Ministerial - Panel 2: Housing for Urban Prosperity and Opportunities for All (WUF13)

Okay.
We're now going to start on panel two, which is the topic for this is housing for Urban prosperity and opportunities for all.
I'm now going to invite the first keynote speaker to join the stage, SamskbunYa Bancher, who is the Secretary-General of the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights.
Would you like to come to the stage right now.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Can we give her a round of applause? Thank you.
I speak from here, right away.
Thanks, UN Habitat for this invitation, so I can present a very important point that I've been working all my life almost 50 years and to reveal the truth, the very important message to the meeting for this very important meeting because this is distinguished delegate ministers who are the key actor in most of the country.
Next, please, the slide.
But the issue is to he said that housing is a very important development element to boost the economy and to invest in the social development and the people So housing development is not only social expense.
In most of the country, they consider this is a welfare thing, and then housing development have to share the budget with the other welfare activities.
In Thailand, it's been categorized as investment investment budget.
So housing development is important economic and social investment.
And if we understand that we have to do a lot more in order to boost the economic development and to support our people to be strong people and strong community in the society.
So the key issue of a housing development as important economic and social investment.
Therefore, key points.
The first part is that it is economic generation.
There's so many, many articles, so many research study that tell when you invest in housing development, it generate many more economic activities to happen and it boosts the economic growth.
Of the area, of the city and of the country.
It's a very, very dramatic figure like 30 times, 20 times on different study.
It in housing construction, it would trigger a lot of other economic development.
A asset creation.
You build one housing with subsidy, with cheap loan, whatever.
For a certain period of time, the cost of asset will increase to three, four, five times for the poor people who own it, for the city and for the country.
This is an issue of asset creation.
I and community who were poor people before have become an active economic actor.
So the whole housing development is a platform for the group of people to become a strong microeconomic engine.
Of the city.
So this is economic pie alone.
The second part is that housing development become a social inclusion.
I will not talk a lot because the former session has discussed a lot, but you dealing with the rise issue, we trying to find a way how poverty has been solved at it cost at scale, and it's a system of changing poverty at scale to the inclusion of poor people into the process.
The third part is that it build strong people and community.
Whenever we develop any housing projects, we are able to link people together and be able to reset the whole system, how people live together, how people will link together, how people will set the welfare system, the economic system, whatever system, you are building a small entity, a small system where everybody is a part of a whole.
Yeah.
And this whole housing project can rest the cat system of the poor into this organized system.
So this is a way to organize the poor people into a well rounded social system and they become somebody and they lean into some development mechanism.
So they change, and I will show you later on.
The fourth point is that housing development in any area, in any project, allow the opportunity to plan and to reactivate the area, the interactive activity between the people and the other.
We may have the market, we may make new open space, we may make many other thing, which is an opportunity to activate the interaction between the people, the area and truly new, the economic possibility and the social interaction at the same time.
Next point is, Anyway, it's very important to bear in mind that we have to do it the right way.
It's not just somebody construction something and everybody live in isolation from each other.
No, it's not that.
If we talk about the NUA new urban agenda, in the next stage, we have to be serious that Now we have to work on the real action, how to do it right.
Number one is that we have to work at scale.
It can be one project, here, one project, there will scatter and it doesn't give any significant impact as a whole.
A scale, either you do it wide, citywide, nationwide.
Take the housing development at scale, the whole area, the whole city.
The second is that we have to make it more an open process.
This is very important.
I like to tell you that we talked about the need 1 billion something of housing need.
But if we operate in an institution, or organizational, conventional way of doing, you're not going to achieve it.
We need to find a way that housing development that we are going to do citywide.
Nationwide, it becomes a new open process.
You open to the demand side, to the people, open to all the experts who are working together in the same area, working to the institution, to the government, to the people to work together as a team.
So housing development at scale have to be an open process, not across process, only the Ministry of Urban Development, the National Housing Organization, or the private sector alone, do it project by project.
That is the old way of delivery.
If you talk about new way, we have to open the housing game to everybody, especially the people in the community to be a strong demand side that organize that link together into a new proactive force of change.
And work with the city, make a plan, and so on.
In this way, we need a new finance system.
The key problem to a broad housing development program for the economic generation in a big way, is that the finance system is very strict, very conventional, finance is not open.
