Who are the experts in housing the urban poor?

 

                                  Presentation by Soomsook Bonnyabancha - DPU WORKSHOP 2012

With this question we were introduced to the Community Organisation Development Institute (CODI), our host, and a public organisation of the Thai Government operating under the Minister of Social Development and Human Security.

There are different answers to the initial question of this post, throughout history these answers have favoured governments, donors, NGOs, and the private sector influencing low-income housing policies, some more succesfull than others but all facing the question of how to scale up housing provision to the city level. CODI's answer to this question - the poor themselves - is the base for understanding their approach to facilitating land and housing security to the urban poor.

CODI's Baan Mankong programme or 'secure housing' in thai puts communities at the centre of the development process, channeling government funds in the form of infrastructure subsidies and soft loans directly to community networks. For this to happen, communities are organized in cooperatives and savings groups and manage their finances collectively. Communities also receive collective land titles and the opportunity to build or 'upgrade' their houses and infrastructure services together depending on their own needs, priorities, and capacities.

                                               Community upgrading models before and after Baan Mankong

It is through facilitating housing provision that Baan Mankong strenghtens communities and their networks to become the main actors of their own development. It is not only about the finance, the houses or the infrastructure, is more than that - its about the people:

...and the creation of synergies between them and other important actors in the city such as local authorities, land owners, the private sector, academics, and government departments. By entering a process of upgrading, managing finances and prioritising together people build communities and the capacity to work and support each other collectively. The stronger the networks, the stronger the influece of communities in their development process and in scaling up this process to the city level.

                                                          CODI Model

 By listening to CODI and Soomsok (former Director of CODI) and the experiences and stories of different communities and individuals within these communities,I could only think about the importance of our learning process. There where so many things to learn and so many things people had to offer us ... experiences and stories that we do not find in a text book or in an academic journal. It was really fascinating to hear about people getting organized for a common goal, and inspiring listening about their struggles to secure land and housing. It only made me validate CODI's approach in considering people as the very experts in development and transformation.

In the next sections of this blog I will take you to three different communities I visited and try to show you a little about their story, experiences and involvelment in Baan Mankong.