Annual report

2017 1 Who are we?

Cities are produced “by and for the UrbaMonde: people” through a process called the - Supports housing cooperatives and Social Production of Habitat (SPH), other citizen initiatives in Switzerland led by organized communities along- and France in the implementation of side private and public actors. Bottom- community-led housing projects and up and community-led city-making the design of enabling policy and insti- requires, however, strengthening the tutional frameworks. inhabitants in their role of urban de- signers, developers and builders. - Strengthens grassroots groups and their networks in planning, executing UrbaMonde’s mission is to support and managing their housing projects, groups of inhabitants who are com- while enhancing partnerships with mitted to sustainable and inclusive public actors. city-making, particularly in terms of affordable housing provision. - Facilitates the CoHabitat Network that allows for peer-to-peer learning, experi- Our NGO, based in Switzerland and ence exchange and builds international France, consists of a team of enthusiasts solidarity between community-led from various backgrounds who share housing projects and their partners. the vision of a sustainable city “by and for the inhabitants”.

1 2 Table of Contents

1 Who are we? 5 CoHabitat Network 7 Network Tools 8 Co-Habitat.net 27 North America 8 Regional Hubs and Award 9 Solidarity Fund for Habitat 28 Regional Hub and Award

30 Contact 30 Team

17 Latin America 18 South America 19 Central America 21 Regional Hub and Award

3 11 Europe Accomplishments in 2017 12 Geneva Housing Cooperatives - Development of the online platform Co-Habitat.net (p.8) 12 Presinge and the Solidarity Fund for Habitat (p.9) – tools for docu- 13 Grand Geneva menting and financing SPH projects. 14 La Patissière in St. Herblain 15 Events and Partnerships - Facilitation of participatory planning workshops in the 16 European Hub and framework of the EcoVillage Presinge, Switzerland (p.12). Collaborative Housing Award - Contribution to strengthening the Mutual Aid Coopera- tive Housing Movement in Latin America (p.18), and to consolidating five housing cooperatives in Matagalpa, Nicaragua (p.19).

- Support of 213 housing improvement operations in the informal settlement of Dakar, Senegal (p.24). 23 Africa - Contribution to organizing the first regional Hub and 24 Senegal – phase 3 Award in North America, gathering more than 540 par- 25 Burkina Faso – Yaam Solidarité ticipants (p.28). 25 Regional Hub

4 CoHabitat Network

Beyond public and private actors, or- more sustainable and inclusive urban It was launched in 2014 (under the ganized groups of inhabitants and indi- spaces responding to the needs of local name of Social Production of Habitat viduals build cities from the bottom up: communities. Platform) as a loose, decentralized and they organize, plan, finance, build and project-driven collaboration between manage housing, urban upgrading and The CoHabitat Network is a collab- some of the major grassroots organiza- infrastructure projects collectively and oration between community-led tions and federations of urban dwellers collaboratively. housing organizations and allies in the field of community-led housing. from across the world, who work When supported by adequate financial together to secure housing rights means and enabling policies, these pro- through collective, non-speculative, 5 cesses result in permanently affordable, people-led solutions. THE NETWORK GATHERS:

Community-managed Housing Cooperatives Community Land Trusts savings groups and collective loan schemes

Membership-based, non-profit Nonprofit corporations that de- Powerful tool to draw together entities, based on the democratic velop and steward housing, civic and empower the many people principle of ‘one (wo)man-one and commercial spaces and other and disparate groups that exist vote’. community assets on behalf of a within poor communities. community, guaranteeing perma- nent affordability.

CoHabitat Partners

Habitat International Coaliton Slum Dwellers International is Cooperative Housing Inter- The Asian Coalition for Hous- Grounded Solutions Network World Habitat promotes and is a global network for hous- a network of grassroots organ- national federated housing ing Rights gathers profes- is the network of US-based awards remarkable and inno- ing rights. izations across 32 countries in cooperatives from around the sionals, NGOs and grassroots Community Land Trusts and vative housing projects and Africa, Asia and Latin America. world to enhance cooperation organizations aiming to solve other allies promoting per- enhances peer exchanges. and their development. the housing challenges across manent affordable housing Asia. solutions.

