IHC Global hosted a session at the Habitat III conference called “Triple Win:  People, Public, and Private Partnerships for More Livable Cities and Communities”, where practitioners and participants in successful “People Public Private Partnerships (PPPPs”) diagnosed and presented practical advice on how this approach works by bringing public and private resources into alignment with community priorities through active collaboration among stakeholders.  IHC Global President and CEO Judith Hermanson served as Moderator, introducing the topic by noting the importance of conceiving partnerships that are “PPPPs”—where the community is an equal and important stakeholder–rather than just “public-private” partnerships. She also noted that even if the physical and financial elements of a specific project vary from case to case, the principles can apply more generally.

David Wluka, a Realtor representing the National Realtor Association, and also an IHC Global board member, noted that in order for PPPPs to be successful, each partner must gain something from the partnership. Specifically, it is important that the private sector have a motivation for the partnership, as partnerships based on “charity” are not sustainable.  Gyorgy Sumeghy from Habitat for Humanity International in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region, spoke about a PPPP his organization is involved in to improve residential energy efficiency for low-income households in Eastern Europe, specifically noting both the importance of and the difficulty in building trust between all partners. Claudio Bernardes, former President of Secovi-SP, the São Paulo Housing Syndicate, discussed examples of successful housing partnerships to improve cities in Brazil. A robust discussion with the audience followed, and the panelists noted that the examples they provided are only a few of many successful strategies for engaging in people-public-private-partnerships, and that successful examples should continue to build off of and learn from other successful examples.

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