Questions/Answers

The objectives of the initiative include: (1) to develop and improve quality of life for the people labeled "land invaders" (2) to settle the dispute between land invaders and owners so that it is possible to make the most use of lands under fair supervision from government agencies. The project was initiated by two causes: (1) 300 households in the municipality area built their houses on lands that belong to the public, private sectors, and state enterprises without permission. This encroachment problem obstructed the area development and could lead to law enforcement, which could end in further dispute among the related parties. The problem stemmed from urban development in the distribution of prosperity to local areas. Swathes of lands were expropriated and invaders were evicted. However, the invaders had no intent to cause the problem, but because of urbanization and their inability to adapt to the circumstances where know-how on management and household economy were concerned. (2) The invaders' unlawful inhabitation made it impossible for the Department of Provincial Administration to issue a house registration required in applying for public utility services. As a result, purchasing from the private sector became an alternative, but came with a higher price than usual. They also cannot be listed in the household register, thus becoming a non-registered population in the area. This is a major and common problem for developing countries. Land expropriation and invasion occur widely in both Thailand and developing countries. This brings about local conflicts and causes the state to lose development opportunities, prosperity, and tax revenues. The people also lose access to prosperity. This can have an impact on a macro level if not resolved concretely. When people do not have access to basic welfare, their livelihoods are weakened, causing crime problems that can potentially burden the state.

The Social Housing for the Underprivileged initiative is relevant to the Best Improvement of Government Agencies For Sustainable Development award. The reason that contributed to the success of this program was shifting the problem-solving paradigm from state-centered to citizen-centered. By avoiding law enforcement and opening up for stake-holders to participate in the process, the municipality acted as a facilitator to let the related parties work in close cooperation and made sure that justice was served for all.

This initiative directly supports SDGs Goal 11 : Sustainable Cities and Communication by being able to securely guarantee the accessibility to state welfare and the ownership of the residences at the fair price following Goal 11.1 as well as enhancing urban development and competitiveness in order to achieve holistic and coordinated management of human settlement, and following Goal 11.3 supporting integration of economic, social, and environmental perspectives to bridge the gap between urban, and rural areas including following Goal 11.a . Providing financial and knowledge support in sustainable and local material-used buildings following 11.c through citizen-centered system, People are the most important keys for sustainable development, and the Municipality cooperated the Community Organizations Development Institute performing as facilitators to liaise support from public and private sectors to achieve the goals of community development. Besides, This initiative supports Goal 1.4 in establishing social securities leading people to have equal rights and opportunities to access to the economic resources along with fundamental state welfare and lands ownership. Moreover, It also follows Goal 6.1 as people are able to access state welfare and public utilities. So, People can also have equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water.

The initiative's ultimate goal is to improve quality of life for the people in each community. With the concept of citizen-centered management and administration, each community elects a leader to direct the work of social development under the contexts of society and environment. They are responsible for seeking cooperation and maintaining relations between the people in their community as well as promoting savings by establishing a local cooperative where loans are given at low interest rates. With this, the local economy can thrive.

Although the initiative originated from a government agency, it has blazed a trail for sustainable administration mechanisms by the people. A committee comprised of community members and related parties is set up under the notion of decentralization and community-based management of local resources. The government sector adjusts its role from a disputant and law enforcer to a facilitator, which directly reduces governance from the government, because the participation of the people has created a sense of ownership, establishing management in the form of cooperative. The cooperative is supported by the law, so everyone can be assured that necessary resources will be fairly and transparently allotted to them. Moreover, the demands of the people can be submitted to the community committee and carried out on their own without policy from the government sector. This makes it possible to respond more precisely to developments that suit the local context.

The initiative creates equality for all, regardless of social status, religion, sex, and skin color. Everybody is equally given the opportunities: all those who qualify can join. This brings about justice in the ownership of residential land and a secure, safe, and sanitary house. The initiative, in brief, is carried out under the concept "leave nobody behind".

