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Habitat International Coalition (HIC) is an independent, nonprofit alliance with hundreds of organizations and individuals, which has been working in housing and human settlements for more than 30 years. The Coalition comprises social movements, community-based organizations, support groups and academics. The strength of the Coalition is based on its worldwide membership (it has members in 117 nations in five continents) and on the fact that it brings together a range of civil society groups. Dedicated to advocacy and support for the poor, solidarity networking, popular mobilization, debate and analysis, HIC works to unite civil society in a shared commitment to ensuring sustainable habitat and a livable planet for all. Its work focuses on defending and implementing the human rights linked to housing and habitat; i.e., land, housing, clean water, sanitation, a healthy environment, access to public goods and services (e.g., health, education, transport and recreation; access to livelihood and social protection, pluralism and the preservation of social, natural, historic and cultural patrimony.
Since the ’80 HIC has been developing special capacities seeking gender equality, in a balanced articulation between reflection and action on different issues: the rights’ approach, the right to the city, the social production of habitat, women and habitat and the sustainable habitat.
HIC specific work on the right to the city seeks to deepen the analysis and the actions on the proposal of building more just cities worldwide. HIC has been committed since decades in the creation of a theoretical and practical framework for the right to the city. The Coalition articulates and accompanies social movements and organizations in their struggle to achieve the realization of all human rights to ensure the collective well-being of inhabitants; the democratic management and the social function of the city. HIC is also aware of the global challenges facing worldwide on climate change and food sovereignty and the obvious impacts on the cities: the Coalition works on broaden exchanges between urban and rural movements.
HIC’S work on social production of habitat seeks to derive practical lessons from the compilation, exchange and analysis of “people’s processes” in initiating, designing, building and maintaining local environments. These experiences, which build upon local social resources and demonstrate local social reliance and ingenuity, generate and promote methods and strategies that then can be shared and replicated across regions. Each region has given rise to diverse and specific examples of struggles and efforts that emphasize distinct circumstances and priorities to construct people-centred livelihoods. In order to strengthen people's process for access and provision of land and shelter, lessons learned to date show a need to:
- understand what sustains the people’s process on land, housing and habitat/settlements development, in urban and rural areas,
- understand what are the forces, both external and internal, that strengthen or weaken peoples’ processes, including political and economic forces that have a bearing on people's processes, and in particular the dynamics of the informal and formal land markets;
- envision alternative ways to develop cities and other human settlements, evolving a bottom-up perspective on human settlement development without destroying livelihoods, assets and material achievements of the poor, while, quite to the contrary, supporting and nurturing livelihoods, assets and settlements of the poor, and their integration into the city;
- articulate and support the people’s processes through policies and actions for both government and nongovernmental organizations;
- develop more flexible design-based, knowledge-based and service-based housing policies and outputs with the objective of realizing the human right to adequate housing and equitable land use.