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To increase the Gold winners’ impact, the World Habitat Awards team provides tailored support during the year following winning the award. We call this collaboration ‘exChange‘.
Each ‘exChange’ is different from one project to another depending on the needs of our Gold winners. Below are some examples of the bespoke support we have provided in recent years:
Increasing visibility
Contribution to international events and summits
In 2022, we facilitated our 2021 Gold winners Public Works Studio (Lebanon) and Community Land Trust Brussels to participate in international events including UN-Habitat’s World Urban Forum and the International Social Housing Festival. They had the opportunity to present their work to an international audience and network with key regional and global stakeholders which led to the formation of an evictions network in the wider MENA region and now a European Community Land Trust Network.
Watch these short videos about our year
In 2021, we financed a promotional video and organised events at COP26 for Aga Khan Agency for Habitat to raise international awareness of its adaptation and resilience work, network with potential partners, and identify mechanisms for scaling up.
Communication support
We offer support for local or national press coverage, hiring professional services to create audio-visual material, for web design, community management, etc.
In 2021, we commissioned specialist design and communication support to translate the homelessness prevention material developed by Newcastle City Council into accessible materials that are transferrable to a wider audience.
In 2022, we co-financed a series of events to celebrate the 10th year anniversary of Community Land Trust Brussels(CLTB), bringing together the community, local, regional and international stakeholders to recognise and celebrate their achievements and help influence policy. Watch our short film about our year working with CLTB.
Sharing practices with peers
In situ Peer exchanges
Since 1989, we have organised over 40 in-person peer-exchanges for winners in their locations. These are intensive site visits providing an opportunity for participants invited by World Habitat to meet with residents and others responsible for the programme’s success.
Alternatively, peer exchanges can take place in another country. In 2011, the in-person peer exchange for the Australian winner Housing for Health was organised in Nepal, where the awarded project had already been transferred.
Online workshops and networking events
In 2020, we facilitated a series of online workshops and roundtables with World Habitat Award Gold winner Habitat3, bringing together similar organisations from five countries to facilitate mutual learning on affordable housing provision and funding structures.
In January 2023, we co-hosted a four-day workshop with our Lebanon winners Public Works Studio, which convened independent, housing rights organisations from across the Middle East and North Africa. The workshop mapped the state of forced evictions and housing rights in the region, and led participants to mobilise and form the MENA Monitoring Evictions Network. This Network continues to monitor and raise awareness around housing injustices in the region, in collaboration with international institutions and global partners.
[Pictured above Hani Fakhani, Managing Director at Sakan Housing Communities]
Other options include hybrid regional knowledge transfer workshops (in-person and/or online), developing educational materials, publications, etc.
Technical support
Developing strategies
Throughout the year, World Habitat has been working with Homes for Good to develop a new fundraising mechanism for their organisation’s long term sustainability, known as the Endowment Fund. They are currently refining the Fund’s grant-based model and plan to convene stakeholders to gauge interest and buy-in. World Habitat is also delivering a communications brief on positive affordable housing models within the private rented sector, using Homes for Good’s award-winning model as the premise.
Local staff support
In 2020, we funded the role of a community officer to support the Koraga community in India to adopt eco-sensitive livelihood practices, build new homes and organise advocacy efforts to mobilise human and financial resources from different levels of government.
Transitioning in governance model
In 2018, we organised an in-person workshop for Mutual Housing California to help them adapt as a growing organisation and learn how they could make a change in culture without losing their founding ethos.
Other options include financing capacity building and training activities for staff (i.e. legal support, informatics, media), exchanges with other organisations that have experience of change in scale or structure, training to reduce the organisation’s carbon footprint, etc.
If you have any questions about the World Habitat exChange programme, or the World Habitat Awards, please contact us.