It's all style finance or the market finance.
Finance needs to be more flexible.
If you want a big scale, we have to multiply the actor.
We have to multiply the different possible way how to do it.
Finance is a tool to allow the different process to be implemented.
It needs to be people centric.
It's not building centric, it's not construction centric.
We have a plan handed building look the same.
It's not necessary to be like that, people centric.
Get the demand side first, organize and talk what kind of living space, what kind of living system we're going to plan.
We're going to make it possible, how to decide.
Let the build the people at the same time, not only the building.
We don't want to build just the body with our soul, no soul.
We have to start with the lively part, the people part, and then the physical part.
It needs to be participatory, needs to be demand, not supply.
Supply is from somebody in the planner or the government, say, what you have to leave it has no lively process.
It has to be participation and collaboration between the community people and the government.
Just 2 minutes.
Next piece.
In Thailand, we have this nationwide citywide slum upgrading by K, a public organization working with community nationwide.
This is a public organization that opened the process to the demand side on the g to be the startup, to be the actor to start the process.
And then it opened for the civil society, for the city, for whoever, even the private sector to work with the community.
So city by city, city by city, all 75 provinces in the urban area and in the rural area.
Yeah.
So it's a process that you open to all key actor to work together as a team.
The second part is that community driven demand community link into a network, we're working with the local government and civil society to set up a collaborative mechanism to work together.
It starts with the citywide survey, citywide planning, and land its population by this demand side.
They go and negotiate with the landlord for the land.
It's not a it's pupate by the outside agency.
They get the land, they start the program, they develop the project together, and they build a system to live together with welfare, with security, with the interaction as a cooperative process.
We provide housing subsidy.
You make it as a group subsidy to the organization and they take care of the development activity all by the community themselves, together with the local committee.
Yeah.
So we have support more than 1,300 project implementing all over the country.
Next, please.
This is showing the picture of how we start with the city wide survey on the left hand side.
So you start where are the poor, and then you start linking them into a process of change, organizing, saving survey who are living what this and that, and how to find the land either they negotiate on the same land, or they look for a new land.
They are the one who start searching for the possible land, and then we have the architect or maybe from the university to help plan different for so they can start getting the land and make the plan.
And once it's agreeable, we pass the budget to the community.
So the community are the owner of the project and develop it by themselves.
Next, please.
And the form of change could be anything.
It could be in situ upgrading, it could be blocking, it could be reconstruction.
You could see the picture of the community when it was a slum before and they reconstruct the whole thing or land shlling move to the new area or develop into the apartment.
The form is not the key point to come first.
People come first.
People come first, people organize first and let the people make the driving force.
What are the form? What are the thing they're going to do? How are they going to build different possible development by themselves as much as possible.
Next is finished last now.
In this whole so doing, we have the social return on investment we call the SROI.
We have a study from several projects from the CD program, which showed that the poor people have better access.
They pay lower housing expense, they have better job, better income, they have better welfare, better care, they have better intellction, they have better healthy condition, more secure and safe lives, better negotiation power, too many more things in the city and they link together as a network.
Children also have better education and more attentive more open space, more active community, more active citizen for many participation for the city development that's going to happen or continue to happen, and impact on positive change to the neighborhood and the surrounding area.
People say, what the government will get government will gain the money, government will have profit.
Government also profit from all these development.
They're not losing, although the government gives subsidy to all this area.
The next one, please, the last one.
Or maybe it's too fast, you have to go back.
No, I'm going to say, Yes, this one, to say that we make a study and it found that the SROI is about 6.5 to eight time.
Whatever government provide a subsidy or cheap interest loan at a certain period of time, you will get more.
The SROI some of the projects go up to eight time, which means every $1 you invest in housing development, the return will be 6.5 to eight.
Why not? While we are waiting, we come to this Urban Forum 13 to make a change in the midterm of the NUA.
We're not going to talk about CLE what should be done, what this and that have to be done.
Now is the time to make a change, to make economic generation through the housing development, to change our people to be an active member with a strong social environment and social organization, bringing our people back.
From being outside of the society, a nobody system, they can be active actor and make a lot of active change to the city and participate, everything really well.
People don't have a problem.
The system is a problem.
We make them slums.
