Establishing the role of communities in governance: the experience of the Homeless People’s Federation Philippines

This paper describes the achievements of the Homeless People’s Federation Philippines (HPFP), a network of community-based savings groups that works towards securing land tenure, upgrading settlements and improving the economic status of its members. The groups use savings not only as a strategy for financing their investments but also as a social mechanism to mobilize communities, promote learning and the development of support systems, and open up the potential for new kinds of partnership with local government. By 2003, this community-driven initiative had 39,000 members nationwide, in groups that, increasingly, have been able to engage proactively with government to address their land and shelter needs.