Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Benevolent Construction Plan of 507 Livestock Shelters for the Earthquake Survivors of 19 Villages in the Area of Salas-Babajani in Kermanshah Province

Livestock has various applications in rural people's life including making money through the sale of meat or by-products, food security, ploughing, providing fertilizer to increase soil fertility, investment tool and so forth. In rural areas, natural disasters such as earthquakes damage the livestock shelter (LS) and consequently the livestock, and likewise jeopardizing the subsistence and occupation of local people. Therefore, reconstruction plans in rural areas need to address issues about livestock. However, studies on the experiences of relief and reconstruction of earthquake-stricken areas in Iran indicate that less attention has been paid to this issue. For the first time in the country, after the Kermanshah earthquake, a benefactor built 507 LSs for the earthquake survivors of 19 villages in the area of Salas-Babajani in Kermanshah province. In addition to introducing different aspects of this plan, this research has evaluated its effectiveness by using objective-based evaluation method. The results state that only 62 percent of all built-up LSs are being used as animal shelter, that is, target use. In other cases, the uses to which the rest of LSs are put are house, forage storehouse, odds and ends storehouse. Also, in a few cases, they have left unused. In fact, the plan has had 62 percent effectiveness. Nevertheless, the results show that the technical specifications of the designed LS building did not fully compliant with the region's climatic conditions and end-users requirements. Thus, the villagers have made copious changes in LS building so as to be able to exploit them effectively. However, the experiences of this plan can be used as a valuable accomplishment in the field of reconstruction of earthquake-stricken rural areas.