If we ever to open up this possibility, we have our people back, we have economic back, and we have an active society that strongly and actively participate by the people.
We have done that.
I would like to urge all of you not to wait to be too slow any longer, it's time that we change our slum in our country in the next ten years and hope we could achieve that.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
That was the keynote speaker, Samsuk Ya Van Cha, the Secretary-General of the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights.
Thank you so much.
We're going to get straight to it now.
I'm going to invite our panelists to come up onto the stage so we can begin the discussion.
I'm going to call up His Excellency, Mr.
Sung Jun Hwang, Chief Economist Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development for the People's Republic of China.
Please come to the stage.
Next, Her Excellency, miss Janet Golding, Senior Assistant Deputy Minister at Housing Infrastructure and Communities, Canada.
Thank you.
Next, Her Excellency, miss Tamara Pessero, Minister of Housing and Territorial Planning of Uruguay.
Let's make sure she comes up.
Brilliant.
Thank you.
Next, Her Excellency, miss Alice Whome, Cabinet Secretary for Housing, and Public Works and Urban Development, Kenya.
Next is His Excellency, Mr.
Philip Enel, Deputy Minister of Regional Development from the Czech Republic.
Welcome.
Finally, miss Celine Decrz, Independent Civil Society actor founder of SDI.
Welcome.
Thank you.
Hello.
Right.
Thank you all.
Please take a seat.
Thank you.
For this particular session, because we are running a little bit behind, we're going to do one question for each of you just so that you know, and I'll ask the questions directly.
Feel free to add, but if we can keep them to 5 minutes roughly.
I know we have so much to talk about and so much to say, but we want to make sure we give everyone an equal chance to bring their suggestions and what they've been able to achieve to the audience today.
Firstly, this particular question, I'm going to ask miss Janet Golding, if I may.
Which housing interventions have proven effective in promoting economic inclusion, enhancing productivity, supporting human capital development, and strengthening long term competitiveness? Thank you.
Thank you for the question.
Can you hear me? Yes.
Thank you very much to Yen habitat and to Baku and Azerbijan for hosting us at this wonderful forum.
Across the world, we are experiencing common pressures, rising housing costs, constrained supply, productivity challenges, and growing climate risks.
A first key lesson for us in Canada is seeing housing as foundational, economic and social infrastructure.
Through the National Housing Strategy launched in 2017, Canada committed over 115 billion to improving outcomes across the housing continuum.
This strategy is grounded in a human rights based approach, recognizing that access to adequate housing underpins participation in the labor market and plays a critical role in education and health outcomes.
The results of the tangible.
Housing need was reduced or eliminated for over 741,000 households.
More than 195,000 housing units were created.
We repaired over 328,000 homes and protected more than 359,000 community housing units.
These kinds of interventions support human capital development directly.
When individuals have stable, affordable homes, they can pursue education, maintain employment, and contribute productively to society.
In Canada, housing responsibilities are shared across federal, provincial, municipal, and indigenous governments.
Each brings different policy levers and land use and infrastructure to financing regulation.
As a result, interventions that succeed are those that align incentives across governments and leverage partnerships with private and nonprofit sectors.
For example, the government of Canada launched a housing accelerator fund that is a program that incentivizes local government to remove barriers that slow construction of housing, such as restrictive zoning and permitting practices that unlock additional supply.
Canada has a ten year bilateral agreements with provinces and territories that provide funding to support regional priorities, and we've launched reaching home Canada's homelessness strategy in 2019, which is community based and empowers local responses to homelessness.
It is important to note that most of Canada's community housing stock is owned and operated by the not for profit organizations.
A priority for the federal government is to build the capacity of nonprofit housing sector through initiatives like the Canada Rental Protection Fund and the Affordable Housing Fund, which help nonprofit, cooperative, and community housing providers acquire and preserve, retrofit, and expand affordable housing.
These initiatives are intended to help protect existing affordability, but also to help community housing organizations leverage their existing assets, land holdings, and equity to scale up new housing development, strengthen long term sector capacity, and grow the stock of affordable and non market housing across Canada.
This approach reflects a core principle.
Economic occlusion requires coordinated systems, not isolated programs.
A third and increasingly critical area is construction and productivity.
In Canada, residential construction productivity has declined significantly over the past few decades.
