Coping in Costa Rica

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ABSTRACT

The paper presents a housing program that has proved to be a successful method of poverty alleviation. The program has led to an improved housing standard and quality of life for the families involved.

FUPROVI (Fundación Promotora de Vivienda) a Costa Rican NGO, has been developing a self-help housing construction scheme that has been implemented in numerous urban settlements during the last 15 years. Their work is based on helping people help themselves by providing them the means of getting access to the formal sector of society -governmental housing subsidies and services of commercial banks. One of the first steps in this process is either legalization of the existing land area occupied by the community or, as is the case more often, helping the community to find and purchase legal land for new housing construction. This is followed, and preceded by, capacity building in organizational and legal matters as well as in self-help construction. The support is provided to groups in the society with no other possibilities of accessing legal housing. Priority is given to low-income, often women-headed, households who are willing to take part in organized self-help construction and have the possibility to repay received credits.

Sida/Asdi (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency) initially supported the FUPROVI program which is now financially sustainable and no longer needs any foreign aid. The FUPROVI method of organized self-help construction is a way of solving housing problems that has received attention, not only in Costa Rica, but also in other countries where Sida supports the housing sector. The housing program received the UNCHS Best Practices Award in 2000.

ESF/N-AERUS: International workshop - Leuven and Brussels, Belgium, 23-26 May 2001

N-AERUS: Network-Association of European Researchers on Urbanisation in the South
http://www.naerus.net