Remittances and the Housing Sector: Issues and Opportunities (2005)

The Chief Urban Specialist of the Inter-American Development Bank asked Mona Serageldin to give a two-day course to IADB staff at its headquarters in Washington DC about the impact of migrants' remittances on housing in Latin America. The course consisted of three presentations covering four case studies in different Latin American countries. These case studies were designed to present topics of interest to IADB Staff and to generate discussion regarding ways the IADB could become involved in projects that direct remittances into housing construction and infrastructure improvement. The presentations covered projects and programs in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Ecuador, and received an excellent evaluation from participants.

The wide interest generated by the topic and the requests from the IADB regional offices to participate prompted the IADB to request that the Institute conduct the course in Spanish in Central America in the Spring of 2006.

These courses are being prepared in collaboration with Ricardo Puerta, the Institute's research affiliate in Honduras.