With supports of

6 Network Tools

Regional Hubs Solidarity Fund for Habitat

Regional Hubs are spaces of peer exchanges and Solidarity Fund for Habitat contributes to developing advocacy that aim to have an impact on all levels of solutions to the lack of access to affordable finance policy-making. They gather residents’ and grassroots’ for SPH. groups and their federations, as well as social move- ments, non-profits, habitat professionals and public authorities.

CoHabitat Award Co-Habitat.net

CoHabitat Award is a public recognition of the ca- Co-habitat.net is a comprehensive documentation pacity of inhabitants for inclusive and participatory and networking tool for SPH projects and their allies city-making, showcasing organizational models, fi- and partners. Co-Habitat.net is an interactive and nancial mechanisms, and innovative and enabling collaborative database showcasing qualitative and civic-public partnerships. quantitative information on community-led housing projects, and a mapping tool illustrating the diversity, scope and potential of the SPH.

7 Co-Habitat.net Regional Hubs and Award The current trend towards decentral- able information concerning forms isation and bottom-up approaches of organisation, financial and tech- is the advent of a continued social, nical support mechanisms, project cultural and technological evolu- design and political advocacy. The SPH Award is a public recognition of tion. Information technologies can inspiring and innovative community-led enhance the visibility, emergence For collaborative housing projects housing projects. It is presented at the re- and dissemination of collaborative to succeed, external contributors of gional level during regional Hub gatherings habitat projects. By focusing and re- diverse backgrounds are required. (in Latin America, Europe, North America, designing such technologies for the These « partners » are also docu- Africa and Asia). specific needs of the social produc- mented on the database and each one can be linked to the projects. tion of habitat, urbaMonde aims to The Award and the Hub gatherings in- Finally, Co-Habitat.net will provide enhance this potential. crease the visibility of the SPH enabling features for social interactions be- its actors to gain recognition and advo- Co-Habitat.net is a global geo- tween communities and a powerful cacy power, enabling them to influence graphical database of collabora- API to be used by external software, policies on both the local and interna- tive housing projects. It is multi- for research and on websites. tional levels. lingual and just like community-led Link: co-habitat.net housing initiatives, it is open and The winners of the SPH Award are long- collaborative with the data under listed for the World Habitat Awards, which Creative Commons licences. Co- has been organized by World Habitat and -Habitat.net offers the opportunity UN-Habitat for 30 years. for existing projects to share their experiences with the world, estab- lish direct links with their peers and for start-up initiatives to access valu- 8 Solidarity Fund for Habitat

The access to affordable finance for housing con- Fund and interested Swiss housing cooperatives struction, improvement or the purchase of land - conducted a feasibility study on such a peer-to- represents one of the main challenges for vulner- peer funding mechanism. able inhabitant groups. In December 2017, a pilot of the Solidarity Habitat The Solidarity Habitat Fund is a peer-to-peer Fund was launched, which will transfer the depos- credit mechanism, which aims to facilitate its of Swiss housing cooperatives and individuals the access to affordable loans for these pop- to the revolving fund of the Senegalese Federa- ulations organized around collective housing tion of Inhabitants (FSH) for housing improve- initiatives. ments and rehabilitation

To design the Solidarity Habitat Fund, urbaMonde Link: - in collaboration with the International Guarantee urbamonde.org/en/solidarity-fund-habitat

HOW DOES IT WORK ?

contributors SHF local organizations borrowers

The deposit made to the SHF is given out as a loan at a low interest rate to local revolving funds. The reimbursement is made over a period of two years.

9 10 Europe11 Geneva Presinge Housing Cooperatives

UrbaMonde promotes the development of The municipality of Presinge has embraced participatory housing cooperatives in Switzer- cooperative housing for developing 140 hous- land, and particularly in the Canton of Geneva. ing units.