This has direct consequences, lower housing delivery, higher costs, reduced economic competitiveness.
To address this, Canada is investing in modern methods of construction, including modular, prefabricated, and off site approaches.
These methods, when deployed at scale, aim to shorten construction timelines, lower costs, and create more stable employment environments.
However, scaling these innovations requires deliberate policy support, and this is where government intervention becomes vital, not just funding housing, but transforming how housing is produced.
To bring these elements together, Canada has introduced built Canada Homes, a new federal entity designed to accelerate delivery at scale.
It's focused on three core levers.
First, unlocking underutilized public lands for housing with long term public benefit.
Second, providing flexible capital for the full project life cycle and early planning to long term affordability.
And third, catalyzing the adoption of modern methods of construction to deliver housing faster and more efficiently.
Importantly, built Canada homes will act as a demand anchor, creating multi year project pipelines that provide certainty to manufacturers and builders.
This model is not only about increasing supply, it is about building more productive, resilient housing system that enhances long term competitiveness.
Finally, effective housing interventions must be aligned with broader economic and environmental goals.
Housing that is affordable, climate resilient, and supports labor mobility, reduces emissions and enhances productivity across the economy.
Canada is increasingly integrating housing with infrastructure investments, transit systems, and climate adaptation strategies.
Canada's experience points to key types of housing interventions that deliver strongest outcomes, people centered investments that improve stability and unlock human potential, partnership based governance that aligns actors across systems, productivity enhancing innovations that transform construction and delivery.
Together, these approaches demonstrate that housing policy is not only about shelter, it is about economic inclusion, workforce development, and national competitiveness.
Because when people have access to safe, affordable, and stable housing, they are better able to contribute, innovate, and thrive.
And ultimately, that is what builds stronger, more inclusive, and more competitive country.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
That was great.
Thank you so much, Your Excellency.
I'm now going to also ask the same question to His Excellency, Mr.
Wang, in relation to that, which housing interventions have proven effective in promoting economic inclusion, enhancing productivity, supporting human capital development, and strengthening long term competitiveness.
Thank you for China, housing is important.
Prest Xi Jinping has raised the concept of housing for oil.
China has 1.4 billion population, and for this goal, China continuously working on housing system to improve and optimize the housing supply and has been effective in that.
From 2008 to end of last year, we have built affordable housing 33 million units.
Over 100 million population has solved their housing needs, specifically speaking, number one, We have worked on the affordable housing of all kinds to satisfy the housing demand.
For the public leasing housing that's for low income population and it's for coverage.
Affordable housing leasing is mostly for new citizens, new graduates from universities and young people.
So they temporarily have some housing difficulties.
We also have the allocation of subsidized housing.
That is for those urban wage earning households with difficulty to solve their housing needs.
In terms of the method, we try to give money subsidies as well as the in kind housing subsidies.
By doing all these kind of measures, we try to adapt to the different needs of different populations and also adapt to their affordability.
For example, in China, in many cities, We have shared beds, one room, or one whole apartment differentiated options so that young people and new citizens can have access to housing so that they can come to the city, stay in the city, and stay well in the city and can work here so that they have less pressure on housing so that they can actually work wholeheartedly.
Also in management, We try to ensure fairness, openness.
We try to guide cities to develop and optimize their system.
So application and the rotation and management of the housing will be optimized.
We want to allow these housing resources to be used for the right people.
For example, now in many cities, They have the queuing system, so people who have the needs can apply for the types of housing they want.
And they will also tell us the affordability.
So people who come first will have their needs satisfied first.
So this kind of rotation queuing system will allow people to access housing in an orderly manner.
Affordable housing in terms of leasing or selling, the cost is relatively going to be lower than the price of the market and to do that, At the policy level, we have made arrangements.
For example, there will be lower priced land.
Also in taxation will give support as well.
Also will give financial support as well, for example, long term low rate financing support.
So this will ensure affordable housing can be developed healthily.
And people who need affordable housing will not have too much pressure when they lease or buy.
So all of these measures will ensure that more and more population who need support get support.
Also, we can ensure that the society and economy is developing in a sustainable manner.
It will add to the city competitiveness as well.
Farming.
After decades of effort, we have gained tremendous outcomes.
