Access to housing finance is an enormous challenge in Egyptian cities. Raed Fares and Safa Ashoub portray the approach by Habitat for Humanity Egypt: a microfinancing programme that also offers technical assistance and ensures to include local communities.
The municipality of Phnom Penh does not live up to its responsibility to provide affordable housing for all, says Ronan Kemp from Sahmakum Teang Tnaut Organization - A Cambodian Urban NGO.
Creating liveable, affordable cities requires significant public investments. How to finance them? The answer may lie in land value capture. This financing tool allows municipalities to recover the land value gains that result from public action such as zoning changes or investment in public infrastructure, to invest them back into the city. Sena Segbedzi, OECD Champion Mayors for Inclusive Growth Initiative, shares stories of success from all over the world.
Changing discourses have characterised New Delhi's housing policy over time. Piyush Tiwari and Jyoti Shukla outline developments and call onto the public and private housing institutions to provide equal access to decent and affordable housing.
The COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated existing challenges in the domain of social inclusion and housing. Cynthia Goytia on how cities can rise to these challenges and which solutions have already proven successful in urban Latin America.
How can architectural solutions contribute to increase liveability in informal settlements? Alfredo Brillembourg portrays how the process of blocking-out facilitated the empowerment and upgrading in the informal settlement of Khayelitsha.
What does liveability mean from an African cities' perspective and how do we get there? Taibat Lawanson presents an unconventional and compelling take on this question.
The Indian state of Odisha has initiated a slum upgrading programme that acknowledges residents as city makers. Preeti Prada Panigrahi presents its advantages and successes.
A strategy for planning that ensures to include citizens and addresses several challenges at once, urban labs can be found in many cities in Latin America. Simone Sandholz, Lucas de Carvalho Turmena, Jorgelina Hardoy, and Florencia Almansi with some examples from urban labs in Latin America.
Can we transform our cities by addressing the gender insecurity and inadequacy women face? In the northeast state of Pernambuco in Brazil, Espaço Feminista reflects on lessons learned from fighting for women’s land rights by achieving land regularisation in informal settlements.
When thinking about the resilience of urban poor, it is worthwhile to think of resilience as a dynamic process of transition on individual and household level, argue Zakir Hossain and Mostafizur Rahman.
Female indigenous residents of informal settlements in coastal Bangladesh are especially vulnerable to risks induced by climate change. Digital mapping ensures that they are adequately considered in the development of urban climate resilience plans.
URBANET presents another country series, inviting readers to learn about urbanisation and urban development in Bangladesh! We kick off our focus weeks with a set of infographics. We offer you facts and figures from this young nation, where rapid urbansiation has been presenting urban planners and policymakers with various challenges and potentials alike.
“We need a new spatial contract”, says Hashim Sarkis, curator of the 17th International Architecture Exhibition, inviting participants from all around the globe to ponder sustainability and the question ‘How will we live together’. But how just and sustainable can architecture truly be? A critical review by Aseman G. Bahadori
Inclusive research design has the potential to turn “beneficiaries” into experts and agents of change. Rebecca Enobong Roberts makes a strong case for why urban land rights researchers need to proactively consult the groups they study, not just observe them.
