Tailor-made training courses can be arranged for groups of professionals and institutions for topics related to urban development planning. For details please contact Prof. Dr. Kosta Mathéy at PAR (Mathéy@par.tu-darmstadt.de or phone: +49 6151 164944, fax. +49 6151 1639379)

Enabling Housing Policies and Strategies

One week training course for decision makers from Iraq on behalf of UN-HABITAT.

The training workshop covered, among other aspects, the following subjects:

- The new dimension of housing: housing and economic development, human rights, income generator, wealth creation, employment, development.

- Housing: residential areas and city, decentralization of housing policies, connecting housing policy with city development strategy.

- Planning and managing new housing development strategy:

- Enabling strategy: stakeholders roles and responsibilities, finance, land, assembly, housing and urban design, budgeting and costing, evaluating and selecting technologies, enforcing design and building standards, disengagement and community participation, housing needs assessments and housing information system.

Reforming housing institutions, laws and regulations and developing new partnerships.

Community Self-Help Initiatives

One week training course for Community Based Organizations  from Iraq on behalf of  UN-HABITAT.

The training was geared towards improving the capacities of local communities to improve their housing conditions. Among others, the following topics were covered:

1. Housing policies and housing situation in Iraq and in developing countries,
2. Methods and process to plan, manage and implement self-help housing, case studies on international experiences,
3. The role of women in self-help initiatives; means to organize and divide responsibilities,
4. Self-help within the framework of settlement design,
5. Economic and financial aspects of self-help,
6. Methods of monitoring and evaluation of urban and housing projects.