“The Social Housing project for the Underprivileged” aims at resolving the status of land invaders in total 300 households. In small-scale, This could help those people legally have their ownership in residences. In addition, They are able to have house registration affecting more equal accessibility to public utilities and state welfare as citizens should get not as non-registered citizens. The Government is also capable of planning and allocating fiscal budgets more efficiently and fairly resulting in policies precisely imposed including land development policies. Moreover, landowners and the Government share the benefits in increasing income from land renting and tax payment. In large-scale, The solutions of this project can be applied to other contexts in regional and country level leading to power decentralized to the local area and benefits the overall economy and society.

The municipality started surveying areas and problems from the people living in public and private areas as invaders and later discovered that approximately 300 households were involved in land encroachment. The municipality, therefore, introduced a policy to solve the problem and went to the actual spots to fully understand the situation. The problems could be divided into 5 groups: Group 1, people who were required to prove their status of ownership because their lands were dilapidated, Group 2, self-reliant invaders on public lands who agreed to demolition and eviction, Group 3, invaders on lands belonging to the government and state enterprises, Group 4, self-reliant invaders on private lands who agreed to demolition and eviction, and Group 5, invaders on lands belonging to the public, state, and private sectors who needed support from the municipality. The municipality provided help appropriately to each group. It worked as a coordinator with the Department of Lands in proving the land ownership status, cooperated between the public and private sectors to mobilize resources to support the budget and materials for repairing houses. Apart from this, it also coordinated with public landowners to withdraw the public domain status and allocate the lands to the people to build houses under the Stable Homes project, which enhances the hygiene level to be up to standard. The project, implemented from 2017 until 2020, has won a high level of satisfaction from the people affected.

The project has solved problems that require cooperation from both the public and private sectors. The municipality has to take care of its people from the beginning to the end: negotiating with the invaders, affected people in the neighboring areas, landowners, both public and private, as well as providing support for those affected by demolishment and eviction. Wearing several hats, the municipality has become slow in the process, so a committee where the decision-makers from each organization come together to listen and make decisions so that the project can advance to success.

The project has created a new form of legal management innovation against land invaders. Through cooperation with the Department of Lands, the Department of Public Works and Town & Country Planning, the Harbor Department, the Treasury Department, the Department of Natural the Resources and Environment, the Forest Department, the Land Reform Office, and military units, a 148,480 square meter plot of land at Takram-en sub-district, Kanchanaburi province, has been revoked of public domain status and allotted to the people for building houses. This is a significant change where government agencies jointly make legal cooperation with the people, unlike past approaches.

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To achieve maximum efficiency and effectiveness in solving land encroachment problems, modern technology is applied throughout the project. Aerial imagery and GPS systems are used to survey and design land plots. Utilities planning and project planning that takes into account the density and environment with suitability for living are also employed. Moreover, engineering technology also plays an important role in procuring local materials that are durable, environmentally friendly, and come with affordable prices.

Resulting in Thailand attempting to contribute prosperity to local areas, Land encroachment and controversy with land development are occurred. The Social Housing project for the Underprivileged by Tha Ruea Phra Thean Town Municipality is one of outstanding models showing how achievable law is creatively enforced and how to shift the problem-solving paradigm from state-centered to citizen-centered. After the project, The Community Organizations Development Institute cooperates with the Municipality to share experience and knowhow to other local departments being able to apply them to the context of their local communities. Besides, the Municipality has published this project on its website and social media and has readiness to facilitate and mentor other local departments which have similar issues and eagerness to resolve it.

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1. Lands for new housing 92 rai 3 ngan 20 square wa. 2. Municipality manpower 8 people 3. Manpower from 8 related government agencies 25 people 4. Manpower from the Community Organizations Development Institute 6 people 5. Manpower from volunteers and local citizens 30 people 6. Total Budget 30,200,000 Thai Baht

As the municipality supplied land, built public utilities, and provided loans at fair rates with long term payment for housing construction ,and public management through the community cooperative system, the participants have to be in long term contracts resulting in being able to reduce the housing expenditure and have savings for prosperity and emergency purposes. As a consequence of contracted houses being unable to change the ownership, they are as the guarantees as well as the project driven itself by the community cooperative system causing the project to be sustainable in the long term.

