The Republic of the Fiji Islands occupies an archipelago of 322 islands. Just over 100 islands are permanently inhabited, with the vast majority of people staying on the two major islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu. Nearly 50 years ago, the government response after Tropical Cyclone Bebe that devastated the whole country varied. The diverse range of shelter solutions resulted in setting the trends in housing designs across provinces. This is apparent in Kadavu, Lau, Lomaiviti and Rotuma who each received different assistance and now have differing predominant housing types and preferences.
30,000 homes were damaged or destroyed by tropical cyclone Winston in 2016, representing the greatest loss to Fiji’s housing Stock by a single event. To tackle these issues, Habitat for Humanity Fiji began the four-year ‘Stand Strong’ project in 2018 to improve the level of resilience of Fijian communities to disasters through improved shelter conditions. Funded through New Zealand’s Partnership for International Development Fund and supported by Habitat for Humanity New Zealand, the research component of the project aims to outline the current best practise for supporting remote communities in Fiji in reconstruction and construction efforts.
A Build Back Better Policy was also adopted by Fiji Government after tropical cyclone Winston and has been incorporated into all Provincial Development as it is a comprehensive approach to promoting community resilience. Assessment saw a substantial variance of construction material supply chains between profitable construction companies and remote communities. A profitable private organization that was consulted for this publication was Golden homes. This local housing sector provides quality prefabricated homes using materials imported from Russia and pre-treated in China, before being used in Fiji. This is the sort of supply chain that is completely inaccessible to remote Fijian communities. It is extremely difficult for remote communities to transport materials from the hardware stores on the mainland to their village, or find local resources on their land.