Land for housing the poor — by the poor: experiences from the Baan Mankong nationwide slum upgrading programme in Thailand

Abstract

This paper describes the nationwide “slum” upgrading (Baan Mankong) programme in Thailand, which supports community organizations to find their own solutions to getting land for housing. Between 2003 and 2008, the programme supported 512 upgrading initiatives involving 1,010 communities. Community organizations form their own savings groups and draw on soft loans, and find solutions that work best for them in terms of location, price and tenure, and negotiate with the landowners. Infrastructure subsidies can be drawn on to support the upgrading, and housing may be built or just improved. Collective land ownership strengthens the community processes that help households make the challenging transition from informal to formal, provides protection against market forces that often lead poorer households to sell, and encourages on-going community responses and less hierarchic community organization. Larger citywide networks of community groups work with local governments and other civil society groups to help find land solutions for all those living in informal settlements.