Colombia Resilient and Inclusive Housing Project

About the project

The Project supports a shift in the Government of Colombia’s housing policy and investment along four key tracks: (a) Improved targeting to poorer and vulnerable households; more specifically, the proposed project supports the new Casa Digna Vida Digna (CDVD) home improvement program whose beneficiaries are disproportionately poor and employed in the informal sector. (b) A focus on incremental home improvement, as low-income beneficiary households predominantly need to improve the quality of their existing housing stock. (c) Increased efficiency in the deployment of housing subsidies; more specifically, the average per household subsidy value for the CDVD Program is $4,158—67 percent of the value of all ‘up market’ subsidies in place prior to 2018. (d) The introduction of a new and innovative rental subsidy program targeting the highly vulnerable group of migrants from Venezuela. This rental subsidy instrument can serve as a potential model for other countries facing cross-border migration challenges in the region and globally.

Project Development Objective (PDO)

To improve the quality of housing and public space for vulnerable households, including migrants from Venezuela, in selected municipalities.

Project Implementation Status

The implementation of the Resilient and Inclusive Housing Project in Colombia continues to gain pace, reflecting efforts from the
new leadership in the Ministry of Housing, Cities and Territorial Planning to overcome key obstacles leading to an acceleration of
disbursement, procurement, and implementation of main activities. The total disbursement has increased to USD 40.74 million
(IBRD USD 33.47 million, TF 7.27 million), including a third disbursement of USD 16.4 million.
The project has showed progress towards achieving the PDO and intermediate indicators. 778 households benefited from home
improvements, and 147 temporary rental subsidies were allocated to Venezuelan migrants through a pilot in Bogota. For 2025, it
expected a sharp acceleration in the achievements of the project’s indicators reflecting the sharp increase in the pace of
procurement.

Despite progress, the project has faced fiduciary challenges related to country budget regulations, budgetary planning, and the
incorporation and execution of grant resources. In 2024, the Ministry incorporated grant resources from the second disbursement
through APC (USD 2.8 million) and the Annual Budget Act (USD 2.7 million). However, grant resources from the third
disbursement (USD 2.9 million) were not included in the Annual Budget Act. To prevent delays experienced in 2024 when the
request was filed in April, the Ministry filed the incorporation request to APC in early January 2025. The Ministry is also
strengthening the financial management capacity of the PIU by hiring two additional financial management experts.

Finally, the Bank has recently received a formal restructuring request (2nd) which focus on including a more flexible approach to implement home improvement in order to scale up its implementation, reallocation of part of the uncommitted technical assistance (Component 2) resources towards home improvement (Component 1) and adjusting indicators accordingly.

Relevant Documents:

• Project Appraisal Document (PAD)
• World Bank Project Information Page