. Cement production, for example, requires an astounding amount of energy and results in water and air pollution and industrial waste that is usually not recycled. Using natural materials that require minimal processing or refining reduces these environmental impacts.

On the other hand, rural production is basically for subsistence, highly dependent on climatic conditions, uses rudimentary and dysfunctional technologies, and is disintegrated from regional or national value chains, especially with low access to quality inputs and low access to consumers markets. This rural production is now incapable to feed families or supply the market, due to the harmful effects of climate change, in particular droughts, heavy rains and the action of winds and cyclones. Other problems are: Presence of a series of pests resistant to the combat products currently available on the local market; Lands that are not very fertile and suffering from salinization; Invasion of animals on farms.

The impact of natural disasters is accentuated by a series of human actions that increase vulnerability: disorderly occupation of land, deforestation and erosion.

In summary, rural production as well as rural civil construction suffer from a lack of qualified labor and limited access to technology.

Therefore, the main challenges for this project are as follows:

• Propose adequate and resilient housing that is a safe investment against stressful natural events

• Include a highly productive home garden that delivers crops throughout the year and serves as a school of smart agriculture, helping to face the problems of food insecurity, hunger and malnutrition.

• Fostering the use of materials and practices that enhance the resilience of housing.

• Ensure that the proposed solutions are as ecological as possible

• Ensure that the adopted solutions are appropriate for local families, in terms of culture, technology and cost

We want to test (proof of concept) a MVP that we developed of a green rural family home, 800-1000 square meters of total lot, 72 square meters of a 3-rooms house, and 520 sqm of backyard garden.

The main features of the house and garden is that they are more resilient to extreme weather events, such as floods, drought, strong winds and cyclones; and on the other hand the garden delivers annual crops worth $4000.

We have a rectangular garden model for residents in settlements with contiguous residences and a circular garden model (Mandala garden) for discontinuous residences.

The backyard garden is designed to have features that allow achieving the following objectives:

• Less dependent as possible on soil and climate factors;

• Highly productive when compared to other local solutions;

• High productivity (allowing high performance in a small space);

• Staggered choice of crops with maturation at different times to guarantee continuous harvests throughout the year (seasonality and perenniality of crops);

• Prevent women and kids of walking long distance to reach family farms cultivated in best soils or near natural water sources;

In general, our MVP is based on three main premises:

i) House and garden models adapted to climate change and the impacts of natural hazards – with the integration of technical adaptation measures and disaster risk reduction.

ii) Models culturally appropriate for the local context – privileging locally predominant constructive or productive typologies and models, so that communities identify and thus appropriate them.

iii) Models with accessible construction costs and technologies – promoting the application of alternative materials and techniques in a way that is accessible to the capacities of the communities.

Our solution will be especially useful for communities of the coast of the country (around 10 million people), in a continuous situation of natural disaster: with specific problems of soil impoverishment, occurrence of strong winds and cyclones, erosion caused by winds, as well as exacerbated and unsustainable use of natural resources (deforestation and uncontrolled hunting).

These populations lack renewed knowledge on how to deal with the effects of climate change. On the other hand, they are excluded from mitigation initiatives outlined in government policies. Only a residual part is lucky enough to access climate literacy initiatives provided by NGOs.

In these populations, there are groups that are most affected: women, young people, people with disabilities and the elderly.

These populations often experience situations of forced migration as a result of natural disasters. However, there is a weak humanitarian response and low capacity to mitigate the impact of forced displacement. The main challenges have to do with the need to reinsert displaced people, integration into new areas of residence and economic activity, provision of decent housing, access to land for the development of routine activities, social infrastructure (namely, health units, schools, police stations , among others), as well as organizational adaptation and coexistence of internally displaced people in the new context

In concrete terms, the proof-of-concept of our project will be carried out in 3 villages, one in each of the southern provinces of Mozambique (Maputo, Gaza and Inhambane) in order to capture different realities of action research.

The research we carried out together with these communities allowed us to determine their profile as follows:

1) The population is mostly female (male rate of 47%), young (40% under 15 years old) and from a rural background. The economic dependency rate is ten children or elderly people for every 15 people of working age.

2) From the climatic point of view, according to the Koppen classification, it is dominated by a tropical climate, humid and dry, with a dry winter and rainy summer, with an average annual temperature between 23° and 24°

3) The most common types of soil are of low fertility, with high zones, sandy sediments, and coastal dune zones.

4) The different groups in the communities understand the project and the innovations it brings as opportune and urgent. They are committed to the project and say they are available for work, as long as they don't neglect their survival tasks. One proposal is to work on discontinuous weekdays and avoid harvest months.

5) The local supervisory authorities applaud the project and wish it success and offer their full support, within their possibilities.

6) Some production and construction techniques are not entirely new to the populations: they are similar to traditional ones or migrant workers (e.g. miners in South Africa) will have visualized these techniques.

7) Home backyards have dimensions that allow our MVP to be installed.

8) There is an appetite for collaboration and self-help among beneficiaries.

