Migration in Guatemala: Remittances, Housing and Cities

The session will be live-streamed on Facebook. The event will be held in Spanish. 

This Housing Laboratory (LAV) aims to learn from international initiatives that have been implemented to promote the productive use of remittances in housing and territorial development and discuss their possible application in Guatemala. The dialogue will seek to delve into the existing and possible mechanisms so that these financial flows, directly or indirectly, have an impact on the design of national or local programs, projects or initiatives to promote development.

Although there are multiple local experiences that show the productive use of remittances in economic matters and for the construction of housing and local infrastructure, the LAV will seek to promote dialogue on the scalability of these projects at the municipal or national level, in order to promote programmes structured with greater reach and impacts.

The discussion will be guided by following questions:

1. How can information on remittances, with complete, disaggregated and accurate data, compiled in a transparent manner by institutions such as the Banco de Guatemala and others involved in the topic, support the design and adjustment of housing and territorial development public policy programmes?
2. What lessons can be drawn from the international initiative that was presented, and what perspectives from the local, both from the public sector and from private entities can be stimulated in Guatemala to take advantage of remittances as seed capital and leverage more resources to promote national initiatives of impact investment for the development of cities?
3. How could these dialogues be landed to promote structured spaces and co-creation experiences for the generation of ideas and concrete actions, as well as investments in Research and Development with the support of the various sectors (financial institutions, private sector, academia, others)?

The event will take place within the framework of the Cities Alliance Cities and Migration Program, supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). The LAV is co-organized by Cities Alliance, the National Council for Housing (CONAVI), the AVINA Foundation, the Foundation for the Development of Guatemala (FUNDESA), the Inter-American Dialogue, and the Urban Proposal; and is part of a set of events seeking to contribute towards greater transparency in data on remittances to support public policy objectives.

This session is the follow up of previous LAVs on the same thematic:  Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Migrants and Remittances in LAC,  Urban Planning, Housing and Local Development and high-level dialogue on The Key Role of Data Transparency on Remittances.