2019 Community-Led Habitat Award for Africa: Call for Submissions

by James Tayler

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We invite you to learn more about the 2019 Community-Led Habitat Award for Africa, an initiative of the CoHabitat Network, and submit your project today!

Deadline: 31 March 2019

In Africa, millions are faced with insecure and inadequate housing. But around the continent, there are inspiring examples of how communities are developing innovative and affordable housing solutions and upgrading their neighbourhoods sustainably.

The Community-Led Habitat Awards, an initiative of the CoHabitat Network, recognise inspiring community-driven habitat solutions from across the continent with the aim to advocate for the expansion of community-led urban development and housing.

Share your story to be part of a growing network of actors securing housing rights and implementing people-led habitat solutions.

Gain visibility and public exposure to advocate for the expansion of community-led housing.

Learn from your peers.

Participate in the World Habitat Awards.

Awards will be given in the following three categories:

  • Best Project Award
  • Best Video Award
  • Best Partnership Award

More information regarding each category is available below. Submissions are welcome in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish.

Visit co-habitat.net to apply!

Download the Co-habitat.net Tutorial here.

Deadline: 31 March 2019

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BEST PROJECT AWARD

Award for best community-led habitat / upgrading project.

Open to all resident-led groups or grassroots organizations working on issues of habitat and the built environment. The nominated project must be already implemented and must have resulted in changes to the built environment (e.g. housing, infrastructure, public space).

Submission Process: Create project profile on co-habitat.net; upload project information, and photos, and submit.

Selection Process: Two-step selection process:

  1. Shortlist of projects by committee of SDI representatives, community leaders, and academia
  2. Shortlisted projects will be contacted for additional info/questions if needed.

Prize: 2-3 winning projects will be invited to the CoHabitat Network regional hub hosted at the UN Habitat Governing Council, 27 – 31 May in Nairobi to present winning projects and to share experiences with peers. The winning projects will be have the chance to enter the shortlist stage of the prestigious World Habitat Awards, organized by our partner World Habitat.

Visit co-habitat.net to apply!

Watch the Co-habitat.net Tutorial here or download it here.

Deadline: 31 March 2019

More information: contact@cohabitat.net

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BEST VIDEO AWARD

Award for best video documentation of issues related to built environment & informality.

Are you a young person living in an informal settlement? Have you made a film to draw attention to your settlement and how to overcome its challenges? Do you want to win a prize for the Best Community Activist Film and be flown to Nairobi to receive it?  Then enter the 2019 Community-Led Habitat Awards ASAP!

An award for best video documentation of issues related to built environment & informality open to all Know Your City TV teams and any other and other civic media teams for documentation of issues related to the built environment and urban informality.

Submission Process: Create a partner profile on co-habitat.net for the your youth media team; upload video and link video to project profile.

Project Assessment Criteria:

  • Technical quality of the production: Quality of the production in terms of sound, camerawork and editing
  • Creative approach to storytelling
  • Social impact: call to action or take-home message

Selection Process: The public will be able to vote for their favourite Video on co-habitat.net between April 1st and 25th.

Prize: Invitation to the CoHabitat Network regional hub hosted at the UN Habitat Governing Council, 27 – 31 May in Nairobi to present winning project and to share experiences with peers. The winning team will produce a short video during the regional hub to be shared via all CoHabitat Network digital platforms.

Visit co-habitat.net to apply!

Watch the Co-habitat.net Tutorial here or download it here.

Deadline: 31 March 2019

More information: contact@cohabitat.net

Project Call-Partnership

BEST PARTNERSHIP AWARD

Award for best partnership between a community-based organization of the urban poor & local government.

Organized communities of the urban poor are invited to nominate public authorities or government officials for best partnerships, policies, public programs, MoUs, upgrading projects/plans that demonstrate active community participation and partnership.

Submission Process: Create a partner profile for the federation, support NGO (and public authority) on co-habitat.net for; upload description on the Partnership.

Assessment Criteria:

  • Community leadership: What was the degree of community participation in formulating the policy, program, MoU related to this partnership?
  • Scalability: Is the partnership more of a one-time subsidy or a sustainable financial mechanism that would allow for large-scale impact?
  • Replicability: Can the Partnership be replicated in other countries or cities or is it very context-specific?)
  • Leverage: To what degree has this partnership leveraged additional resources for the community, e.g. technical support, land, funds for housing / upgrading projects, etc.
  • Impact: What has the impact of this partnership been to date on the lived experience / built environment of the urban poor?
  • Political independence: Is the Partnership dependent on a particular political setting, government official, or momentum, or is it formalised to the extent that it can they be sustained through political changes?

Selection Process: A committee of SDI representatives, community leaders, and academia will assess the submitted Partnerships.

Prize: Invitation to UN Habitat Governing Council, 27 – 31 May in Nairobi, and to CoHabitat Network regional hub to present winning project and to share experiences with peers. The winning partnerships will be featured in a short video produced during the event by SDI’s winning media / KYC.TV team.

Visit co-habitat.net to apply!

Watch the Co-habitat.net Tutorial here or download it here.

Deadline: 31 March 2019

More information contact@cohabitat.net 


WHO ARE WE?

CoHabitat Network is a network of community-led housing organisations and allies from across the world, working together to implement housing rights through collective, non-speculative, people-led solutions. We want to make community-led housing more widespread and attainable, so that communities are empowered to improve their homes, neighbourhoods and lives.

Slum Dwellers International (SDI) is the regional focal point for the CoHabitat Network in Africa and hosts of the first edition of the Community Habitat Award.

SDI is a network of community-based organisations of the urban poor in over 30 countries and hundreds of cities and towns across Africa, Asia and Latin America. In each country where SDI has a presence, affiliate organisations come together at the community, city and national level to form federations of the urban poor that drive a bottom-up change agenda for inclusive cities. The federations comprise thousands of the most vulnerable women, men, and youth who are mobilized around dynamic savings schemes networked to drive a collective, bottom-up change agenda for inclusive and resilient cities and to influence global development. Federations use tools and strategies such as daily savings, peer-to-peer exchanges, community profiling, enumeration, and mapping to organize a critical mass of urban poor communities in cities of the Global South – enabling them to engage with local and national government as partners in development rather than beneficiaries, and to shift development agendas to be more inclusive and pro-poor and ultimately more resilient and sustainable. Organized communities co-produce citywide strategies for securing tenure and increasing access to basic services, housing, and livelihoods with their local and national governments.

The World Habitat Awards recognize and highlight innovative, outstanding, and sometimes revolutionary housing ideas, projects, and programs from across the world. Every year, two winners receive £10,000 each and a trophy, presented at a global UN-Habitat event.

urbaMonde is a non-profit organization supporting cooperative housing solutions in Switzerland and France and facilitating the CoHabitat Network globally.

Co-habitat.net is a collaborative and interactive database of community-led housing and habitat projects. Join the network and interact with a growing community of peers!

More information: co-habitat.net

Questions: contact@co-habitat.net

How to apply :


Download a tutorial on how to apply here.

Download the project call here: