Title of Event:

Name of Organisation:

Date and time of the session:

Housing the Poor by Engaging the Private and Citizen Sectors: Social Innovations and “Hybrid Value Chains”

Ashoka: Innovators for the Public/ International Housing Coalition 

June 21 – 1.30 to 3.30 pm

Key Highlights

1. Estimated no of participants: 120
2. Stakeholder group representation at the event: almost equal representation of the government, business and NGO sectors
3. What were the expected objectives:

• Create a dialogue on new roles and approaches for businesses and citizen sector organizations (i.e. NGOs) to address the need for large-scale solutions to low-income housing in light of the limitations of many government programs in developing countries
• Brainstorm as a group about the type of enabling environment needed for these innovative approaches to emerge and scale up

4. What did the networking event achieve:

• Specific cases from Mexico, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Brazil that share commonalities such as explicit focus on the needs of the poor, financial sustainability, and replicability were presented and discussed. We unfortunately ran out of time to discuss in depth about the enabling environment going forward.

2. What were the core issues identified in your event as they relate to the theme and sub-themes of WUFIII?

• Socially and economically sustainable approaches to low-income housing including commercial business-social partnerships

3. What were the main points raised by panellists and participants in relation to these different issues? What new ideas have been generated as a result of the discussion?

• The event started by a presentation of two parallel emerging trends in the housing and urban development sectors: on one hand “market-based” strategies to achieve social change, initiated by social entrepreneurs from different parts of the world, and on the other hand a growing interest from pioneering companies to enter low-income markets and reconcile creation of profits and social value. The case of the Patrimonio Hoy initiative from Cemex, one of the top global building material companies, that is addressing the issue of financing for incremental housing in Mexico was presented. With regards to market-based social strategies, Tasneem Saddiqui from Saiban (Pakistan) presented his incremental housing development approach that leverages informal processes to create solutions compatible with the economics and sociology of the poor. Darin Gunekesera from Sri Lanka (Capital Markets for the Marginalized) then presented how the concept of stock exchange was successfully adapted to the issue of housing for slum dwellers in Colombo to create a transparent and self-financed model where all players - from investors to contractors - bid and compete to meet the needs of the poor. These new trends are an ideal springboard to enable a new generation of partnerships where businesses and citizen sector organizations join forces and bring their core competencies (such as understanding of market needs, operations and systems, and investment capacity) together to develop further housing product/ service offers for the poor.

For more information on materials shared during the panel, please go to: www.ashoka.org/global/fec_resources.cfm

4. What process steps have been identified in your event that could help turn ideas into operational reality?

• There is definitely a need for convening powers to bring together the different players needed to create systemic housing solutions, for fighting corruption and introducing changes in tax policies to create incentives for investments in low-income markets, and for the right type of investments, ranging from philanthropic to markets returns, to enable the growth of these new initiatives. However, beyond tactical steps, a critical need is to change the mindsets of businesses, citizen sector organizations and policy makers to make these new approaches mainstream. To do so, persistence, creativity, ethics and entrepreneurial “champions” will be key.