June 14, 2007 (LBO)

UN-HABITAT has teamed up with Sri Lanka's Urban Development Ministry to improve living conditions of low income families living in the capital city's slums.

The program was launched by the United Nations Human Settlement Program, with the help of Ministry of Urban Development and Emerging Markets Group (EMG) in Sri Lanka on Thursday.

The EMG, an international development consulting firm that serves donor agencies and sovereign governments in innovative financing mechanisms for housing development, opened an office in Colombo last week.

The program will develop projects to promote affordable housing, upgrade slums and provide urban infrastructure in settlements in cities for low income households. Communities, municipal councils, Non Governmental Organizations and the private sector will take part in the projects. Institutional investors, commercial banks and property developers will also provide expertise and financial backing.

"Sri Lankan low income families now have a great opportunity to help themselves in developing their houses and their living standards," Ayanthi Gurusinghe the EMG County Coordinator said. "We will pilot the concept in selected under served settlements in the suburbs of Colombo initially and will endeavor to scale it up to Colombo and other cities in time to come,"

The program has set up field tests in the wards of Moratuwa and Kotte where there are temporary housing units which lack access to basic services such as toilets, drinking water and electricity. A credit enhancement system will be introduced in Sri Lanka for the first time which will be in the form of a national guarantee fund.

"The dwellers often have the ability to pay for new housing themselves, and want to own new homes but lack the recognition and acceptance to obtain a loan from financial institutions," a UN HABITAT statement said.