May 2010

What's New

IUP Project (link with site of Inclusive Cities)

HNSEA has completed Year I of its IUP Project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It is under a bigger project called Inclusive Cities which aims to improve livelihoods of the urban working poor, most of whom are employed in the informal economy such as homebased workers, waste pickers, and street vendors whose number is numerous and yet have very little representation in urban planning processes and policy making that greatly impact on their lives and ability to generate income for their families.

To address urban poverty, the Inclusive Cities Project supports and builds capacity of membership-based organizations (MBOs) in the areas of organizing, advocacy and policy analysis by providing them with tools necessary to give them a voice in urban planning processes. The project believes that reducing urban poverty can be done by reversing the exclusionary trend of modernizing cities through reshaping of urban plans, regulations and policies to incorporate the working poor and accepting the informal economy as a key and vibrant component of the urban economy.

WIEGO, Homenet South Asia and Homenet Southeast Asia are among the nine partners in this project which comprise MBOs of the working poor, international alliances of MBOs and support organizations committed to improving the situation of the working poor. The IUP Project basically has three major activities: Capacity Building(training on MBOs, exposure dialogue program, skills training), Voice(mapping and organizing, policy forum and dialogues, research and documentation of best practices pertaining to HBW issues and concerns), and formation of a global body which is Homenet International.