The Millennium Development Declaration phase (01/24/2010)
... The campaign is designed to promote accountability and transparent urban governance which responds to and benefits all sectors of society, especially the urban poor, and strives to eradicate all forms of exclusion. The key implication of good governance is that governments should move beyond their orthodox roles as providers of basic services towards the inclusion of the urban poor and other vulnerable groups, including women, in decision-making. Upgrading the Habitat Center to a UN Programme UNCHS did not succeed in the 1980s and 1990s in securing adequate capital for the Habitat and Human Settlements Foundation, nor in setting up appropriate institutional arrangements within the Secretariat for effective functioning as a global shelter facility. As a result, and despite commendable efforts in technical assistance and stand-alone housing projects, it never fulfilled the objectives for which it had been established. Member states did not benefit from the Foundation as a vehicle from which they could obtain technical assistance, seed capital, loan guarantees and equity investments that could be used to leverage investment for their shelter and infrastructure programmes at scale....

Extending financial services to poor and low income women (01/24/2010)
... While this caricature of urbanization is accurate, it obscures many positive trends, including significant changes in the conditions that mitigate urban poverty and bring about innovation. Primary among these is the degree to which women remain positive and creative and have organized collectively to improve their living and working conditions. Women have proven to be effective in saving modest earnings and pooling these through accumulated savings associations and revolving loan funds. Their repayment rates are high for monies borrowed from these organizations as well as from MFIs. The savings potential of very low-income women entrepreneurs and associations has not gone unnoticed by the domestic financial industry and the domestic capital markets....

How to invest your money guide (09/12/2009)
... Manufactured homes are not the tin and cardboard homes of old, these properties are now built to high specifications and standards, turning them into every bit as good as a foundation built home; just easier to move. It seems if you can find land that you can get all the permits to build on relatively close to a manufactured home park, there is a $4000.00 saving or more, just because of the distance to move the house. Depending on how far a manufactured home needs to be moved and how many sections need to be sent on the journey to the new plot of land, it can cost up to $20,000 for a double wide construction to be moved a few states, down to $10,000 if it is to be moved beyond 10 miles. But if an investor can find a piece of land that is within a mile of the original move location, then that is where the $4000....