Integrated by professionals from diverse back- UrbaMonde, alongside acade sàrl, facilitated ground, such as civil engineers, architects and the participatory and innovative planning pro- sociologists, urbaMonde provides technical cess of the newly emerging neighbourhood. support to innovative cooperative hous- ing projects. Among others, urbaMonde Three workshops were organised between supported the planning process of the Vois- June and November 2017, associating not inage and Codha housing cooperatives in only the future inhabitants but also village the Eco-neighbourhood ‘Vergers’ in Meyrin. dwellers concerned by the new develop- ment, around the following topics: “Informing and prioritising concerns”, “Proposing and Co- producing” and “Presentation and approval of the development plan”.

12 Grand Geneva

Special Planning Zone Cross-border Platform for Urban Development Annemasse

UrbaMonde supports the City of Anne- This INTERREG project aims to facilitate the cross-border exchanges and masse in the development of collaborative collaborations between different actors of urban development in the and affordable housing options on the Spe- field of collaborative housing – inhabitants, urban professionals, politi- cial Development Zone ZAC Etoile Anne- cians and technical staff. Thematic days spread across 2017 and 2018 will masse Genève. allow for encouraging collaborative work and the sharing of good prac- tices. UrbaMonde’s work includes launching a Project Incubator and Project Call, aiming Link: plateforme-pftu.org to empower inhabitant groups to actively take part in planning and conceiving the future neighbourhood. Certificate for Advanced Studies – University of Geneva Link: urbamonde.org/annemasse The “Urban project and capacity for action” University Certificate aims to support the emergence of new skills and working practices needed for leading complex urban projects. It refers to case studies, such as the Spe- cial Development Zone ZAC Etoile in Annemasse. 13 La Patissière à Saint Herblain

Strategy, Feasibility and Urban Scheduling Study

Alongside the architecture office Sathy, urba- Monde contributed to a feasibility study on the development of low-cost intermediary housing units in the City of Saint Herblain. UrbaMonde’s contribution focused mainly on innovations in the field of collaborative housing, anti-speculation and affordability aspects and citizen participation.

14 Events and Partnerships

The Social Production of Habitat gium and The Netherlands – as much ing into the focus by participating, for (SHP) - also called community-led as they are reinvented by new initia- instance, in the Social Housing Festi- or collaborative housing - increas- tives, innovative and disruptive prac- val (June 2017, Amsterdam) and the ingly gains attention across Europe tices emerging across the continent. Peer to Peer Exchange with the World as a response to the challenges of Habitat Awards winner Mehr Als Woh- affordable housing shortage, demo- Gatherings, research projects, con- nen (September 2017, Zurich), as graphic change, social exclusion and ferences and publications on Col- well as contributing to research and spatial segregation, migration, and laborative Housing study innovative advocacy projects, such as the SHICC poverty. (and conventional) dwelling models (Interreg NWE) programme on CLTs and practices through the multiple piloted by CLT Bruxelles and the Mé- Experimental, self-organised, collabo- lenses of reinventing social housing, tropole de Lille. rative and non-speculative housing combatting homelessness, circular models are built on the longstand- economy and local development, and ing experiences of the Cooperative elderly care. and community-led housing cultures in some countries – such as Sweden, UrbaMonde contributes to the joint Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Bel- effort of putting Collaborative Hous-

15 European Hub and Collaborative Housing Award

On October 6-8, urbaMonde and id22: and to think about the future of urban the sector across Europe with the aim institute for creative sustainability co- development. to increase the visibility and impact of organized the second European Col- innovative and inclusive housing mod- laborative Housing Hub hosted dur- Over 150 attendees from 19 countries els, to drive policy change and to docu- ing the EXPERIMENTDAYS in Berlin. shared their experiences on the multi- ment existing initiatives. ple dimensions of inclusion and collab- The EXPERIMENTDAYS are a platform orative housing during 16 workshops, The 2017 Hub triggered the creation of for cooperative housing projects, ideas plenary sessions, film screenings, pro- a working group on start-up projects in and actors of creative sustainability ject visits and book readings. Central and Eastern Europe, integrated understanding the city as a designed by 6 countries. The working group is The Second European Collaborative living space. Since 2003, the EXPERI- determined to accelerate the develop- Housing Hub and the Award are part of MENTDAYS have offered the possibility ment of collaborative housing in the urbaMonde’s ongoing effort to link and to learn about different kinds of self-or- sub-region. ganized housing, find other supporters federate the myriad of actors working in

