Report of the Follow-up ACHR Mission to Central Asia

In February and March of 1996, an Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR) Mission, consisting of Father Jorge Anzorena and Arif Hasan, visited Almaty and Bishkek at the request of DIA and HIC. DIA funded the Mission costs and fee. The Mission tried to understand the housing related situation in Almaty and Bishkek and the work that two Central Asian NGOs, Baspana and InterBilim, were doing in this connection. One of the purposes of the Mission was to develop programmes that could be implemented by the NGOs and which could change the situation in the two Central Asian cities in favour of the homeless people.

The Mission report gave a number of recommendations. Two of these are of relevance to the follow·up Mission. One, that the NGO activists and leaders of Baspana and InterBilim should visit Asian NGOs which were carrying out self-help housing related programmes so as to learn from their strategy and methodology. It was felt that without such an orientation and understanding, the Central Asian NGOs would not be able to develop and implement independent self-help or empowerment projects. And two, that further research was required to understand and quantify the sociology, technology and economics of the housing related process in the settlements and in the dormitories.

Download the full report here: Report of the Follow-up ACHR Mission to Central Asia [PDF, 21 MB]