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In evaluating performance, the municipality has conducted the evaluation through an internal municipal agency which is the Academic and Planning Division, and a third-party agency, which is Kanchanaburi Rajabhat University. A satisfaction questionnaire under study concepts, theories, documentation, and research that are in association with satisfaction in order to be used as data in defining key points is used as the tool. Collected data are then analyzed by the SPSS program with the statistical method of mean ranging the analysis data from the most to least satisfaction.

A questionnaire targeting 400 people was used in the assessment of this project. The independent variable was service for the stake-holders of the project. The information covered was sex, age, education, income, and outcome of the project. The dependent variable was the satisfaction of those involved in the project. The questionnaire was divided into two parts: general information of the responders and satisfaction level towards the project. It was distributed according to target groups and immediately collected upon completion. The topics included satisfaction towards the process, the service channels, the officials on duty, the facilities, and the problem-solving.

The evaluation shows that survey participants are most highly satisfied in all aspects which could show that this initiative is able to completely resolve a land encroachment issue without any externally negative effects to society. Moreover, It has also shown that the limitation of law and regulation can be changed and eliminated with the cooperation of all government agencies in order to contribute the most benefit to people and country which has never happened before in terms of allocating and turning public lands to be lands for residential purpose. Good law has to practically align with the local community and be able to serve people’s benefits as not One Fit All but All for All. Besides, The initiative by the Municipality has shown that changes in condition could be achieved under the cooperation among parties inspiring other projects stuck with any law limitation being confident that anything could creatively happen.

Land Procurement process 1. Government agencies - The Municipality cooperated with Thamakha district and Kanchanaburi province as public land custodians to collect data of potential public lands and the first stage of approval. After that, they cooperated with more than 20 departments to set up the committee to finalize approval of public land transformation. 2. Private sectors and People - set up the meeting to have mutually understanding the land encroachment issue and its effects including establishing the committee who had the authority to consider applicants’ qualification. House building process and later 1. Government agencies - 3 cooperated government agencies comprised of provincial revenue department, provincial land department, local Municipality together determined criteria of uses of lands relating to contract, and its condition that participants had to comply. 2. Budget providers - The Community Organizations Development Institute has considered and approved the budget plan and its proposal then cooperative system was introduced to be the tools to manage and this was also allowed people to access the loans by themselves. 3. Private sectors and People - Before the Municipality consideration, The local people committee and co-ops verified applicants’ qualifications whether each applicant had met the project criteria or not.

With the concept of “No one left behind”, This project has been planned and processed under the cooperation with all stakeholders as in form of committee. As a result of this project being large and highly impacting both directly and indirectly to the underprivileged, The solutions had to be agreeable by all stakeholders. The Municipality has pushed proposals under the theory of win-win situation aiming to provide all related parties with most benefits and peacefully negotiated to avoid any conflicts in process and responsibility such as people gaining from improving their beings and increasing the accessibility to public services and state welfare as well as safe and hygiene residences ,and private sectors including state enterprises being able to increase income from legally renting their lands, and local organization also gaining from collecting tax revenues more efficiently according to the number of people legally registered in each household. The solutions designed by the municipality have contributed to holistic benefits to the community and led to cooperation and ability to drive the project to its success and goals.

"1. Public legislative amendments" - Seeing that urban development highly affects local people’s beings, the Government and public sectors have to provide the lands and resources to encounter urbanization. In the Municipality’s case, public lands have been transformed itself legally to be used for residential purpose. It’s been found that related laws and regulations are outdated and required to be considered for legislative amendments in order to suit the current situation. "2.Civic sector knowledge" - Even local governments and municipalities have strong administrative systems, They also rely on people’s knowledge and discipline such as savings, and financial management. Related government agencies are required to facilitate and provide them not only the knowledge and supervision but also theory and guideline in the very beginning in order to ensure that people have readiness to comply and drive the community by themselves. "3. Further development by Government sectors" - The Government should have knowledge management systematically to accommodate and share concepts and practical showcases for future projects in regional and country scale. As a result, the community of project contributors and knowledge exchanges are established which are a connection and platform to develop the knowledge and innovation.