Building and Construction Improvement Programme-BACIP, Entrepreneur Training & Development. (ETD) (PAK/02/36)

Project Details & Results

The objective of the Building and Construction Improvement Programme (BACIP) has been to promote measures that will enable the extremely remote communities of the Hinduhush, Karakoram and Himalayan mountain areas in Northern Areas and Chitral region of Pakistan and to make sustainable improvements in their living conditions. This should not only allow them to optimize their investment in built-environment-related aspects but also result in improving their quality of life. As the region moves from being extremely underdeveloped and traditional to being more modern and relatively more developed, the strategic objective of the programme is to develop human resources and institutional capacities that will allow the people of the programme area to better manage this process of change. The first phase of the programme was implemented during April 1997 to December, 2000 by the Aga Khan Planning and Building Services, Pakistan (AKPBS,P), in partnership with Aga Khan Foundation duly funded by Canadian International development Agency -CIDA. The main focus has been to analyze the housing related problems of the target population and developing appropriate solutions, which are cost effective, involve local capacities & materials and remain adoptable culturally to the local people. Improving the quality of life of women through programmatic delivery , which remained the hallmark of BACIP throughout its phase length.

The programme activities in the first phase comprised the following: research and development of products that improve the domestic environment and structural stability of houses, field testing the products, documentation of the products and their manufacturing techniques, and introductory level training of entrepreneurs and product promotion methodologies. Efforts were also made to undertake participatory cluster and village planning and mapping of natural hazards in villages. A total of 60 home-improvement products have been identified, out of which 40 have been tested in villages, 10 of these products are specifically designed for enhancing fuel and thermal efficiency of the rural houses in the cold region and directly compliment fuel wood and forest conservation and also reduce smoke emission in the environment . Also 15 of these 40 home improvements directly improve the quality of life of women and children Significant impact of BACIP products on improved health, poverty alleviation and environmental conservation have also been observed and their potential impact was required to be further validated and documented (the impacts have been validated and published ). In order to consolidate, extend and validate the impact, an extension phase was sought (the current phase) duly funded in partnership by the Aga Khan Foundation and US AID. As the demand is growing for BACIP products in the Northern Areas, it is strongly felt that an additional need exists for developing the capacities of local entrepreneurs in terms of formal training (over and above the existing training module) for enhancing replication rate and building local capacities for sustainable development.

Capacity - Building Component
The project seeks to train local artisans to implement these techniques for local and sustainable process. Thus, the major emphasis of the project is capacity building. Trainings appear to be primarily technical in nature. A large number of materials have been produced to help raise awareness about the products and to share technical knowledge. For example, written products include: installation, manufacturing and research manuals, promotional brochures, documentation of the impact of individual products, and field-based research papers.

Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods
Health: Improved thermal comfort and reduced use of biomass in the home for cooking and heating improves air quality and the risk of eye and respiratory problems caused due to smoke and cold, especially for women and children. Ten of the products being introduced are specifically designed to enhance home cooking and heating efficiency, reducing smoke emissions. As a result, homes are warmer in the winter and overall have better temperature control. In addition, the innovations improve home lighting, ventilation, in-house hygiene, and sanitation facilities. All of these lead to a healthier home environment. BACIP materials indicate a 50% reduction in illnesses related to cold and smoke.

Reduced Fatigue: women and children’s workload are lessened by reducing the amount of firewood that must be collected for cooking and heating. The improved use of space in the home also lessens the workload. 15 of the 40 improvements so far implemented directly improve the quality of life of women and children.

Project Results
The project benefitted 2500 households in 60 villages at the time of its completion.

10.4 percent of the households of the Gilgit Region and 7.5 percent of the households of the Nathiagali Region adopted BACIP products. This adoption rate includes the demonstration products (or models) installed free-of-cost by BACIP. In Ghulkin village, however, where BACIP has been active for a longer period, at least two products—the roof hatch window and the combination of fuel-efficient stove with the water warming facility—have been adopted by almost one-half of the households. This illustrates how results tend to improve with time for some products, and similar trends are visible in some of the other villages in which BACIP has been active for some time.

Not surprisingly, there is a considerable amount of village-to-village variation in the adoption rate. Discussion with BACIP suggests that there may be good reasons for this variation, but available documents do not explore this issue systematically.

The product mix in Nathiagali is more heavily skewed in favour of fuel-efficient products than in Gilgit: 95 percent of the products adopted in Nathiagali, and 70 percent in Gilgit, are fuel-efficient products. The adoption of structural products is negligible in both regions, while household and other products account for 27 percent of the products adopted in the Gilgit Region. As data from Ghulkin village show, even after three years, only a small proportion of the households have adopted structural and household products.

Even after three years, as the Ghulkin data show, only five products have attained a double-digit adoption rate. Three of these five products—the fuel efficient stove, the water warming facility and the chimney—are related to each other by design. The fourth product that has done well is the roof hatch window, which is particularly useful in cold, high-altitude locations.

BACIP Fuel Efficient Stoves with Water Warming Facility
Estimation of Potential Carbon Credits – Basic Project data for 2,500 households

Fuel wood consumption (without project) (average of Gilgit @ 28 kg/day and N/gali @ 25 kg/day) = 1,987,500 kg / month 23.8 Kilo ton/year

Fuel wood consumption (with project) @ 15 kg/day = 1,125,000 kg / month 14 Kilo ton/year
Fuel wood consumption avoided = 862,500 kg / month 10 Kilo ton/year


Estimation of Emission Reduction

Fuel wood consumption (avoided) (kt/ year) 10
Carbon fraction (a) 0.50
Annual carbon reduction (kt C)= Fuel wood consumption avoided x carbon fraction 4.9
Base line carbon emission before project= fuel consumed before project x carbon fraction. 11.8

Notes: The range for carbon fraction values is usually between 0.43 to 0.58. The default assumption of 0.5 fraction used as per IPCC guidelines (IPCC GHG inventory Reference Manual -1996/p 5.31)

Emission Base Line Projections*

Accumulated Values (kt C/ Annum)
Year Base Line Em’s Reduced Em’s Avoided Em’s
0 0 0 0
1 11.8 4.9 5
2 24 10 10
3 36 15 15
4 48 20 20
5 59 25 25
6 71 30 30

* assumption: 6 years product life

Energy Efficient Stove