Joint IFC and UN-HABITAT Workshop to Address Housing Supply Constraints in Iraqi Cities

A joint IFC and UN-HABITAT Iraq Programme workshop, Housing Supply Constraints in Iraqi Cities, was held in Amman on 11-12 November 2007. The goal of the workshop was to discuss and agree on the information requirements and survey methodologies to implement a feasibility study on local interventions designed to identify housing supply constraints in Iraqi cities.

The study will look at:

• Access to available land
• Construction industry capacities
• Infrastructure and services
• Housing finance
• Related municipal processes
• Prospects for increased private sector involvement in the delivery of housing.

The feasibility study will be carried out in six select cities, namely Erbil, Mosul, Hilla, Najaf, Nassiriya and Basra. Following this, suitable cities will be identified for pilot interventions. The six cities have been previously studied under the State of Iraqi Cities Report and the Iraq Housing Market Study. Workshop participants included representatives from IFC MENA, UN-HABITAT from the Amman and Nairobi offices, the World Bank, the U.S. State Department and seven Iraqi consultants.

The IFC and UN-HABITAT partnership is the first of its kind globally and builds on the respective strengths and mandates of the two agencies.

For further information, please contact:

Sammar Essmat: sessmat@ifc.org