A Rapid Desk Based Survey

This study provides evidence in support of the main objective: to undertake a rapid desk based study to identify the evidence and apparent gaps in evidence, in the school construction design and retrofitting to achieve disaster resilience, to inform the development of a DFID business case. To meet the objective, a search of publicly available material was undertaken as a desk exercise. The rapid desk study did not find significant statistical evidence to demonstrate that safer school buildings have resulted in a reduction of loss of life, injuries, or disruption. However, post-2015 Nepal earthquake studies provided some evidence that safer schools save lives, prevent injury and reduce disruption.

There is a great deal of evidence for the impacts on increased loss of life, injuries and increase in disruption to services from not having safer schools. The evidence shows that safer school projects do bring benefits to the community other than the ‘hard' infrastructure, including improved preparedness, technical skills and livelihoods. The evidence found was generally anecdotal and there did not appear to be many monitoring evaluation and learning studies, especially post-disaster.