Housing Microfinance for Climate Resilience in the Philippines

Low-income households in the Philippines lack sufficient access to affordable and resilient housing to protect them from the physical and economic damages brought by increasingly frequent extreme weather events, such as typhoons and floods. Researchers will partner with the largest microfinance NGO in the country, ASA Philippines, and Habitat for Humanity to evaluate a new housing microfinance product featuring increased loan amount, loan tenure, and consumer education on building resilient houses. In this proposed pilot, researchers will run a randomized evaluation to test the effectiveness of the education component and measure short-term outcomes of the modified loan terms, as compared to the old terms. To further prepare for a full randomized evaluation, the researchers will explore using novel data collection strategies to create a climate risk index and measure climate resilience outcomes, such as house structure and materials, post-disaster damages, and recovery.