The Iloilo City Urban Poor Network (ICUPN) is composed of three urban poor federations: the Iloilo City Urban Poor Federation, Inc. (ICUPFI), the Iloilo Federation of Community Associations, Inc. (IFCA), and the Homeless People’s Federation Philippines, Inc. (HPFPI) local KABALAKA. ICUPN is a loose network promoting “community-led upgrading projects” in which the community is at the center of the process for progress. In this process, the association is provided with physical and social spaces in order to have a venue to solve their problems, strengthen their capacity, enhance their abilities and band together the community.
Each federation has different strategies and initiatives for their members to own land. ICUPFI is a federation that is an LGU-initiated organized and has 45 member associations so far mostly coming from different relocation sites in the city. IFCA was previously organized by NGO and has 35 member associations which utilize the government’s Community Mortgage Program (CMP) to acquire land. HPFPI is a national network of urban poor communities with 161 member associations all over the Philippines, 7 of these associations exist in Iloilo City. It implements a community savings program as its primary strategy in order for members to own land through direct purchase.
After getting ownership of the land, many of the communities have limited opportunities to undertake physical upgrading of their areas because of their reliance to local government assistance. The Network believes that the community can do many things when there are favorable circumstances and financial opportunities for development projects.
The Network is still exploring the process of formalizing this loose network towards institutionalization of community-led slum upgrading plans and approaches. Meantime, various representatives of the different federations have been engaging in activities for the implementation of community-led upgrading project. It started with the “launching of partnerships” on October 21-22, 2006 in which the government and other institutions pledged their commitment for the realization of the dream. This undertaking is supported by the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR), an affiliate-partner of HPFPI in Asia supporting grassroots processes towards community designed strategies for slum upgrading.