In China, now the needs of the residents have very much changed from availability to more high quality housing.
So in terms of the supply of the housing, we are also making some changes.
We proposed to build green and smart and intelligent or smart housing, high quality housing, not only new apartment or housing, but good ones.
So for the old buildings and housing, we are renovating them into high quality ones.
And so in addition to the commercial housing, our guarantee or livelihood housing, those smaller, they are much greener, smart, and also safe.
So through these kind of measures, we hope that China can achieve a higher quality livelihood and housing for all.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
And I'm going to pass that same question over to Her Excellency, Tamara Psero as well to answer that question.
And just to remind everyone as well what that question is.
It is, which housing interventions have proven effective in promoting economic inclusion, enhancing productivity, supporting human capital development, and strengthening long term competitiveness.
Good afternoon, everybody.
I'm very thankful for this opportunity to be able to contribute and to share our experiences, our experiences that strengthen our countries.
I'm going to respond to the question.
But first of all, I would like to say within which framework we address this reality.
In Uruguay, we understand that housing policy can be a pivotal policy.
What does that mean? It means that when we When we think about the housing in an integral way, we don't just think about it as a housing deficit, but it conditions the effectiveness of other social policies.
When we talk about other social policies, we talk about health, education, health care, and security, and it also has a multiplying effect of the rights of capacities and productivity without an adequate housing solution.
Other social policies will be affected very negatively.
This isn't just intuition.
It is supported by evidence and it's supported by the new urban agenda.
The access to work opportunities depend on how and where people live because when these conditions are not met, the economic price is very high, and the loss of productivity and pressure on infrastructure reproduces poverty.
Therefore, in Uruguay, I wanted to share Five lessons that we have learned and that we are still applying and developing.
The first is the importance of prioritizing children.
This is what we understand is the most transformative in the long term.
It's how bad housing where children live is directly related to poor educational results.
In Uruguay, a third of children live below the poverty line and with this multidimensional poverty, and they have more than one critical housing deficit.
When we talk about this critical housing deficit, we're talking about quality of life, the quality of housing and tenure security and where this house is located.
When we prioritize the housing intervention for these homes, we're also intervening in the country's future because there is no social policy that isn't involved that doesn't also involve housing for children.
We also understand where the house is placed is as important as the house itself.
When the house is located far away from schools, from employment, from services, from transport networks, there is an additional burden of time and money on the poorest and most vulnerable homes.
Which limits their capacity to participate in the economy.
Therefore, in Uruguay, we understand that as a principal vector, real accessibility is not just a matter of the price of the housing, but also on what is related to the land itself.
Therefore, we understand that as a state, we have to participate in this area and this location and in getting this land and contribute in this way.
The third lesson is intervening on the existing habitat.
It's not just building new homes, but there are areas that there are houses that already exist, but they're in inadequate conditions.
So to an efficient response is not just a matter of building from zero, so informal settlements or slums, is not just an expression of inadequate houses, but they are also places that have their own economies.
We have micro entrepreneurs, so we have to recognize and acknowledge them in the instruments of planning and the use of the land and the register of financial activity.
So we have to build bridges instead of building new things and different things.
And so these families should be given access to credit and And so this area or this district where they live could grow with support because the state recognizes them as workers.
I also wanted to share two experiences with you.
We have two programs that are based on the improvement of these districts and the infrastructure and their housing both in urban and rural areas, and it tries to strengthen this urban and social housing.
We have a project which is called Mas Brio More Neighborhood, which is financed by CAF and we're starting, it's a program that is on a shared existence and these houses are affected by high levels of murder and violence.
These areas of intervention where the objective of this program is to work on the improvement of conditions of life and coexistence in these areas through four components.
One is of security, safety, coexistence, infrastructure of public spaces, of improvement of housing and strengthening the community.
We understand that it's important to give security back to these neighborhoods and this way of living and traveling and to be able to inhabit these spaces, which are currently so vulnerable.
This program has got three characteristics.
One is the integral arrival of the government's pillar policies.
The other is the simultaneity of social policies, and the third is the permanence of the state in the area.
The fourth lesson is the cooperation between public actors and the private and public sectors.
Just to say very quickly because I don't have very much time left, we are working on an incentive to the offer and to support the demand with clear rules.
