CGI Commitment PCI commits to transforming urban slums into resilient neighborhoods by pioneering public private partnerships and extending low cost housing and construction loans to vulnerable urban populations.

The ChallengeThe world’s urban population is projected to increase by over 1.4 billion people over the next 15 years. As the world urbanizes, an increasing number of house-holds are living in high-risk and informal settlements prone to a wide array of disasters such as floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, and outbreaks of disease. Inadequate housing is a core cause of this growing vulnerability.

Households in informal urban areas rarely have access to formal loans for hous-ing and often pay interest rates as high as 90% or more, requiring them to spend 65% or more of their monthly income on housing costs alone.

PCI’s Approach The goal of PCI’s “neighborhood approach” is to empower local residents with the opportunity to own their homes and build their own communities in a collaborative community-based planning process.

PCI engages municipal and ministry level partners, local universities, private companies, and community-based organizations to provide a broader array of critical services required for resilient neighborhoods—things we take for granted in America such as low cost loans with good terms for housing, improvements to shared drainage and water and sanitation systems, better access and egress, and improved safety and security. As many households in informal areas don’t pay taxes to the municipality for basic services, this process will expand the municipal tax base, increase public services, and serve as an important basis for land rights.

Taking ActionPCI is developing a financial mechanism to deliver low cost loans for housing and the purchase of safe building sites in high-risk informal urban areas. These loans will be coupled with technical assistance for incremental and new con-struction and retrofitting, legal services for land title, economic empowerment, and support to link families to additional housing subsidies and other services.

In this unique partnership, PCI will convene local community groups on the ground, and Cordaid will complement these efforts with its vast experience in building healthy, safe neighborhoods around the world. CEMEX will provide materials and workforce training to assist local residents in building their own homes and in helping establish local construction companies.

About PCIPCI’s mission is to prevent disease, improve community health, and promote sustainable development. For more than 50 years, PCI has supported solutions in communities around the world, measuring the social and economic impact and evolving our programs over time. PCI currently has 58 programs in 16 countries.Learn more at pciglobal.org.

Urban Upgrading Through Public Private Partnerships (UUPPP)

PCI will provide technical leadership and capacity building in:

• Providing low-cost housing loans• Construction and retrofitting of

housing and schools• Community-led urban planning• Building economic opportunity• Mobilizing communities for safe

neighborhoods• Increasing access to basic services

PCI and its partners will convene a wide array of local partners in high-risk informal urban centers in three coun-tries to develop strategies to transform these areas into safer, healthier, more resilient neighborhoods.

BUILDING SAFER, HEALTHIER, MORE RESILIENT NEIGHBORHOODS

The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) convenes leaders to turn ideas into action. CGI Commitments to Action represent bold new ways that CGI members address global challenges—implemented through new methods of partnership and designed to maximize impact. Commitments can be small or large, global or local. No matter the size or scope, commitments help CGI members translate practical goals into meaningful and measurable results.