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Jakarta Post

Housing Asia'€™s booming population '€“ Indonesia'€™s perspective

Just recently Indonesians had the chance to vote in a direct presidential election

James L. Tumbuan (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Sun, July 20, 2014

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Housing Asia'€™s booming population '€“ Indonesia'€™s perspective

J

ust recently Indonesians had the chance to vote in a direct presidential election. Before too long, we will have new leaders ready to tackle the challenges facing the nation, the world'€™s third-largest democracy and home to 246 million people.

One of the greatest challenges will be how and where to house Indonesia'€™s growing number of people.

The world'€™s population has crossed the 7 billion mark. More than half currently live in Asia, where 500 million people live in slums. As the region with the highest growth rate, the United Nations projects that Asia'€™s population will top 5 billion by 2050.

Indonesia itself will reach more than 311 million people by 2050. Housing deficits across our country need to be tackled decisively now as they will become much harder to solve in the future.

Ensuring families live in safe, decent homes helps address poverty. Studies have shown the positive impact that decent housing has on an individual. Overcrowded rooms, dirt floors, bad ventilation and unsanitary living conditions lead to poor health.

Having light, a quiet place to work and stable occupancy mean better performance at school and improved income prospects. Citizens living in adequate homes are more productive, creating thriving communities and generating stronger economies.

Along with our new government, we will soon have a new iteration of the Millennium Development Goals set to expire in 2015 '€” to be followed by the Sustainable Development Goals. As this will lay the foundation for the global development agenda for the next 15 years, Habitat for Humanity Indonesia and other organizations have been campaigning to ensure that '€œinclusive, safe and sustainable cities and human settlements'€ is included.

The United Nations Open Working Group on Sustainable Development has presented its first draft of recommendations to the United Nations General Assembly.

These contain a call for universal access to adequate affordable housing and basic services, and to eliminate slum-like conditions everywhere. Several other issues that relate to housing, such as land tenure, financial services and disaster resilience, have also been proposed.

As the consultative process nears the finish line, many in the development community are concerned that objectives related to housing will be folded into other areas. This would, as was the case with the 2015 Millennium Development Goals, take attention away from housing and miss a golden opportunity to lift millions of families out of poverty. Eradicating poverty will not happen without eliminating substandard housing.

UN special rapporteur on adequate housing Raquel Rolnik expressed her concern last year about the fact that urban land had become scarce and the prices skyrocketed, depriving the poor of their right to housing and putting inner-city kampungs under the threat of powerful economic forces.

Official estimates found that 80 percent of housing development in Indonesia has been constructed through informal household based systems including self-help housing. Meanwhile, most houses produced by real estate corporations are targeted for speculative investments by the upper 10 percent of the urban population.

At the crossroads of changing governments and new development agendas, Indonesia is in a unique position to tackle poverty housing. Our new government needs to put its weight behind making housing a priority in the post-2015 agenda. Doing so will help ensure that adequate housing '€” a basic human right '€” becomes a reality for millions of people.

Indonesia has enjoyed strong economic growth through progressive, forward-looking ideas. Similarly, our country now has an opportunity to develop innovative solutions to house its booming population.

Actions taken will benefit families in Indonesia and have a ripple effect in Asia, and the globe too, and have an impact on generations thereafter. Let us not wait another 15 years to act.

The writer is national director of Habitat for Humanity Indonesia.

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