In line with the SCP call of the proposal the three-prong approach taken by this initiative intends to support the SMEs to deliver green products and services, enable policy environment, and stimulate consumer demand towards Green Homes. This will promote sustainable housing system to contribute to address the two major global challenges - climate change mitigation and poverty reduction. The green initiative will mainly work in urban areas, with SMEs related to housing that will help to reduce GHG emission and other pollutants, enhancing resource efficiency through supporting market forces (i.e. producers, consumers and enablers including the government). The initiative intends to bring in state-of-art knowledge and skills from European countries and expects to promulgate the good practices in the region through networks of SWITCH Asia, IHS/Erasmus University, UN-Habitat and others. <?xml:namespace>
The project will address three aspects:
i) Creating enabling policy environment to promote sustainable housing
ii) Strengthening supply chains for sustainable housing and building capacity of SMEs to deliver household level green technologies and services.
iii) Stimulating consumer demand for sustainable housing;
In recent years, some SMEs have started to produce green products and services that are related to sustainable housing. Few SMEs like solar energy companies are trying to exploit the market prompted by the on-going energy crisis, while others have started producing and marketing products and services such as eco-housing, rain water harvesting, waste and wastewater recycling, hollow concrete blocks, soil cement blocks and passive energy design. However, these industries are still in their infancy and there are three major gaps in promoting sustainable housing - a) need to create an enabling environment by developing supportive policy frameworks and incentives for the SMEs and consumers, b) need to strengthen the supply chain of the SMEs to ensure smooth supply of quality products at a competitive price, and c) social marketing campaign to increase consumer education on availability of the products and services and their importance. Moreover, skilled human resource is yet other hurdles to flourish this emerging business.
As sustainable housing involves large number of stakeholders, there is a need to bring together different stakeholders for this common cause. This project will bring together Nepalese SMEs and their associations as intermediary organizations, government agencies such as Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) and Department of Urban Development and Building Construction (DUDBC), municipalities, NGOs involved in the sector and financing institutions such as Town Development Fund. NGOs, such as Clean Energy Nepal (CEN), Environment and Public Health Organization (ENPHO) and Shelter and Local Technology Development Centre (SLTDC), which have experience in research and promotion of energy efficient building, water and waste management, can play an important role in building local capacity. Similarly, Intermediary organisations such as associations of SMEs including Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FNCCI) and Nepal Land and Housing Development Association (NLHDA) can play an important role in mobilizing SMEs. Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS), Netherlands, a world leader in research and training related to sustainable housing, will provide its technical expertise and also assist in improving existing local technologies and innovations, as well as in learning from the European experience in this sector. UN-Habitat is therefore partnering with all these institutions to put forth a strong and multi-disciplinary team to implement this project. UN-Habitat will also utilize its own in-house expertise and experiences from projects such as “Promoting Energy Efficiency in Buildings in Africa” which it is implementing in five countries in Sub-Saharan Africa with support from Global Environment Facility (GEF).
Limited market is the main barrier to sustainable housing contributed by lack of product information to consumers, skilled human resource and conducive policy environment. Therefore there is a need of easing the supply chain. As several of the conventional housing products are imported limited jobs are created locally, providing less economic opportunities to the poor. The sector workers need skill training for quality service and better link to specialized job market. Similarly, practicing architects/engineers can compete in the market by providing energy efficient and cost effective sustainable housing solutions to their clients. Information gap on available green products and services make them compromise on conventional products. The government offices are overburdened by their daily rituals and need support to upscale the sector. From the beneficiary side, there is huge gap on understanding the importance of green products and services. Many conventional products and services are not only unsustainable but uneconomical, and yet people are still relying on those mainly in the absence of consumer awareness. [BB]: Gender aspect of this?
