Sustainable Housing for the World’s Urban Masses: Incrementalism and the Policy Innovation Imperative

Haydee Jacklyn M. Quintana Malubay (University of the Philippines)

Proof of the global housing urban challenge is glaringly manifest in the data that oneseventh of the world population visibly lives in slums unfit for human habitation,
wallowing in abject poverty and blight. From the Philippine experience, the housing sector narrative is about the institution that traces its history back to the post-World War II period. It is currently under a coordinating council. Many contend that this is why most of its programs fail to deliver the committed results. Is a whole new law necessary to reinvent the housing council? This begs to be answered. Incrementalism is a Public Administration school of thought. This paper reviews incrementalism with new eyes, specifically on how it can ensure modest gains for sustainable housing when there is almost very little in proportion to the magnitude of the challenge.

This paper essentially digs deep into the author’s involvement, a member of the General Assembly of Partners, in the (1) United Nations Habitat III in Quito, Ecuador in October 2016, (2) at the Preparatory Committee for UN Habitat III in Surabaya, Indonesia in July of 2016, and (3) the Urban Thinkers Campus in Geneva, Switzerland in October 2015. UN Habitat world conferences happen every twenty years. It sets world policies on housing and urban development. Incrementalism might not exactly result to the ideal but this paper contends that as a general direction towards policy innovation, it can make real the vision to start making a dent into this debilitating and ever-growing urban challenge in this dynamically-urbanizing world now more than half of humankind call home., and one-seventh sadly call homelessness.

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