Somsook Boonyabancha, is Chairperson, Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR), a regional network of grassroots community organizations, NGO’s and professionals actively involved with urban poor development processes in Asian cities; former Director of the Community Organization Development Institute (CODI); Chairperson, of the Baan Mankong Program Committee.
Boonyabancha has been working and facilitating sustainable, equitable collective housing development and slum upgrading in Thailand and other Asian countries for 30 years – specializing in community-led initiatives. As director of CODI, she fostered a “city-wide” approach to community upgrading that has been replicated in cities across Thailand. She is based in Bangkok, Thailand.
Bijal Brahmbhatt has spent three decades conceptualizing, planning, managing, and providing support for slum upgrading programs across India, with a focus on empowering women to advocate for themselves with local government in order to claim public goods and services central to their well-being. She works to improve living conditions, foster climate resilience and overall economic security, through socio-technical approaches. She is an expert in land tenure, housing finance, renewable energy issues, community development and is a trained engineer.