INOVAGRI LDA is a company that promotes innovations, having already launched innovative family farming projects. With the support of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, he started an urban agriculture project carried out in family spaces, which is currently in progress. With funding from the Irish Embassy, it is developing a demonstration garden of ecological agriculture in a rural town in the province of Gaza. He is currently participating in a business incubator promoted by the German agency GIZ and the Standard Bank for the production of ecological fertilizers.

We are not going to start from scratch, we already have interaction and activities developed in the target communities, namely a research process that enabled the design of our MVP.

Three people were involved in this process:

• Pedro Muiambo - an economist and activist specializing in community development with over 20 years of experience and with a long track record of training and mentoring in entrepreneurship and innovation promotion. He will be the Project Lead

• Osvaldo Nobela - a rural engineer who has studied ecologically resilient rural building techniques, with over 10 years of experience working in communities, will assume the role of Technical Manager and will be responsible for the technical part of the project.

• Iracema de Sousa – Community catalyst for over 10 years, responsible for mobilising, organizing and motivating communities from a perspective of inclusion and gender equity.

We have done research and designed a Minimum Viable Product which as been validated by the potential beneficiaries and some stakeholders

In this proof-of-concept phase, the project will build 15 demonstration residences, 5 in each village. Lessons learned from the project will benefit more than 10 million people.

Mozambique is at an early stage of climate action, and there are still no impact investors that we can turn to for support to operationalize our solutions.

The government National Strategy for Adaptation and Mitigation of Climate Change 2013-2025, which calls for the participation of civil society, recognizing its structural inability to face the countless challenges alone. Of note is the lack of funds to allocate civil society to this goal.

The first innovative aspect of this project is the focus on growing highly productive vegetable gardens in the backyard of homes. Conventional solutions invest in supporting the cultivation of farms that farmers have in traditional cultivation areas.

Another innovation has to do with the use of alternative alternative technologies that have proved to be functional in other parts of the world, combined in a certain way: in particular, for civil construction: earth bag construction, hawks, green roofs and iron cement; permaculture and agroecology, for example, mini-greenhouses, green fencing, allelopathic blending of crops, self-produced organic fertilizers and feeds such as hydroponic maize.

The way to test our solution will also be innovative, namely with a strong integration of local knowledge. Local builders will be challenged to find local ways to adapt the exogenous techniques brought by the project, while project engineers will seek to find ways to enhance local techniques.

In terms of differential in relation to other solutions, our model is the most cost-effective, by proposing low-cost techniques, and producing an enormous positive impact on the lives of families and the community, in economic, social and environmental terms. For example, our MVP allows for a 72 sqm home at less than a quarter the value of a conventional home

Ours will be the first project to challenge public works and housing authorities to consider considering earth bag construction and green roof technologies as eligible and credible for conventional construction.

Finally, the project will represent a seed for new housing and green farming practices that can be adopted by the Government and NGOs to achieve the goal of housing and food for all.

The impact goals of our solution are as follows:

1. Rural families growingly adopt green and resilient to the adverse effects of climate change in civil construction and agriculture

2. Rural families increase livelihoods and income generation;

3. Marginal populations are included in processes in the search and application of ecological livelihoods.

4. Reduce natural resource use and construction waste, increase energy and water efficiency. Please note: This is achieved by using natural materials that require minimal processing, transportation or refining: trees saved; less cement used; less shipping freights; less energy usage; etc. 

The main indicators to measure the success of the project are the following:

• Number of people benefiting from the project, disaggregated by gender, age, location of residence, vulnerability groups

• Number of demo houses built

• Level of resilience of houses and gardens to extreme weather events

• Level of productivity of vegetable gardens compared to traditional crops

• Degree of thermal performance and energy saving of the houses

• Level of carbon emission savings

• Level of use of organic inputs in the cultivation of vegetable gardens

• Degree of satisfaction of beneficiaries and stakeholders

Impact 1. Rural families growingly adopt green and resilient to the adverse effects of climate change in civil construction and agriculture

Objective 1 – Promoting social housing through the democratization of ecological and resilient houses in the coastal rural space of Mozambique

Output 1.1 – 15 ecological and resilient houses will have been built in 3 rural villages

Output 1.2 – The ecological and resilient houses model is validated by local government authorities, communities and other stakeholders

Output 1.3 – Produced an iconographic manual on ecological construction

Main activities include:

a) Preparation of architectural construction and execution projects

b) Community workshops for capacity building and technology adaptation

c) Participatory building of houses

d) Study of the performance of buildings for authorities and stakeholders

e) Advocacy with authorities and stakeholders

Impact 2. Rural families increase livelihoods and income generation

Objective 2 – Promoting the integration of enhanced livelihoods for the families in the social housing agenda

Output 2.1 – 15 ecological and resilient backyard garden will have been built in 3 rural villages

Output 2.2 - The ecological and resilient backyard garden model is validated by local government authorities, communities and other stakeholders

Output 2.3 – Produced an iconographic manual on ecological, integrated and cost-effective agriculture

The planned activities are:

a) Preparation of landscaping projects for vegetable gardens

b) Community workshops for capacity building and technology adaptation

c) Participatory cultivation of vegetable gardens

d) Study of the performance of the gardens

e) Advocacy with authorities and stakeholders

Impact 3. Marginal populations are included in processes in the search and application of ecological livelihoods.

