Bridging the finance gap in housing and infrastructure. India: SPARC - the Alliance in India
Abstract
Homeless International prepared this case study in August 2000 as part of the \"Bridging the finance gap in housing and infrastructure\" research project. The paper examines the project portfolio of the Alliance, a group of Indian organisations that works collaboratively to address urban poverty. The Alliance portfolio is composed of precedent setting projects that, if they prove successful, are then scaled up, normally at city-level. The risks associated with the current portfolio are analysed and options for risk mitigation and management are explored. In particular the risks associated with projects implemented under the auspices of the Maharashtran Slum Rehabilitation Act are considered. The size of the Alliance's project portfolio is increasing rapidly as they develop successful initiatives with a range of Municipalities. Historical sources and forms of financing are insufficient to meet the development capital requirements of this expansion. Existing financial products and sources and forms of funding are analysed, as are options for new forms of financing. Finally conclusions are drawn that suggest that the Alliance's most valuable resource lies in the knowledge creation process that it has developed within low income, informal settlements. Systematisation of this knowledge, which constitutes valuable intellectual capital, is not only an effective means of mitigating risk across the portfolio of work undertaken by the Alliance; it is also potentially an asset that should be considered as valuable collateral in the negotiation of infrastructure and housing loans from state and commercial financial institutions.
Citation
Mcleod, R. Bridging the finance gap in housing and infrastructure. India: SPARC - the Alliance in India. (2000) 39 pp.
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