The European Collaborative Housing Award 2017 was awarded to four inspiring and innovative housing initiatives:

New Ground CoHousing Community, London (UK) Cenni di Cambiamento, Milan (IT) Village Vertical, Villeurbanne (FR) Wohnprojekt Wien, Vienna (AT) 16 Latin

America17 South America

Support to the Development of mutual aid housing cooperatives in Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia and Peru.

In 2016, urbaMonde partnered with peer exchange of the experiences and project in collaboration with the local the Uruguayan Federation for Mutual lessons learned, as well as political ad- NGO CIDAP. Aid Cooperatives (FUCVAM) on a new vocacy. international cooperation project sup- FUCVAM also continued its efforts in porting the dissemination of the model In 2017, the FUCVAM’s Training School documenting and mapping its more of cooperative housing based on Mu- (ENFORMA) as well as the national fed- than 600 cooperatives on co-habitat. tual Aid (Cooperativas de Vivienda por erations of housing cooperatives in net (psh.urbamonde.org). The federa- Ayuda Mutua, CVAM) in Latin America. Paraguay and Bolivia engaged in a thor- tion released a number of publications, ough reflection on the training meth- including a cartoon, increasing its stock With the support of FGC and FEDEVA- odologies based on the principles of of education material. CO and in collaboration with We Effect popular education. This resulted in cur- (Swedish Cooperative Center), the first ricula adapted to each context. In par- phase of this project (2016-2018) aims allel, the national federations also took to strengthen the peer training on this important steps towards strengthening model in Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia and their institutions and in terms of politi- Peru so as to enhance its dissemination cal advocacy. The CVAM not yet having and consolidation across the region. spread to Peru, the project focuses on The project furthermore focuses on organizing a pioneering group of in- the documentation, capitalization and habitants and the inception of a pilot 18 Central America

Housing cooperative development in the department of Matagalpa.

The project contributes to the dissemi- operatives being underway in Mata- clusive, equitable and sustainable nation of the mutual aid cooperative galpa. housing solution worth to be inte- housing model in the department of grated into public policies. Matagalpa through supporting the A revolving fund, endowed with the technical assistance team Multipro, a funds of FEDEVACO and self-managed The second project phase, presented multiple services cooperative. Multipro by the local cooperatives and their fed- in mid-2018, will seek to accelerate the works closely with the Nicaraguan Fed- eration CENCOVICOD, was established development of pilot projects capable eration of Housing Cooperatives, CEN- with the aim to facilitate the access of showcasing the potential of coop- COVICOD, to facilitate the emergence to land and affordable finance for the erative housing and leveraging govern- of at least 7 housing cooperatives, es- cooperatives. One plot was purchased mental support. In the effort to diversify tablish partnerships with municipalities through the revolving fund in Matagal- funding sources and strategies, the pro- and train participants in self-manage- pa; one plot is being acquired in each ject aims to build sustainable solutions ment and collective savings. San Dionisio and Esquipulas, with the to the challenges of affordable and co- financial support of the municipalities; operative housing finance in Nicaragua. By the end of 2017, five housing co- whilst in La Dalia the municipality pro- operatives had been established in vided a building site to the Victorias de the municipalities of Matagalpa, San Noviembre Cooperative. Dionisio, Esquipulas, La Dalia and San Ramon with two additional co- In fact, municipalities increasingly 19 see the cooperative model as an in- Capitalisation ‘’Strengthening of intermunicipal dynam- ics in territorial management’’, Rio Grande de Matagalpa watershed

The urbaMatagalpa project endowed Matagalpa region on the territorial 13 municipalities of the Matagalpa De- planning tools. Correspondingly, the partment with the tools necessary for workshop aimed ensure the knowl- territorial planning through a participa- edge and skill-transfer of the urbaMata- tory process and training. galpa project.