The support of the public and private sectors is fundamental, but we have to have these three keys that we think are very important.
The state is never going to substitute the market, but it has to strengthen and guide it towards the housing policies and we understand it as a different way of the community participating actively in in these neighborhoods and the cooperatives and active participation of the people who are building their own houses is a factor of sustainability and social capital and, housing interventions which are the most effective are those that think of the housing as part of one soul system, as a policy that has dialogue for land, infrastructure, services, participation, and the presence of the state.
From Uruguay in Monorvi which is the place where we are today, we take these lessons to a space and we believe that in the South has a lot to contribute to the new urban agenda.
Thank you.
Her Excellency, Tamara Ps, thank you very much.
I'm now quickly going to turn the same question over to his Excellcy Philippe over there and just as a reminder to all the remaining panelists, we can try to keep it to 5 minutes.
That will be brilliant.
Thank you very much.
That question is, which housing interventions have proven effective in promoting economic inclusion, enhancing productivity, supporting human capital development, and strengthening long term competitiveness.
Let me be very clear.
The most effective housing policies are those that treat housing not as a social expense, but as an economic infrastructure.
Checha is a clear example.
For decades, people lived close to where they worked.
Housing jobs and infrastructure were aligned.
But after deindustrialization, many people moved from smaller regions to major cities, especially Prague.
Housing supply did not keep pace.
As a result, housing prices in Prague have nearly tripled over the last decade.
While rents have almost doubled.
This is not only a social challenge.
It reduce labor mobility, reducing economic competitiveness.
So which interventions work? First, increase housing supply where demand already exists.
Without construction, no housing policy can succeed.
Second, connect housing policy with economic policy.
Housing must be built where there are jobs, transport links, and public services.
Third, treat housing investment as growth investment.
One euro invested in construction works can generate up to three euros in economic activity.
While also creating jobs.
Housing construction could be one of the key engines of local economies.
Fourth, combined public and private financing, public resources should attract private investment, not replace it.
And finally, expand the role of cities and municipalities.
Without locally planning, housing projects simply do not happen.
Alan, let me conclude with one sentence.
The best housing policy is the one that allows people to live where economic opportunities exists.
Because affordable housing is not a cost, but a founding of long term competitiveness and human capital development.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
That was great.
Thank you.
Very concise.
I love that.
Thank you for your time.
I'm now going to move over to Her Ecellcys Alice Home, just for your perception and your perspective on this on housing and inclusion.
I hope within that I'll be able to dry.
So he don't want to function, which you can rization and better lives.
In fact, in this platform today this morning, we agreed that we are not just building houses.
We hope within that transactional building houses, then we rebuild lives and we build lives.
Therefore, in my country, Kenya has a very wide ambitious program.
And our perspective is that because informal settlement is a problem in Kenya, like it is in the whole of Africa and other countries.
What we are seeing is that the movement of population from maybe to the urban areas then is faster, therefore is faster than the supply of the houses.
Therefore, we must see this as an opportunity, not only as a problem because it's already there, then we must utilize this as an opportunity, which then means it's an opportunity to invest, an opportunity to build better skills, an opportunity to include or come up with inclusivity strategies for people who live below the poverty line insofar as K is concerned, there are people living under $1 or within $1.
And therefore, we as a country, target job creation through affordable housing, and our target per year is 200,000 units.
Within the 200,000 unit construction, aware that we have a deficit of 2 million houses, then that is an opportunity for investors to come with their investment and assist in meeting the deficit.
But the annual demand for housing is 200,000 units.
The private sector so far is able to only do 50,000.
The government is building 200,000 units and we have opportunity to partner within that number with private sector, with partners on either technology and maybe capital investment.
Therefore, within that arrangement, Kenya has been able to to employ 600,000 because so far I am at 190,000 housing units within the last two years.
Within that period, we have created job opportunity for youth over 630,000 youth.
Of course, there is a lot with it comes the infrastructure of markets or not open markets, but markets with the shops, with the malls, with new areas of business.
Therefore, we also see then that as a new opportunity.
There is some people, we talk of mama and bugger, that is the basic woman in the market who is selling cabbages or her fruits.
These are finding new areas of working spaces with provisions for mothers to be able to bring their children new spaces for schools, new spaces for health centers.
