SEED was invited to partake in the sixth Global Social Business Summit (GSBS 2014) that is taking place in Mexico City on 27-28 November 2014 under the theme: “Shaping Social Business to Shape the World of 2020”. Initiated by Professor Muhammad Yunus and based on his experience with the Grameen Bank, the annual summit brings together practitioners on social business to spread awareness about non-dividend business models that focus on solving social problems.

On behalf of CEMEX, one of the supporting partners of the summit, yesterday SEED organised the focus group session: Co-create, Replicate, Accelerate Affordable Housing. As over one billion people live in inadequate housing, including more than 835 million living in urban slums, providing affordable housing can have substantive positive social impacts and can offer significant business opportunities.

To illustrate how innovative social business models can improve access to housing, CEMEX presented its PIAC Model “Enhancing low-income families’ capacities for affordable housing” and Mohammad Shahjahan, CEO of Grameen Bank, introduced the Grameen Housing Programme. Through group discussions, the two models were then carefully considered by exploring the following questions:

• What are the specific challenges faced by social businesses when developing and scaling-up affordable housing models?
• What are solutions for replicating affordable housing models at the Base of the Pyramid?

The discussions, which were facilitated by SEED and experts in the field of affordable housing, such as Minerva Lópezlugo Tovar, Director of Social Housing Production at CONAVI and Sandra Prieto-Callison, Director Market Development and Housing Finance from Habitat for Humanity International, provided some valuable insights:

• There is a vast need for the development of investment vehicles and funds with low interest rates to extend housing loans at the BoP.
• Advocacy and involvement of the government from the very beginning are both critical when developing a new housing programme.
• It is key to involve communities from the outset in the co-creation of housing models to ensure that community needs are integrated and met.  
• A holistic approach along the housing value chain is critical while developing a housing business model.
• Partnerships across sectors are crucial when building progressive housing.
• More flexibility regarding issues around tenure and land titles is required when working with home builders at the BoP.
• Governments need to provide co-investment or risk-sharing vehicles to financial intermediaries which will enable them to extend housing loans at the BoP.

In the margins of the GSBS 2014 SEED was also invited to share insights on impact measurement at the ‘empowering people. Network workshop’ organised by the Siemens Foundation. Based on SEED’s extensive work with social and environmental enterprises in developing countries and on findings derived from a session on impact measurement at the 2014 SEED Africa Symposium, SEED outlined how social and green SMMEs can achieve impact and which tools are most suited to help them measure and communicate that impact.