An evaluation of the project in 10 mu- For urbaMonde, the workshop series nicipalities, carried out in 2016, showed concludes the project cycle on territo- that the municipalities had adopted rial planning in Nicaragua, whilst we these tools. This had a positive impact remain open to future opportunities of on decision-making and territorial man- collaboration in this field. agement processes, particularly regard- ing agroecology, urban growth and the adaptation to climate change.

In 2017, a 4-month workshops trained approximately twenty pro- fessionals from public institutions, NGOs and universities based in the 20 Regional Hub and Award

In the framwork of the international allowing to gather more than 30 grass- June 19 was dedicated to the attribu- cooperation project with FUCAM, ur- roots organizations and non-profits tion of the 2017 edition of the Latin baMonde as well as Habitat Interna- in the field from 13 countries. American SPH Award, including a tional Coalition (HIC) contributed to the number of practical workshops and organization of the 3rd annual Latin Between June 16 and 18, the partici- peer exchanges with the awarded pro- America SPH Hub. The event took pants visited the Cooperative Union jects. More than 30 initiatives had pre- place in Mexico from June 15-20, 2017. Tosepan. Several workshops and dis- sented themselves to the awards on cussions were organized around the ac- the online platform SPH. It merged the annual meeting of the cess to land and affordable finance, as SPH working group – facilitated by HIC – well as housing rights.

Five winners were selected by a high-level committee including Enrique Ortiz (HIC), Raquel Rolnik (for- mer UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing), Alex Frediani (DPU, Londres), Pablo Caballero (FUCVAM) and Gustavo Romero (UNAM, Mexico):

Cooperativa Habitacional Esperança, Brazil Ecoaldea Aldeafeliz, Colombia Los Pinos : Comunidad del Buen Vivir, Ecuador Habitat Reconstruction in the Guerrero Mountains, Mexico Cobañados, Paraguay

Check our youtube channel and online platform Co-Habitat.net for more information and videos.

21 22 Africa23 Senegal – phase 3

The urban upgrading programme and the ments of Dakar’s suburbs. restarting of the groundwater pumping in the informal settlements of the suburbs of However, not only drones are flying high in Dakar considerably reduced the floods in Dakar’s sky – FSH and urbaSEN have high the area. In parallel, a community movement ambitions concerning the third phase of the emerged: Today, more than 3000 women are urbaDTK project: To sustainably improve organized in the Senegalese Federation of up to 600 homes through the Revolving Inhabitants (FSH) federating more than 100 Fund for Rehabilitation and Urban re- savings groups. newal and aggregated community sav- ings; to train local craftsman and women; Within 2 years, FSH improved the hous- to expand the scope of work of the commu- ing conditions of 213 families thanks nity-based organisation FSH and to consoli- to a Revolving Fund for Reconstruction date its structure; to continue collecting and and Urban Renewal, according to the idea managing data with the aim to impact pub- “Rebuilding is good. Rebuilding well is even lic policies from the bottom-up ; to build a better!”. A brick factory, managed by urbaS- community center and office and to work on Mboolo EN and FSH, was launched on a site made collective infrastructure and public spaces. “ available by the municipality with the aim to improve the quality of the bricks used in the These are the many challenges to be met. How? “Mboolo Mboy Dolé!: Unity makes Mooy rehabilitation projects. The FlyingLabSen- egal, led by urbaSen in collaboration with strength!”. It’s along FSH’s slogan that the WeRobotics, is the latest innovation based project partners are moving together to- on drone technology. It aims to produce a wards achieving their goals. Dolé! detailed aerial map of the informal settle- L’union fait la force!“24 Burkina Faso Regional – Yaam Solidarité Hub

