Ciudad Bolivar is a socially deprived area of Colombia’s capital,
Bogotá, and one of the most densely populated places in the world. Most
of the 160,000 houses there have been poorly built by the residents
themselves, usually with four cinder block walls and a corrugated metal
roof. As a result, more than three-quarters of the homes would be
destroyed if a severe earthquake or landslide were to hit the area.
There is also heavy overcrowding, leading to friction in families,
pushing children onto the street, and increasing violent crime.
While the Colombian government and other agencies have made efforts to
address the housing problem, much still needs to be done,
especially for those at the bottom of the pyramid. And that’s where the
construction materials company Holcim has felt it can play a role in
making things better.
Holcim has set up a partnership with Fedevivienda, a local NGO that
specializes in housing in Bogotá, and the government housing agency,
Caja de Vivienda Popular, to run a pilot programme focused on improving
the structure of 78 houses in Ciudad Bolivar, while building 22 new
homes for very low income families. The programme also aims to
encourage the self-build skills that local people have already
developed by offering training to workers and residents in construction
and maintenance techniques.
While Holcim has charged residents for the cement it has provided, it
has offered a 20 per cent discount on other building materials for the
reinforced and new houses, with residents able to pay for this through
government subsidy or micro-credit options set up for them via
Fedevivienda.
Fedevivienda provides the architects to work with the families and
design the houses, and employs the construction workers on the building
and reinforcing of the homes. The 78 houses selected for the pilot have
been given external reinforcement to help protect them from earthquake
damage, with external walls reinforced, roofs properly installed and
sanitary improvements made.
Great care has been taken to work closely with the families by showing
them the mistakes made in the design and construction of the original
houses. Once the plans have been approved by all concerned, a
construction license is acquired by the family, and building begins.
Holcim has also made sure the labourers working on the project are from
Ciudad Bolivar, so that the money paid for the building work stays in
the community, and so that local people can raise their skill levels to
help them gain future employment. The whole process has not been easy:
Holcim and Fedevivienda have had to coordinate with two different
parts of the government housing agency, and bureaucracy has slowed
things down to the point where the length of the pilot extended from
one year to three.
But it’s been a small start for Ciudad Bolivar, and a valuable one that
has built the foundations for a future programme on a larger scale.
Improving the homes will also have beneficial effects for local
economic activity, for many houses in Ciudad Bolivar feature some kind
of business, such as a shop or a hair salon, that provides income for
the families that live in them.
For Holcim there have also been benefits, quite apart from the revenue
it has generated on selling cement to build and reinforce the houses.
‘It’s improved our reputation as a company committed to providing value
for society and enabling a better future for this community,’ says
Barbara Dubach, head of corporate social responsibility and sustainable
development co-ordination at Holcim.
‘We’re not just giving a discount to families for the materials, nor
just building a house, but actually increasing the living standard of
the citizens of Ciudad Bolivar and their quality of life. It’s not
about giving things away; it’s about generating capacity and increasing
opportunity.’
Holcim’s work in Colombia is one of a dozen low cost housing projects
in Latin America and south east Asia that often include partnerships
based on local needs.
On the tsunami-hit Indonesian island of Aceh, for instance, Holcim has
created a partnership with GTZ, the German Technical Co-operation, a
government-owned corporation that helps developing nations, and the
Indonesian Institute of Architects.
Among other things, the company invested SFr300,000 ($248,000,
£124,000) to set up a resource centre for contractors, home-owners and
others involved in reconstruction. The Architectural Clinic, as the
centre is known, offers practical advice to anyone wishing to build
their own home, and has produced a comic book which provides a
step-by-step explanation of construction techniques.
In Mexico, where there is a housing shortage of more than four million
homes, Holcim has established 140 local ‘Mi Casa’ centres selling
affordable building materials. Over the past five years it has also run
a parallel Mi Casa scheme to equip people with the skills to build
their own houses, leading to the construction or improvement of more
than 200,000 homes since 2000.
And in Sri Lanka, where lack of credit is one of the main barriers to
better housing, Holcim has become involved in a partnership with
Ceylinco Grameen, a microfinance provider, to help people borrow money
to improve their homes. The company invested SFr60,000 to set up the
fund, which will ultimately be self-financing.
As with all its housing projects, Holcim is building sustainability
into the Sri Lankan scheme. Working with the country’s National
Building Research Organisation, it has identified a range of local
building products to complement the cement that the company itself
provides. By creating markets for locally-sourced tiles, clay bricks
and steel, for example, it is directly benefiting local producers and
distributors.
The global market opportunity in low-cost housing is enormous. In Latin
America alone, an estimated 100 million dwellings are substandard. By
its own admission the company has barely scratched the surface. Finding
sustainable ways to expand its work in developing countries remains a
key challenge for the company.
For that to happen, Holcim and others will need to work with
governments to cut the red tape that frequently stifles housebuilding
in much of the world. The lack of access to sound sources of credit for
people building their own homes is also one of the biggest barriers to
expansion. As a producer of cement, aggregates and concrete, Holcim
recognizes that it does not have the skills needed to provide credit
facilities at local level, so the company intends to pursue its
strategy of partnering with specialist organizations that do. That
approach is already bearing fruit, as the work in Sri Lanka shows.
In principle, however, Holcim believes it has struck on a classic
‘win-win’ situation by addressing a social need but also, potentially,
creating a new market of long-term, loyal customers – as Shona Grant,
director at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development,
points out.
‘As Holcim gets better at delivering low-cost housing solutions,
there’s no reason that it will not be able to spread them around the
world,’ maintains Grant. If the company can also help its own business
prospects in the process, then so much the better.
