The Rockefeller Foundation has included Iloilo city’s urban poor organizer as part of its experts reference group for the Urban Challenge marking its centennial year this 2013.

Maria Sonia Vicente F. Cadornigara joined other global experts in a forum at New York, USA where discussed “guidance to ensure the challenge rests on solid conceptual and empirical foundations.”

Cadornigara, regional coordinator of the Homeless Peoples Federation Philippines Inc.(HPFPI), has been at the forefront of pushing for decent dwellings to Ililo city’s informal settlers.

With her guidance various urban poor associations in the city embraced the community forced savings scheme to raise fund for their projects and spearheaded the implementation of community led infrastructure finance facility (CLIFF) financed by a foreign donor.

“I am just doing my best to represent the Philippines, especially Iloilo City,” she said.

In a communication sent to Cadornigara, the event aims to help promote opportunities for those whose well-being is most threatened, by reforming current institutions, and inventing new structures and interaction and bottom-up governance to achieve equitable growth and build resilience.

Discussed during the event was the process and desired outcome of the challenge; critical drivers of change for cities in developing world; processes that were inclusive and engaging on the right people and the right sectors, among others.

Among the areas selected for the challenge were Accra, Ghana; Bangkok, Thailand; Chennai, India; Lima, Peru; Manila, Philippines and Nairobi, Kenya.*PNA