IHRB's Alejandra Rivera attended the MENA Housing Forum as a panelist and delivered a presentation about ‘A rights-based approach to housing’ alongside:
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Stephen Seidel, Senior Director of Global Partnerships, Habitat for Humanity
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Kareem Ibrahim, Founder and Director of Takween Integrated Community Development
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Heba Allah Khalil, Professor of Architecture at Cairo University
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Kif Nguyen, Technical Advisor, SAAVI Project Iraq, Internatioonal Trade Centre
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Besim Nebiu, director for Central and Eastern Europe, Habitat for Humanity
The panel discussion explored how to integrate housing with socioeconomic development, creating housing infrastructure that effectively contributes to, and builds on, all relevant socioeconomic aspects of the community, allowing for access to affordable and well-designed housing for populations (including, for example, elders, people with disabilities and low-income people), and ensuring a community-based approach in the decision-making process for housing planning.
Alejandra introduced to the MENA audience, the ‘Dignity by Design’ approach to the built environment lifecycle – which provides a foundation and the macro perspective of what needs to happen at each stage of a housing development project, in order to respect human rights.
The Framework for Dignity in the Built Environment is a comprehensive tool for various actors –e.g. governments, investors, project owners, architects & designers, construction companies, and communities– to help put in practice the right to housing, and related rights such as right to a clean environment, and to physical and mental health, among others. She also provided specific recommendations for these actors, which can be found in more detail in the Housing chapter of IHRB’s ‘Better Building(s)’ Report.
