Background and Objectives:
This project commenced in June 2005, to complement Asia Development Bank’s “Development of Poor Urban Communities Sector Project”. This was done by providing support to poor urban communities and their local governments in developing shelter development strategies that prioritised sites for community-based upgrading and negotiated relocation, supported by implementation plans for funding.

Today seven cities and two municipalities are at various stages of preparing city shelter strategies and Community Action Plans.

The objectives are to develop shelter upgrading and community infrastructure development plans for funding under the pro-poor shelter plans. It will define mechanisms for building the assets of the poor at the community level, beyond the physical infrastructure and housing assets undertaken in the initial activities of DPUCSP, and will provide a vehicle for policy learning from experiences.

Activities:
The main activities include:

• Disseminating the objectives of the DPUCSP to potential city partners, mobilizing city support for the preparation of shelter strategies and community action plans in a participatory manner, and selecting the partner cities.
• Supporting the Local Government Units teams in preparing city-wide shelter strategies based on poverty profiles that prioritise targeted communities for immediate support.
• Supporting preparation of community shelters and community infrastructure delivery action plans.
• Supporting the preparation of livelihoods development proposals and feasibility studies to sustain community groups, and especially strengthen the repayment capacity of the groups.
• Supporting resource mobilisation to finance the CAPs and MAPs from the DPUCSP lending facility in the Development Bank of the Philippines, or other vehicle where necessary.
• Developing tools for Shelter Strategy/Plan Formulation, Organization Assessment/Diagnosis and Institution Building Framework for Community Based Organizations, Non-Governmental Organizations, and cooperatives.
• Monitoring and documenting the implementation process and synthesising lessons learned for policy learning through the Philippine Urban Forum.

Results:

• DPUCSP objectives disseminated to some 15 cities throughout the country. 
• Four poverty profiles completed for San Vicente, Puerto Princesa, Science City of Munoz, and Iligan City; with Shelter Strategies completed for the municipalities of San Vicente, Iligan City, and the Science City of Munoz.
• Partnerships with five Non-Governmental Organizations in five Local Government Units forged – San Vicente with San Vicente Market Vendors Credit Cooperative, Valenzuela with the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), Iligan with Hope for Change, Science City of Munoz with Central Luzon State University - Institute of Graduate Studies, and Puerto Princesa with Tagbalay Foundation; all of which are spearheading the community action planning approach with the selected communities to prepare their shelter, community infrastructure and livelihoods proposals.
• Programme activities which have started to facilitate a policy dialogue documented. Innovative shelter financing mechanisms are being developed.