Affordable Housing in the Justice Economy with UN-special rapporteur Leilani Farha

Together with Rujak center for urban studies and Tempo Institute, and in cooperation with the Coordinating Ministry of Human Development and Culture (Kemenko PMK) FES Indonesia organized a public panel discussion on: Affordable and Appropriate Housing in the Justice Economy on the 20^th of September in Jakarta.
This marked the third event on important elements of the Justice Economy (economy berkeadilan); a newly introduced economic concept that has been pushed by President Jokowi.

The keynote-speaker Leilani Farha – UN special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing - emphasized in her presentation that affordable and adequate housing is not simply a political and economic choice, but a human right. Accordingly, she described the financialization of the housing sector as a contra- productive global trend. Against this background she explained the need for a high-level meeting on adequate housing with government, investors and human rights organizations.

Thomas Meyer, Professor emeritus of the University of Dortmund and chief editor of the political magazine Neue Gesellschaft/Frankfurter Hefte, agreed in his comments that the tendencies of social and cultural segregation in cities and the housing sector in quite concerning. Consequently, he described instruments of the Social City concept like social and cooperative housing and control of housing rents and real estate prices.

Other Panelists like the economist Faisal Basri and the urbanist and member of the Jakarta governor transition team Marco Kusumawijaya discussed with the audience against this background about the non-down payment election campaign promise of incoming Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan and the currently omni-present Meikarta advertisement. A Jakarta satellite city that is currently developed by one big Indonesian conglomerate.

Panelists and the audience agreed that affordable housing is one of the most important elements in the realization of the aspired Justice Economy.