19 November 2018, Yangon - A Handover Ceremony for the Yoma Housing Project – Phase II for the poorest and most vulnerable families recently took place this morning in South Dagon Township in Yangon Region.
Yoma Housing was constructed under the funding of the Government of Japan/JICA and implemented by UN-Habitat.
The Phase I of the project which had six buildings- comprising four units of five each- was handed over to 120 vulnerable families from Dagon Seikkan Township on 2 July 2017.
The Phase II, which has been recently completed, and has three buildings- comprising of four unites of five storeys each -with basic services and infrastructures, to accommodate a total of 60 poor and vulnerable beneficiary households from South Dagon Township in Yangon Region.
The handover ceremony was jointly officiated by U Min Htein, Director General, Department of Urban and Housing Development (DUHD), Mr. Kazuyuki Takimi, Counsellor, Head of Economic and Development Assistance Section, Embassy of Japan, Mr. Kotaro Nishigata, Senior Representative from JICA, and Mr. Bijay Karmacharya, UN-Habitat Country Programme Manager.
Witnessing the event were the beneficiary families, officials from the Ministry of Construction, diplomats from the embassy of Japan, invited guests and local officials.
DG U Min Htein and Mr. Kazuyuki Takimi the Counsellor of Japan jointly unveiled the commemorative plaque to inaugurate the three newly constructed buildings. Occupancy certificates were also issued during the ceremony to the selected beneficiaries from the poor and vulnerable families of informal settlement in the area.
Land for the housing project was made available by the Ministry of Construction. Beneficiary families were chosen following a process of social mobilization and arduous beneficiary selection process based on vulnerability criteria. The community-based housing project has put targeted communities at the center of the process. Right from the beginning, they have participated of the selection of beneficiaries, they have taken active role of the construction, and were involved in the development of maintenance plan, and they will be in charge of the maintenance and operations of the housing project and its facilities.
In his opening remarks U Min Htein, Director General for DUHD, MOC, stressed that this was a pioneering project which will contribute in defining approaches of solving the housing problems faced by poor and vulnerable families in informal settlements, through a systematic social mobilization process of consultation and participation of the beneficiaries.
