Kibera Public Space Project: sustainable housing through 'productive public space'
Example: Walk us through a specific example(s) of how this solution makes a difference; include its primary activities.
chelina
odbert
Kounkuey Design Initiative (KDI)
310.922.8599
108 w 2nd street #301, Los Angeles CA 90012
, NA
1‐5 years
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Operating for 1‐5 years
Chelina Odbert entered Harvard University Graduate School of Design determined to find a way to use design to alleviate poverty. In 2006 she & five classmates launched Kounkuey Design Initiative (KDI) as a way to address poor living conditions that other design firms were reluctant or ill-equipped to confront. They started with the assumption that slums are not going away, but a better standard of living for slum residents was easily achievable, and the skills & insights of their professions could help. They raised funds to explore this idea in Kibera, Nairobi. In design workshops held with residents they identified priority needs and began to understand why past upgrading attempts had failed. They also saw residents’ capacity to solve their own problems when given access to resources. They returned from that trip committed to do something sustainable and spent the next year designing KDI & KPSP to avoid the shortcomings of the projects they saw in Kibera. They then exhausted every resource to design & launch a pilot project. This process included writing a business plan, participating in a social enterprise incubator, & taking an MIT engineering course. The specific idea of a Productive Public Space came in their thesis preparation as they looked for a way to bring the amenities the community wanted most while avoiding the chronic problem of lack of maintenance funds. The communities they were working with embraced the idea and have since built two projects in Kibera with a third on the way. They are now adapting the process for Haiti & the US.
1,001 - 10,000
More than 10,000
Working in Kibera is not easy. Our greatest challenges are high levels of corruption, irregular land tenure issues & the time investment required for capacity-building relative to that of construction. We attack corruption by adopting a STRICT no-tolerance policy & now have a reputation of transparency. To overcome difficulties in acquiring land in a place where all land belongs to the government and all structures to middle-class Kenyans, we only use land that is considered ‘waste space’ & can be purchased or given to the community through a very technical MOU process involving local leaders. To make capacity-building more effective & efficient, we invest a great deal of our time & resources into building a community training curriculum that is as rigorous as our design process.
In the next three years we expect to evolve in three key areas:
1. Within Kibera: We will continue to grow the Public Space Network & bring in new Kenyan partners (private sector & public) so we can reach more communities, more efficiently.
2. Outside Kibera: We will prove adaptability of our model by using it to build sustainable, self-reliant communities in other parts of the world. We are beginning this expansion now with projects in Haiti & the US.
3. Organizationally: We will implement systems to quantifiably and rigorously evaluate the successes & failures of our individual project components in order to refine the model. We also expect to utilize our design & development expertise to assist other NGOs that lack those professional skills/resources.
Currently 5% of KDI's revenue comes from contributions from friends & families. Foundations account for 71% of KDI's revenue. We receive 22% of our budget through fee-for-service design work for other NGOs. The remaining 2% of our funding comes from speaking honorariums and/or competition prize money.
KDI receives significant non-financial support in the form of volunteer work. All of our engineering is done pro-bono by Buro Happold Engineering Firm; we have five design professionals who volunteer their time to oversee specific programs like the women's weaving business; & we have 3-5 student volunteers working in our office on project design & development at any given time.
KDI has identified growing & diversifying its base of support as one of its top priorities, recognizing that increasing our financial and professional resources is critical to achieving our long-term objectives. Our plan includes the following:
A. Expanding our network of friends & family. In conjunction with this we are establishing a donor database & creating vehicles for regular communication with (prospective) donors.
B. Launching professional fundraising & grant-writing campaigns in the first quarter of 2011.
C. Soliciting additional fees-for-service/consulting contracts similar to the current project in Haiti, by responding to RFPs & entering competitions.
D. Participating in academic forums & presentations, in order to participate in academic discourse regarding improving quality of life in the world’s poorest communities.
E. Developing a marketing/media strategy to create greater public access & exposure. The strategy includes starting a new website in the first quarter of 2011; writing for design & development publications; & accepting speaking engagements.
F. Filling current staffing needs including a full-time Business Manager, a part-time Fundraising Coordinator & a part-time Communications manager.
G. Collaborating with other foundations & NGOs when appropriate, recognizing that synergy will allow KDI’s resources to be stretched further.
Financing, Design, Technology, Technical assistance, Sanitation, Water, Infrastructure, Environment, Income generation, Urban development, Citizen/community participation.
no
We currently collaborate with Buro Happold engineering firm.
Buro Happold provides pro-bono engineering services for all of our projects. This partnership was established through the Environmental Engineering Department.
Other (please specify).