The First Phase of the Baan Mankong Program

 

The cabinet approved the Baan Mankong Program on 14 January, 2003.  The initial project implementation will be divided into 2 parts:

 

1.   Ten Pilot Projects  

The Baan Mankong Program will develop and implement pilot improvement projects in ten poor communities (selected through a national process from among communities which face various kinds of housing security problems and are home to a clear target group of households with monthly incomes of less than 10,000 Baht).  Most of the ten projects are located on state-owned land and idea is that all will eventually solve their land security problems through various strategies.  The ten pilot communities have also been selected on the basis of their all having been involved in organizing themselves and working on development activities for some time, as well as enjoying some multilateral cooperation.  The ten pilot projects which have been selected and approved by the cabinet are scattered across many regions of Thailand:

 

Community	City	Number of units
1. Kolok village	Narathiwat	310
2. Kao Seng	Songkhla	450
3. Charoenchai Nimitmai	Bangkok	89
4. Bon Kai (Klong Toey)	Bangkok	202
5.  Boong Kook	Uttaradit	124
6.  Klong Toey Lock 7-12	Bangkok	115
7.  Kao Pattana	Bangkok	29
8.  Ruam Samaki	Bangkok	90
9.  Klong Lumnoon	Bangkok	49
10.  Laem Rung Reuang	Rayong	67
TOTAL		1,525 units

 

The Government has approved a budget of 126.6 million Baht to support the implementation of the ten pilot projects.  This amount includes a per-household subsidy which will pay for the development of public infrastructure in the ten selected pilot communities, funds to cover the management and administration costs and a subsidy on house-building and housing-improvement loans (from commercial banks) so that families in the ten pilot communities who take loans to improve their houses or construct new ones will pay only 1% annual interest.  The details of the budget for the first year's ten pilot projects is outlined in the table below.

 

Table :  Total investment and funding source Baan Mankong's first year's 10 pilot projects

Expenses Items	Total (Million Baht)	Funding Source
		Government	Community	Organization /Banks
1.       Cost of land			l
2.       Improvement of infrastructure	61.90	l
3.       House construction cost (loans)	192.59		l*	l
4.       Management fee (5%)	3.10	l
5.       Subsidy for difference of interest rate 4%	61.63	l
Total  (Million Baht)	319.22	126.63		192.59

* Communities will pay 10% of construction cost.

2. An additional budget of 20 million Baht has been approved to support in organizing housing development process in various cities, with communities as core actors and local offices as supporters.

Next Phase of "Baan Mankong" Project

The implementation of the first ten pilot projects of the Baan Mankong Program is intended to create a set of tangible models for how housing security and community improvements can be introduced in low-income groups in slums and to begin building a range of sustainable solutions to the country's housing problems.  

The pilot projects are also intended to be used to establish new approaches, knowledge, and experiences in solving the problem of housings security for the poor, based on local processes, in parallel with economic and social development, the improvement of welfare and community environment, in relation with the structures of problems in different cities.  

CODI will cooperate with community organizations and local organizations in establishing the development plans and in implementing the housings projects for urban low-income groups and providing opportunities of simultaneous operation for all the other cities around the country.  The Baan Mankong Program will thus provide an extensive range of new alternatives for housing problem solving, covering a population of 1 million low-income households.

Next     The Local Mechanism for Community Development and Housing