I. INTRODUCTION
NRC Azerbaijan has made a strategic decision to complete its activities in Azerbaijan by the end of 2007. The closure of operations calls for an easily accessible documentation of the projects implemented by NRC in Azerbaijan. In 2006 NRC assessed three shelter projects, including Public Building Rehabilitation (PBR) project in Sumgayit.
Public Building Rehabilitation in Baku has been one of the largest NRC projects in the country. The project ran since 1998 and was discontinued in 2005 as the organization shifted its focus to projects providing more durable solutions to the IDPs' housing problems.
The purpose of this review is to document the project's outcomes, achievements and failures, and to examine the current condition and use of the public buildings rehabilitated. The review also looks at the sustainability of the project and intends to see whether the decision to discontinue the project was justified.
Along with recording the project history, it is expected that this review could be useful in planning similar programs seeking to provide temporary housing improvement to refugees or IDPs settled in collective centers or other kinds of transient shelters.
This is an internal review and the methodology selection was limited by the time constraint of the involved staff. The assessment started with the document review. Both paper and electronic archives of the project were studied. Based on this, a list of buildings covered within the project was compiled. Information for the review was collected primarily through visits to 21 randomly selected public buildings and 9 schools renovated by NRC between 1998 and 2005 (Annex B).
Approximately 40% of all buildings covered by the project were visited. Buildings were examined and photographed and at each site, community leader, building superintendent, and/or one of the residents was interviewed. The review team recorded the answers in a specially designed survey form (Annex C). In addition to the site visits, key informant interviews were conducted with the former project staff.