Lumanti support group for shelter is being awarded with TRANSFORMATIVE CITIES PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD 2021-2022 under HOUSING category. The announcement was made in the Finale Event in Amsterdam yesterday on 9th December 2022, Friday by Transformative Cities.

 

Transformative Cities People’s Award went to four initiatives for their work in the areas of water, energy, housing and food systems. Up to 16000 people from across the globe voted online to determine the winners, out of a selection of 12 international finalists, through a process that is one of the most participatory of any public city award in the world. 

 

Lumanti has submitted the details about the Kirtipur Samriddha Awaas Program for the competition. Kirtipur Samriddhha Awaas Program is the housing initiative that Lumanti in partnership with Kathmandu Metropolitan City has implemented in the year 1999.

 

Transformative Cities has been organizing the awarding of the People’s Choice Award every year. The awardees are chosen from a larger list of initiatives. Three initiatives from each category (energy, food, water, and housing) are chosen as finalists through a process carried out by an international and multidisciplinary group of evaluators. 

 

As part of the award, commissioned journalists visit the finalist initiatives to expose their story to an international audience. The winners are chosen through an open online vote. 

 

The Transformative Cities People’s Choice Award was launched in 2017 by the progressive think tank, the Transnational Institute, to highlight collective initiatives experimenting with new ways to practice democracy and secure access to basic rights. This fourth edition of the award was co-organiseds by a group of regional and international organizations (in alphabetical order): European network for community-led initiatives on climate change and sustainability (Ecolise), Friends of the Earth International (FoEI), Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of Social Solidarity Economy (RIPESS), Habitat International Coalition (HIC), the Global Platform for the Right to the City (GPR2C) and the Transnational Institute (TNI). In collaboration with the UCLG Committee on Social Inclusion, Participatory Democracy and Human Rights (UCLG-CSIPDHR).

 

Brief about Kirtipur Samriddha Awaas Program

 

In 1999, the inhabitants of three squatter settlements (Dhumakhel, Tankeshwari and Kalimati) along the Bishnumati Corridor in the heart of Kathmandu Valley were evicted for the construction of the Bishnumati Link Road. Lumanti conceptualized the innovative housing project 'Kirtipur Housing Project' to house the evicted families. The Kirtipur Housing Project was designed to house those evicted homeless communities resulting from the Vishnumati Link Road (VLR) Project. Lumanti in partnership with Kathmandu Metropolitan City and other stakeholders identified the genuine squatters and total of 44 families were relocated at Paliphal, ward number 6 of the Kirtipur Municipality. The Kirtipur Housing Project was implemented under the leadership of the Urban Community Support Fund (UCSF) created by the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC), where Lumanti works as the Secretariat.