Build Solid Ground
funded by the European Union
From 2017 to 2021, Habitat for Humanity led a consortium of 14 partners from seven European countries (Bulgaria, Hungary, Ireland, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and the United Kingdom) to engage young people and Europeans citizens in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). More than 18 million people have seen or heard our messages and we have reached more than 66 million people through our social media communications.
Our Build Solid Ground project was funded by the European Union. We focused on raising awareness in these areas: land rights, gender equality and slum upgrading. And worked to achieve three objectives:
-
Increase Europeans’ awareness about housing and development issues.
-
Enhance critical understanding of housing and development topics through formal and informal learning.
-
Increase engagement in global development opportunities.
We held 215 creative events, including our amazing exhibition and IKEA store installation, It all starts at home. More than 53,000 Europeans attended learning events. We have also developed online learning resources:
- World urbanization and sustainable development online course
- Online expedition game
- Global education toolkit
Project partners created different materials and engaged journalists to cover development and housing issues in their region and globally.
- Mama Alphonsine documentary
- Portraits of Hope exhibition
- It All Starts at Home - Women’s Fight for Shelter exhibition
- Home Sapiens podcast
- Building sustainable communities: a documentary series
Build Solid Ground also offered opportunities to get involved in international development through volunteering trips in different countries around the world: Jordan, Malawi, South Africa and Nepal. Nearly 2000 people took part in these volunteering trips.
We have developed policy papers and ran an online petition campaign to put housing and development topics on the political agenda. More than 4700 people attended advocacy events. Some of our policy publications:
- Compendium of best practices for housing in Africa
- Building solid ground for a transformative DEAR program: Lessons learned from European engagement on critical urban issues
- Housing at the center of recovery - Building back better through policies and systems in the developing world
- Building on solid ground - The relevance of the housing and urban renewal sector in the EU - Africa Partnership
- Habitat for Humanity’s recommendations for the new Africa-EU Partnership in the framework of the new EU-ACP Agreement
Final report for our Build Solid Ground project is available here.
Who did it?
Other project partners:
Alaturi de Voi Foundation Romania
Dublin Institute of Technology Ireland
Engineers Without Borders Ireland
Foundation for Africa Hungary
Partners for Democratic Change Slovakia
Pro Vobis National Resource Center for Volunteerism in Romania
Slovak Center for Communications and Development