A framework for community participation in post-disaster housing reconstruction projects: A case of Afghanistan Zabihullah Sadiqi a , Bambang Trigunarsyah b , ⁎ , Vaughan Coffey a a School of Civil Engineering and Built Environment, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia b Department of Construction Engineering and Management, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia Received 30 March 2016; received in revised form 15 September 2016; accepted 30 November 2016 Abstract The study aims to develop a framework for community participation that can inform a participatory approach more effectively when planning and developing post-disaster reconstruction projects. It focused on post-disaster housing reconstruction projects in Afghanistan. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore and explain the impact of the barriers upon community participation, and how such impact can be eliminated or reduced. The analysed results were extended to facilitate the development of a framework for more successful community participation in post- disaster reconstruction. This study identified five common barriers to community participation, which are: lack of community capacity, gender issues, lack of professional competence in NGOs, government policies and practices, and lack of adequate security. A logical framework is proposed as a pragmatic solution for community capacity development activities, which should lead to achieving the following objectives: to re- establish community structure; to encourage sense of project ownership; to provide disaster recovery support; and to provide livelihood opportunities. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. APM and IPMA. All rights reserved. Keywords: Afghanistan; Community participation; Housing; Post-disaster reconstruction 1. Introduction In a post-disaster environment, housing reconstruction projects frequently face enormous difficulties due to the various internal and external factors, such as: lack of community participation; problems associated with community participations; relocations; fraud, corruptions and waste of project funds, and ignoring local needs/culture. Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) operat- ing in post-disaster settings such as that found in Afghanistan continue to face blame over the failure of their reconstruction projects. While it is not always possible for NGOs to eliminate or reduce the impact of factors that are outside their control, they certainly can increase the chances of project success by placing considerable emphasis on working more closely and effectively with the affected communities. Research into post-disaster housing reconstruction advocates that effective participation of all stakeholders, particularly the inclusion of affected communities in reconstruction, is an im- portant principle for successful projects (Barenstein, 2006; Pearce, 2003; Lawther, 2009). Affected communities that are well informed and adequately empowered are able to participate effectively in all phases of post-disaster reconstruction (Duxbury and Dickinson, 2007; Denters and Klok, 2010; Chen et al., 2006; Lawther, 2009). It is generally believed that effective participa- tion enables affected communities to positively influence project success, however, the often ill-designed participatory approach (Alam, 2010; Saunders, 2004), resulting from the lack of a specific framework for community participation leads to un- desirable project outcomes (Davidson et al., 2007). In the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, at least 15 government and NGO relief organisations were established to ⁎ Corresponding author at: Department of Civil Engineering and Management, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, KFUPM Box 1481, Dhahran, Eastern Province 31261, Saudi Arabia. E-mail address: bambangts@kfupm.edu.sa (B. Trigunarsyah). www.elsevier.com/locate/ijproman http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.11.008 0263-7863/00/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. APM and IPMA. All rights reserved. Please cite this article as: Z. Sadiqi, et al., 2016. A framework for community participation in post-disaster housing reconstruction projects: A case of Afghanistan. Int. J. Proj. Manag. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.11.008 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect International Journal of Project Management xx (2016) xxx – xxx JPMA-01963; No of Pages 13