Innovation Awards Winners
Public Policies Winner
This category focuses on policies across all government level that help to reduce housing deficit while taking into considerations the specific needs of minorities, vulnerable and marginalized populations.
Social Housing and Mortgage Finance Fund (SHMFF)
Egypt
Housing for All Egyptians is a governmental housing program that addresses the significant shortfall in public service through promoting well-located units in near-to-work centers across Egypt's 27 governates. With the ambitious target of delivering one million adequate and affordable housing units in new and old cities, Housing for All Egyptians aims to create new urban cities with access to all services as of 2024.
Through its cooperation with the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) and Ministry of Finance (MOF) the initiative targets to facilitate and subsidize affordable mortgage interest rates for low-income households and improve their financial accessibility to obtain housing units. Working collaboratively with the public sector to improve performance of the housing sector.
The program to date, has constructed over 802,000 units (76% of total government housing production), and has contributed to the national housing plan; increasing the urban area from 7-14%while decreasing building on agriculture areas, to create new safe, healthy housing ecosystems.
More recently, the fund has been working on implementing a new “Green Social Housing Initiative” in cooperation with Housing and Building National Research Center that targets 25,000 green, social housing units.Its successful model has inspired other countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Senegal and Uzbekistan and the Fund continues to share its experience and learnings through joint agreements, forums and conferences.
ShelterTech Winner
This category focuses on technological innovations (product & services) from the private sector that provide practical solutions to affordable and/or sustainable, resilient housing challenges, and can be commercially scaled and replicated to increase impact on low-income households and communities.
Zelij Invent
Morocco
Zelij Invent aims to support construction stakeholders towards net-zero emissions through housing solutions that utilize eco-friendly practices and green technologies. The company transforms plastic waste into construction material. Its 50% plastic waste and cost-effective production process creates RECYBLOCK; a hollow block that can be used the same way as cement hollow.
Through moving away from using sand as integral component of construction material, and using recycled plastic instead, the company believes it reduces dependency on sand extraction which cause coastal erosion and disrupt ecosystems of oceans and seas. The company has effectively activated its local community for recycling efforts and collaborated with them to develop production techniques and workshops.
The project aims to target households with no access to decent housing in Africa, municipalities and cities committed to sustainability in their efforts to build or maintain infrastructures and green-tech-oriented construction companies. 639 people have participated in the awareness raising and recycling efforts and five cities in Morocco have used the blocks to build houses and/or restore infrastructure.
Best Practices Winner
This category focuses on policies across all government level that help to reduce housing deficit while taking into considerations the specific needs of minorities, vulnerable and marginalized populations.
Public Works Studio
Lebanon
The Housing Monitor (HM) is a community housing tool developed by Public Works Studio to protect and advancehousing rights in Lebanon. Operational in Beirut and its suburbs, and expanding to cover more cities, the tool is usedby residents from various marginalised social groups to report on housing vulnerabilities and eviction threats.
In response, Public Works Studio provides individualised legal and social services, gathers tenants around shared grievances, and produces knowledge on trends in housing injustices in the form of reports, memos, and stories. In doing so, it empowers marginalised city dwellers to claim their housing rights, while raising attention over detrimental housing policies in Lebanon that have affected vulnerable residents.
To date, Public Works has received more than 700 housing violation and eviction threat reports, for which consultations, legal tips, and landlord negotiations were provided, and tens of evictions were deterred.
A specialised emergency reporting channel for city dwellers impacted by the Beirut blast was also created, and over 15 post-Beirut blast community meetings with impacted bene carries were conducted. There is considerable potential to replicate in the MENA region given the current rights-to-the city movements happening in Arab cities. There are activists in Tunis, Cairo, Baghdad, Amman and Kuwait advocating more inclusive, just and sustainable cities.
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