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Better Loans for Better Homes: A New Assessment Tool Helps Microfinance Institutions Increase Their Housing Impact
Most housing in developing countries is self-built and incremental, and these homeowners frequently turn to microfinance institutions (MFIs) to finance it. But according to Naeem Razwani and Jitendra Balanirom of Habitat for Humanity’s Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter and Olivia Nielsen of Miyamoto International, this type of construction process can lead to severe quality and structural issues – while also increasing the lending risk for MFIs. They discuss how a new assessment tool can help these lenders understand and optimize the impact of their home loans to better meet the needs of this market.
- Categories
- Finance, Impact Assessment
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IFC, Aavas Financiers Sign Pact for Affordable Green Housing Finance for Low-Income Borrowers in India
A green home is a type of house designed to be environmentally sustainable. Green homes focus on the efficient use of energy, water, and building materials
- Categories
- Environment
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- housing, infrastructure, scale
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Optimizing Incremental Building: Why the Answer To Decent, Affordable Housing for All Is Hidden in Plain Sight
The scale of the global housing challenge is enormous, with an estimated 1.6 billion people worldwide lacking adequate shelter. As a huge percentage of homebuilders around the world build incrementally, analysts at Habitat for Humanity’s Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter explore how optimizing the incremental building process could present an effective solution.
- Categories
- Environment, Finance
- Tags
- housing, innovation, manufacturing
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Africa’s Student Housing Crisis: An Overlooked Need Offers a Major Opportunity for Impact Investors
As COVID-19 spreads across Africa, universities are shutting their doors in unprecedented numbers. But for many African students, home is not an ideal learning environment. According to Abayomi Onasanya at Student Accomod8, that's one reason impact investors should focus on a long-overlooked goal: student housing. He explores how campus housing can make higher education more accessible to millions of young Africans.
- Tags
- housing, impact investing, youth
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Bottom-up Solutions to the Climate Emergency: Three Innovative, Eco-Inclusive Enterprises Take a Local Approach
We just reached the end of the hottest decade on record, and local communities – particularly in the Global South – are bearing the brunt of the impact. As climate change disrupts development efforts and worsens global food crises, population displacement and water scarcity, there's a growing need for more resilient communities. The SEED Awards highlight eco-inclusive enterprises that are addressing this challenge – authors at SEED discuss some promising examples.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Environment, Social Enterprise
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The World’s First 3D-Printed Neighborhood Is Being Built in Mexico for Families Living on $3 a Day
New Story is a nonprofit that helps families in need of shelter. It has built more than 2,700 homes in South America and Mexico since it was founded in 2014. This is the first homebuilding project it's done with 3D printing.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Latin America
- Tags
- housing, nonprofits
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White House Touts Help For Poor Areas — But Questions Endure Over Who’ll Benefit
Smith, who helps lead the White House efforts on the zones and other domestic policy matters, told NPR that the zones help cities and towns draw on private-sector investment in an innovative way. But the federal law does not specify how those funds should be used; investors might build affordable housing — or they might build high-end apartment buildings.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- North America
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Tracking Goats and Bleach, Artificial Intelligence Helps Out in Crises
From knowing if it's safe to rebuild a damaged home to readying aid for displaced people, technology that harnesses AI is proving handy before and when disasters hit.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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