From Principles to Practice DIGITAL

88Lessons learned ▪Community involvement is crucial: The success of this project is due in large part to the direct involvement of local communities in the design and execution phases. This ensured that solutions were contextually relevant and accepted by the people. ▪Capacity-building for local workers: Training local builders and engineers is essential for long-term project sustainability, helping to ensure the retrofitting work can continue after the pilot phase. ▪Addressing broader policy advocacy: Building partnerships with national and global actors is critical for securing funding and supporting scale-up of the initiative. Challenges ▪Scaling retrofitting to a larger population: While the pilot phase was successful, one of the toughest aspects of the project is finding ways to scale retrofitting efforts across a large number of homes while retaining quality and sustainability. ▪Long-term funding: Ensuring that there is sufficient funding to continue retrofitting and scaling the project to other regions remains a challenge. Securing long-term investment is crucial for the future impact of the project. Next steps ▪Moving forward, Build Change plans to expand its work in the Sula Valley, retrofitting more homes and further enhancing com- munity resilience. The initiative will also prioritize building local capacity by training more engineers and builders in the retrofit - ting techniques. ▪In addition to the on-the-ground efforts, Build Change’s global team has initiated an advocacy campaign to raise awareness of the role resilient housing plays in preventing involuntary climate migration. This includes efforts to drive policy change at national and global levels. Such efforts promote increased investment in climate-resilient housing solutions in regions facing similar cli- mate challenges. Notably, Build Change organized the Building for a Billion: The Resilient Housing Implementation Lab (the first event of its kind focused on resilient housing) at COP27, with backing from the Marrakesh Partnership, a key UN coalition on climate action. ▪Furthermore, Build Change founded the Climate Resilient Hous- ing Initiative as part of the Race to Resilience campaign. This initiative engages decision-makers and homeowners to culti- vate climate resilience through events, shared resources and increased visibility of housing, climate and migration issues. This advocacy and coalition-building work ensures that resilient housing continues to gain global attention and support. Build Change 89Christian Jepsen/NRC