1. Habitat for Humanity Guyana
Building ‘more than houses’
Building Impact in the Housing Sector

2. What started as a small housing market study
turned into an organization-wide reflection of
how to impact the housing sector.

3. THE ISSUE
Housing crisis in Guyana
 Housing deficit of 19,400 (as of 2008)
 52,000 homes are over 30 years old, not properly maintained
 Fast, unplanned urbanization
 Ordinary housing consumers‟ limited access to funds to meet housing
needs
 Incentives only for few actors (e.g. tax relief for banks)
 Mismanagement of housing cooperatives and credit unions
 Dual legal framework for property rights
 Government and donor resources only benefit few
 Local housing markets distortion by govnt subsidies and donor support
 Private sector investment discouraged by housing markets distortion

4. WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY
 Guyana government new Housing Policy (2012)
“Housing production is a highly productive economic activity, capable of generating
direct employment, income multipliers and employment linkages at least equivalent
to those of other conventional “productive” sectors such as agriculture, industry and
services.”
 HfH is launching new 4-year strategy in 2014

5. STARTING POINTS
 Not-for-profit or non-profit does not mean for loss
 Shift in identity – from charitable to development organization
 Market mapping analysis (who is doing what in my sector, who/what are
influencing the sector, etc?
 Donor and coporate funding have become more competitive and scarce
 Donors, Govts. and corporations are becoming more selective with
whom they partners with
 HfH is launching new 4-year strategy in 2014

6. Choices, opportunities and
seizing the moment

7. PARTNERSHIPS
working together to maximize use of limited resources to make a
greater impact in pursuit of a desired outcome
Take a moment to reflect on the following feelings expressed b corporate
and government partners:
“If we want to achieve our goals, we can‟t do it alone. NGOs are influencing our
policy and allowing us to anticipate future trends and issues.”
“We would like to partner but through more than the usual fundraising; we would
like to use our expertise and skills to contribute to partnerships.”
“Our „least successful‟ partnerships? Those where we donated money and got
reports back. Maybe the project was successful, but as a partnership it wasn‟t a
partnership.”

8. More reflection thoughts:
In an ideal world, partnership is when you bring your expertise and combine it
with the expertise of non-profit partners to build programmes to create social
value; this for us is the ultimate objective of the partnership.
We don‟t just donate money; we just want to share our knowledge. It has to be
related to our core business.
We provide funds, equipment and employees. It‟s an integrated approach.
Must be more than “about money”, i.e. exchanging knowledge and experience
(two-ways). For example, we provide technical expertise

9. When planning a potential partnership we should think:
 Win-Win
 Think outside the box
 What are my valuable assets/what do I bring to the table
 What impact are we seeking to achieve
 Do I have capacity required to be a good partner
 What do I really want out of this partnership
 What possible forms can it take:
social marketing, value chain integration, formal,
informal, project, long-term program, etc.
Main takeaways
1. Partnerships are inevitable and required in
a more competitive, inter-dependent and
globalized world
2. Donations are not partnerships
3. We partner all the time but are not aware in
most cases (beneficiaries, board, etc.)

10. Building ‘more than houses’
Building Impact in the Housing Sector