Objective 3 – Transversely, promote gender equity and the inclusion of the most marginalized groups in the climate agenda

Output 3.1 – More than 50% of project beneficiaries and participants are women, more than 50% are young people, a minimum of 5% are people with disabilities and a minimum of 10% are elderly people

The activities planned to achieve these results are:

a) Identification and selection of beneficiaries in the villages

b) Participatory diagnosis of the difficulties and potential for participation of the most marginalized groups

c) Study of the level of participation and performance of the most marginalized groups

d) Study of the degree of satisfaction of beneficiary families, communities and other stakeholders

e) Training on processing and conservation of crops

Impact 4. Reduce natural resource use and construction waste, increase energy and water efficiency.

Objective 4 – Reduce the environmental footprint on the livelihoods of rural communities

Output 4.1 – Produced a report on the eco performances of the houses and backyard gardens

The main activities for the prescribed output are:

a) Mapping of local resources in communities and conventional resources needed

b) Study of carbon emission savings calculations and potential for further reduction

The buildings make intensive use of the following construction techniques or approaches: intensive use of ecological earth bag construction; green roof and grass cover; a combination of conventional and local materials; combination of conventional and traditional technologies; techniques that favor natural light and capture and conservation of water

On the other hand, the backyard garden, is based on precision agriculture, production in a controlled environment (e.g. mini-greenhouses using plants), permaculture and agroecology approach, part rainfed cultivation and part irrigated cultivation, integrated production of crops (coexistence and allelopathic effect between cultures: vegetables, domestic animals, cereals, and medicinal plants), intensive cultivation of drought-resistant crops, domestication of wild crops, use of green fences as windbreaks, use of natural insecticides and fertilizers.

We will offer green homes in different “shades of green” which will represent a different compilation of green features, namely:

• Intelligent design and site orientation
• Natural materials use
• Ultra-tight building envelope incorporating precision joints, sealed ducts, sealed openings, high-performance insulation, high performance doors and windows
• Low-flow fixtures and appliances
• Minimal iron use
• Recycled glass countertops
• Low-VOC and non-toxic paints, finishes and adhesives
• Rainwater harvesting system
• Ferro-cement water reservoirs
• Natural air conditioning

In sum we diminish drastically the use of those non green material, betting on natural building that offer a way to construct a home with renewable, naturally occurring and locally available materials, as opposed to industrial or man-made products. Many of these materials are available throughout the country, so the costs and pollution associated with the transportation of these materials across the country falls. Using natural materials also reduce toxins in the home which is good for health. Many of these methods are energy efficient, inexpensive and easy to build with little construction knowledge.

As a background in the design and implementation of this project, we will keep in mind that giving women increased access to resources can reduce vulnerability and create more resilient households and communities. In addition, involving women in decision-making can help drive the adoption of climate change policies and strengthen mitigation and adaptation efforts by ensuring they benefit the needs of women and youth.

Thus, our strategies involve building and enhancing adaptive capacities while safeguarding the needs of the most vulnerable.

In concrete terms, we will promote the following strategies, among other:

• Participatory, community-based approaches to ensure that the voices of different segments of the rural population – men, women, young people, indigenous people, the poor and the better-off – are equally heard and valued;

• Embedding gender-sensitive approaches in local development goals and poverty reduction programs to get greater buy-in from governments and the broader development community;

• Demand-driven approaches for the promotion of pro-poor, gender-sensitive innovations to ensure successful uptake and sustainability;

• Strengthening women’s social capital through forming women-only groups and empowering them to access and manage key resources and assets; the same with other groups

• Empowering each group of beneficiaries by transferring to them the decision-making power over the use of public resources;

• Promoting participatory infrastructure development to reduce women’s and girl’s workload;

• Reinforcing rural everyone’s self-confidence, knowledge and skills – including technical, leadership and managerial – through vocational training, functional literacy and adoption of appropriate learning approaches (e.g. peer learning, exchange visits, learning routes);

• Engaging with all family members, thus leveraging the positive complementarities between women and men, young and old, to challenge unequal intra-household relations and labor distribution, and promote equitable sharing of resources, income and workload;

• Fostering all beneficiaries participation and leadership in farmer and producer organizations and other decision-making bodies

Personal safety and security and do no harm awareness are central to an effective duty of the community project – protecting staff and communities by building knowledge, management plans and developing practical and real-world skills through highly interactive and immersive learning programs.

Three actions are planned to promote human security: (i) Assessment of the risks and vulnerabilities of conflicts linked to human security, with a view to building a baseline and mitigation recommendations; (ii) Design of a Human Security and Do no Harm Plan for the project; (iii) Implementation of the security plan, including training of personnel.