That's quite a lot of maybe expansion in terms of where we are looking to go.
And therefore, I want to see that the capital investment that we are talking about, we have been facilitated by Kenyans through a local solution where in 2024, my ministry was able to come up with a legislative framework, the Housing Levy Act 2024 that helps us to collect a levy, a form of tax, but we call it a levy, maybe to use a softer term at about 1.5% from the employee and 1.5% from the employer, put together 3% as money that we are using to build the houses.
These are new opportunities.
Of course, the banks and the mortgage sector has new areas of engagement, and therefore, maybe I would say that what we see as a challenge is also an opportunity to invest, create new skills, engage both at a local level and international level.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Your Excellency, Alice Oh, thank you.
Great.
I'm now going to move over to miss Celinda Cruz and ask you a particular question on how can new urban agenda and housing interventions better integrate and leverage the informal economy, ensure dignified living conditions for those reliant on informal livelihoods and advance sustainable urban development.
Thank you all.
I learned a lot about all your countries and many things resonate again and again and again.
We're all aspiring as leaders in our cities to make the place better.
I am not a government official, neither am I a slum dweller.
I have been in the civil society space for many years, worked on housing in the city of Mumbai with pavement dwellers.
I would like to emphasize today why looking at the bottom ten, 15%, it becomes so crucial for any city.
Because if you ignore that population, you don't really solve the problems for the others because they're busy grasping that space, which never happens.
Having said that, for me, it's like a basic principle that if you look after the needs of the bottom ten, 15%, automatically, you will find solutions for the better off.
But if you start with the better off, the chances of reaching down are very slim because they don't know how to climb up like the lower middle class or the middle class can.
So in Bombay, with the pavement dwellers, we had 30,000 families living on the streets.
It was an impossible situation because if you're on the pavement, you're basically illegal.
You are not even like a slum dweller and you don't have a piece of land that you are squatting on, and so the chances were no, no.
If you went to the city official, he would tell you, we have no land for the middle class.
How the hell are we going to give you land if you're squatting on the street.
It was that bad situation that in fact motivated these communities to organize because the municipal ban would come every week and break their houses and they would reconstruct those houses and live there again.
But three things like the Minister of Canada said, land, finance, and design, along with their organizing capacity, did the magic because they just persisted and after 20 years they got their land.
They went on picnics through the city.
We looked at vacant lands.
We saw that the master plan was not what it was supposed to be.
And that was reserved for low cost housing had a cigarette factory on it, and so we realized that there were many things if we could crack them, we would be able to make some movement.
And so the community was able to prioritize ten pieces of land that was for low cost housing and they said if the government says no to the first one, we'll ask for the second and if they say no to the second, we'll ask for the third.
And so we persisted.
Similarly with finance, very little money.
If you're a pavement dweller, you're earning next to very little, and you can never dream of your house with the salary that you earn in this lifetime.
But we were able to put together community savings and people save especially for their housing besides their practical other needs.
And they were able to show the local banks, whether it was Citibank and HDFC, this is our national Bank in India, that they actually had the capacity to save, to take loans, and repair loans.
Just looking at that track record, not lots of money, but just looking at that track record, the commercial banks gave a loan to these communities for housing.
Similarly, with design, they took their gold chain.
Most Indian women wear chains and they took a foot and they measured their house brick by brick.
It's not rocket science and it's not something that is only the domain of architects.
These very poor women on the streets were able to design their own houses.
And so I don't want to glorify these things that poor people can do on their own, but imagine the magic that can happen if these communities with all their strengths and assets and resources work together closely with governments and local governments to produce scale because as NGOs, we can only do this much.
We are not able to do what government can do.
And this is where we need to work together.
Thank you.
Thank you.
That was very informative.
Thank you very much.
Well, to all our panelists this afternoon, there's some great key takeaways that we've really been able to highlight and discuss, making sure, especially the vulnerable, whether or not it's children, those on low incomes, providing the policies that will help individuals come out of poverty through adequate housing and social mobility.
You've highlighted on a number of key things that each of your countries represent, and I think that's been fantastic and so informative for our audience today.
Thank you again for coming.
Thank you.
This is our second panel discussion and we have a third coming up.
So let's just thank the panelists right now for their contribution this afternoon.
That concludes the session.