The National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation’s (NHMFC) BALAI BERDE Program bagged home the Sustainable Consumption and Production Award (SCP Award) under the Public Policies Category in the recently held Asia-Pacific Housing Forum 2021.

BERDE stands for Building Eligible, Resilient Dwelling for Everyone. It is the newest program of NHMFC under its Housing Loan Receivables Purchase Program (HLRPP), which was launched in March 2021.

In addition, the BALAI BERDE Program was also selected as one of the Top 4 finalists out of fifty (50) contenders under the same category for the Asia-Pacific Housing Forum Innovation Awards 2021. The other categories for the Innovation Awards are ShelterTech and Inspirational Practices.

The evaluation of the SCP Award is based on the scores achieved by each initiative under the Sustainability Development Goals (SDG) criteria.  The highest scorer in this criterion across the three categories would receive this award.

The grand premiere held in December 1, 2021 included the virtual pitch competition, where the Top 4 programs from each category presented to a jury panel and live audience.  From these finalists, one program would also win the SCP Award sponsored by the EU-funded SWITCH-Asia SCP Facility. 

Ms. Cecile Malota, Head of NHMFC’s BERDE Unit, led the pitch presentation for the BALAI BERDE Program together with Ms. Princess Riza Ong, OIC-Corporate Executive Officer of NHMFC’s Fund and Asset Management Group.  Both Misses Malota and Ong are Certified BERDE Professionals.

In her message during the awarding ceremony, Ms. Malota urged the support of the  primary market – the developers, originators, borrowers and stakeholders to solve the housing backlog while preserving the environment. 

“We need to immediately and drastically change how we design, build, use and deconstruct buildings to make it sustainable, environment-friendly and disaster-resilient homes,” she stressed.

“To the public sector delegated to be socially and environmentally responsible and as a global citizen, we need to face the future together in building eligible resilient dwellings for everyone, not just for ourselves, but for our future and the future of generations who will succeed us,” she added.

Under the Public Policies Category, the BALAI BERDE Program was shortlisted with (1) the development of affordable low-income mortgage market of Pakistan Mortgage Refinance Company, (2) Chief Ministers’ Slum Development Program “Basera” of the Government of Punjab, India, and  (3) the JAGA Mission of the Housing and Urban Development Department of the Government of Odisha, India. The jury panel for the Public Policies Category is composed of Ajay Suri, Paulette D. Liu, Dr. Marie Lisa M. Dacanay, Puja Sawhney and Zinaida Fadeeva.

_{NHMFC Communication Team}