Construction Health and Safety in Developing Countries

The global construction sector is infamous for high levels of injuries, accidents and fatalities, and poor health and well-being of its workforce. While this record appears in both developed and developing countries, the situation is worse in developing countries, where major spending on infrastructure development is expected. There is an urgent need to improve construction health and safety (H&S) in developing countries. The improvement calls for the development of context-specific solutions underpinned by research into challenges and related solutions.

This edited volume advances the current understanding of construction H&S in developing countries by revealing context-specific issues and challenges that have hitherto not been well explored in the literature, and applying emergent H&S management approaches and practices in developing countries. Coverage includes countries from the regions of sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe. This book, which is the first compendium of research into construction H&S issues in developing countries, adds considerable insight into the field and presents innovative solutions to help address poor H&S in construction in developing nations. It is a must read for all construction professionals, researchers and practitioners interested in construction and occupational H&S, safety management, engineering management and development studies.

Patrick Manu is a Senior Lecturer in Project Management at The University of Manchester, United Kingdom. He has held academic posts in the United Kingdom and Ghana. Amongst his research interests are occupational health and safety, digital construction, sustainable construction, and procurement. He has over 70 publications including articles in leading multi-disciplinary and construction journals. His research, which has been published in several outlets, has been funded by several organisations including the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

is a Professor and head of the Department of Built Environment, and the Unit for Lean Construction and Sustainability at the Central University of Technology, Free State, South Africa. He is a member of the Association of Researchers in Construction Management and the Lean Construction Institute. He is the International Coordinator of CIB TG59 (People in Construction), and in 2017, he co-organised and hosted the Joint CIB W099 and TG59 International Safety, Health, and People in Construction Conference.

is an Associate Professor at the Industrial Engineering Department of the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil). He has a BS in civil engineering, MS in construction management and PhD in industrial engineering. He was a visiting scholar at the University of Salford (United Kingdom) and at Macquairie University, at the Australian Institute of Health Innovation. His main research interests include the modelling and management of complex socio-technical systems, resilience engineering, safety management, lean production, and performance measurement.

is a Professor at the School of Engineering and Technology, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. Safety management, system dynamics, project visualization, intelligent agent system, knowledge management tools, IT applications like building information modelling (BIM) and simulation in construction site improvement, and web-based project management are some of his key expertise areas and interests.