Since 2010, Yaam Solidarité has and organisational mechanisms Slums Dwellers International (SDI) been supporting vulnerable popu- that can be mobilised in order to is a network of federations of sav- lations in Ouagadougou’s suburbs strengthen the role of the inhabit- ings groups in 32 countries across with the aim to improve their hous- ants in improving their neighbour- Africa, Asia and Latin America rep- ing conditions by using local mate- hoods. Facilitating South-South ex- resenting the voice of the urban rials and construction techniques. changes and the dissemination of poor. For more than 20 years, SDI In 2016, the association initiated a community savings and community has been supporting urban dwellers project that seeks strengthen their organizing for urban renewal are in data collection and enumeration, resilience against floods, strengthen central to urbaMonde’s approach information management, political the organisational capacity of the in- within the project. advocacy and improving slum set- habitants, and to improve the access tlements. SDI promotes training to basic services. for community savings, self-man- agement and facilitates experience urbaMonde intervenes alongside transfer between peers. Yaam Solidarité and its partner CRA- terre within the project with the Despite the outreach of the SDI aim to facilitate the experience ex- network, the SPH projects of the af- change between Burkina Faso and filiated federations are rarely docu- Senegal (urbaDTK project). urba- mented and lack visibility. However, Monde also explores the financial, visibility is essential for scaling-up a organizational, ownership models city-making processes that are par- 25 Regional Hub

ticipatory, inclusive and based on the skills and abilities of the urban dwellers providing alternatives to speculative and exclusive urban de- velopment.

With the support of FGC and Fedevaco, SDI and urbaMonde launch a three-year programme encouraging bottom-up docu- mentation of housing and habi- tat projects to increase the public awareness and recognition of com- munity-led housing. The project will facilitate the emergence of the Afri- can SPH Hub.

26 North

America27 Regional Hub and Award

The Intersections 2017 Conference, work collectively in order to make eq- organized by urbaMonde’s partner uitable and inclusive communities the Grounded Solutions (GSN), hosted the new norm. first North American SPH meeting on October 9-12 in Oakland, CA. The In the framework of GSN’s role as the Intersections Conference are an annual North America Hub Host and thanks gathering of diverse stakeholders en- to the fundraising and networking ef- gaged in promoting community-driven forts of Co-operative Housing Interna- housing solutions. tional, the participation of more than 25 Canadian organizations allowed for Over 540 participants from multiple strengthening links throughout the re- backgrounds and practices, coming gion, and setting the basis for promis- from the USA, Canada and Europe, at- ing collaborations for the future. North tended the 2017 edition; including community land trusts, representatives The North American SPH Award was of housing cooperatives, municipali- awarded to Vivacité – Société Immo- ties, habitat affiliates, international and bilière Solidaire (Canada) and the Twin funding organizations. More than 50 Cities Program (USA) within a pilot ex- workshops, plenaries, tour of Bay Area perience feeding into the yearly Ignite housing programs, and full day Training Awards organized by GSN. Institute classes helped explore how to

America 28 29 Contact Team

Global urbaMonde Suisse & urbaMonde Vaud

Web : urbamonde.org Cyril Royez, president CH Email : [email protected] Jan Robra, president VD and vice-president CH Telephone : +41 (0)22 320 86 06 Hans-Rudolf Pfeifer, vice-president VD Olivia Boutay, treasurer CH and VD Switzerland France Suzanne Lerch, board member CH Julien Woessner, board member CH urbaMonde urbaMonde-France Léa Oswald, project manager and board member CH Sentier des Saules 3 c/o FPH Guy Dériaz, board member VD CH - 1205 Genève 38, rue Saint Sabin Eva Aerts, accountant 75011 Paris Fabrice Clavien, coordinator Nikos Topulos, software developer

Social media urbaMonde France

 urbaMonde Pierre Arnold, Board of directors member  @urbamonde Pete Kirkham, Board of directors member  @urbaMonde Damien Varesano, Board of directors member and coordinator Cyril Royez, president Eloïse Pelaud, vice-president Mathieu Faliu, treasurer Charlotte Jacquot, secretary Bea Varnai, project manager and coordinator 30 31