Resource information
In 1986 the World Bank prepared a
strategy for low-income housing in developing countries.
This work grew out of the Bank's efforts to support the
urban poor through an extensive housing assistance program
that was launched by Bank President McNamara's speech
on urban poverty. By that time, the Bank had provided more
than $4 billion of such assistance, and had undertaken an
extensive research effort to design support for that
lending. Much has changed since that time, not only in the
way the Bank provides shelter assistance, more than doubling
its support since that review, but also in the changing
consensus as to what shelter strategy should be. The authors
review the emerging consensus. They examine three new
research areas: the empirical analysis of the effects policy
has on housing supply; the richer understanding of the
effects that land market regulations have on specific
projects and on the functioning of urban areas; and the
alleged mysterious effects that de Soto, for example, claims
that effective property rights have not only for shelter
policy but for development more generally. The authors also
examine the emergence of both a new financial innovation,
micro-enterprise finance, and the increased emphasis given
to project design based on community participation, showing
how these approaches more fully reconcile the incentives
faced by beneficiaries and donors. In sum, the authors argue
that the evolving consensus on shelter strategy is not
nearly as mysterious as some would claim. Housing markets in
most developing countries remain highly idiosyncratic and
constrained. Nevertheless, the evolving consensus on shelter
strategy appears to recognize these idiosyncrasies and
policy constraints as evidenced by the strong and improving
performance of the Bank's shelter lending.
