Given vast differences in governance systems and the context of urbanization, a variety of approaches to addressing housing challenges is expected. From land sharing schemes in Cambodia, to inclusionary zoning in Indonesia, to the housing provident fund in China, a multitude of innovations in housing policies have potential benefits outside their country of origin. In order to bring a comparative lens to the topic and critically assess policies' potential transferability, the International Journal of Housing Policy (IJHP) is sponsoring a panel at the UAA conference in Miami on Housing Policy Innovations in the Global South. The panel is composed of five papers that address issues with housing policies across Asia; Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. Two papers focus on the successes and challenges of traditional approaches to housing policy in China; expanding standard housing finance systems through a provident fund and requiring local governments to provide subsidized public housing units to low-income households. Two papers focus on the community based lending approach in Cambodia, advocated for by the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights, providing insight into the potential and limits of this bottom-up approach. Finally, a broad, comparative paper that covers community-based programs in four countries questions the focus on innovation in housing policy and proposes effectiveness as a more important criterion. The panel’s combination of papers focused on traditional or top-down approaches, with studies of new, innovative approaches as well as a broad comparative piece will create a fruitful discussion on the important topic of housing policy in the Global South.
Housing Provident Fund Program in China: Successes and Challenges Lan Deng, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Jie Chen, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics
The collateral effects of Borei Keila's land-sharing and its significance in the formulation of a Cambodian National Housing Policy Giorgio Talocci, University College London; Camillo Boano, University College London
Is Innovative also Effective? Recent Efforts for Housing the Urban Poor in Asia Ashok Das, University of Hawaii at Manoa
