Introduction

Housing for the urban poor has long been the arena for engagement by the state and by civil society organizations represented by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). It is only during the past two decades that civil society in the form of Community-based Organizations (CBOs) ¹ and complex networks between CBOs and NGOs have emerged as significant key players in the housing process that cannot easily be overlooked. Indeed, taking these actors into account, in a way one could more accurately speak of ‘housing by the urban poor’. This shift certainly needs to be read against changing international development policies highlighting an ‘enabling approach’, as well as often-local contexts characterized by a weaker state creating space for more civil society activities in the field of housing.