Innovative Ways of Financing Housing: How to Achieve Scale?

Franck Daphnis is the President and CEO of the Development Innovations Group, a private organization focusing on development finance, urban and community services and fund management.  Mr. Daphnis has helped create, directly overseen or advised MFIs and microfinance-focused banks in more than twenty countries around the world.  Mr. Daphnis is the author of several publications on development finance and housing finance for the poor and is the co-editor of Housing Microfinance: A Guide to Practice (Kumarian Press, 2004.)

Patrick Kelley serves as Director of International Housing Finance for Habitat for Humanity International’s work in over 90 countries worldwide. Habitat for Humanity International is a nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing ministry that seeks to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the world, and to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action. Patrick’s responsibilities include directing a global strategy for sustainable housing finance, developing retail linkages with banks and microfinance institutions, and sourcing private capital financing to bring housing solutions to scale. Prior to HFH Patrick served extensively in Africa supporting MFIs and national microfinance networks in roles ranging from Managing Director to Regional Technical Advisor. He also spent a period based in Latin America working on housing issues. Patrick is a Certified Public Accountant, holds a BS from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a Masters in Public Policy from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.

Carlos Martín is currently Technical Director for Housing with the Development Innovations Group of the Washington DC area, where he works on an international survey of housing finance for the poor for a major US philanthropic organization. Carlos has worked in the academic, governmental, and private sectors in the areas of technological and social change related to the design and construction industry. Trained as an architect, construction engineer, and historian of technology, Dr. Martín studies the cultural and industrial barriers to change-especially those related to housing production, finance, and community change. Prior to his current position at DIG, Carlos served as the SRP Assistant Professor for Energy and the Environment at Arizona State University’s Del E. Webb School of Construction and School of Architecture and, more recently, a coordinator for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing (PATH).

Lauren Moser is a Vice-President of ShoreBank International.

Richard Shumann is a Technical Officer for Housing at CHF International.

Sashi Selvendran works for USAID’s Office of Development Credit.