Housing for All Initiative
EGAT Office of Poverty Reduction, Urban Programs Team

USAID's Urban Programs Team (EGAT/PR/UP) is pleased to offer the Housing for All Initiative, a Leader with Associates (LWA) cooperative agreement that has been awarded to Habitat for Humanity International (HfHI) and is implemented by the International Housing Coalition (IHC). Through this Global Development Alliance LWA, Urban Programs provides annual core funding to support IHC outreach, case studies and program development. Urban Programs can also help missions create terms of reference for engaging the IHC.

The IHC is a coalition of non-governmental, public and private sector partners supporting the concept of "housing for all". HfHI, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) came together in 2004 to create the IHC, numerous partners have joined the IHC since its inception. The mission of the IHC is to mobilize needed resources for housing in support of the goal of "Housing for ALL." The LWA is a vehicle which allows the IHC to assist missions to develop programs focused on critical housing and shelter-related issues which missions can fund using associate awards.

The IHC supports giving high, sustained priority to housing the world's poor and slum dwellers in support of the UN Millennium Development Goals. In national and international forums, the IHC vigorously promotes the basic principles of private property rights, secure tenure, effective title systems, and efficient and equitable housing finance systems--all essential elements to economic growth, civic stability and democratic values.

The IHC is a unique activity, in that it specifically focuses on promoting a private sector approach for provision of housing and housing finance to the poor in developing countries. With its founding members having worldwide private sector networks, the IHC brings a fresh approach to addressing the housing challenge.

Missions that have ongoing or future programs in economic development, micro finance, water/sanitation, the urban environment, post disaster and post conflict reconstruction, and health may want assistance in the formulation of housing policies and programs, including studies, which complement and further the objectives of such programs. USAID, host countries, and other participating parties are frequently heavily involved in housing and slum upgrading as a part of such activities. IHC has the capability to:

1. Assist in the design and implementation of advocacy programs that support "HOUSING FOR ALL," including the formation and training of national and local housing coalitions in selected countries.
2. Establish cooperative relationships with coalitions and other parties with goals similar to the IHC so that jointly more attention can be brought to shelter and housing issues.
3. Organize and participate in shelter and housing conferences, workshops and training sessions.
4. Provide targeted assistance in housing policy and program analysis and assessment to communities, municipalities and nations. Such assistance might include advice on mobilizing local resources for housing development; improving the policy and institutional framework for housing development; testing innovative approaches to housing finance including the growing use of microfinance; designing innovative slum improvement projects and developing self help housing improvement schemes.
5. Become a resource for shelter/housing data and studies so that the IHC can contribute to policy development debates, and links interested parties to the data needed to impact policy and programs.

The LWA is easy to procure because no additional competition is necessary. Since the Leader cooperative agreement has already been competed by EGAT/PR/UP, missions can quickly and easily initiate an associate award with little effort. The IHC will assist the mission to develop a program description at no additional cost to the mission (supported through the leader funding). The IHC LWA is designed to accept associate awards through September 30, 2009, for work completed prior to September 30, 2012. There is no limit for individual Associate Awards, but the cumulative ceiling for all Associate awards is currently $5,000,000.

For more information on how to access this LWA, contact Robert Schneider (roschneider@usaid.gov) or Jessica Tulodo (jtulodo@usaid.gov) for more details.