Shelter provision in disasters has lagged behind water, sanitation and health in terms of using professionals. Professionals can contribute signficiantly to disaster relief, reconstruction and risk reduction in the built environment.

BuildAction at a glance

BuildAction brings together industry and humanitarian  expertise by providing pro bono professional support to help vulnerable communities worldwide prepare for and recover from disasters.

Sign up for Build Action

BuildAction is an RICS initiative to provide built environment expertise to disaster-related projects in the developing world.

BuildAction seeks to help overcome both the gap between immediate relief and longer term recovery, and the lack of built environment professionals used to support construction and infrastructure projects, as identified in the Mind the Gap report.

Common problems that surveyors can help resolve include corrupt accounting and tendering practices, poor workmanship, bad planning and design, and issues with land rights.

BuildAction seeks volunteers willing to provide both desk-based and field support to projects. Volunteers may be staff of firms supporting BuildAction, or individuals prepared to donate their time.

Skills required by BuildAction are generic surveying skills; experience of humanitarian work is an advantage. Appropriate training is provided for volunteers.

See Frequently Asked Questions document at top right of this page under PDF downloads.

For further information contact Emily Darko: edarko@rics.org or sign up for Build Action.