In this edition:

1. In the HIC Presidential Elections
2. HIC 2007 Evaluation Results in!
3. HIC-LA meets in Argentina

The 2007 HIC Presidential Elections are well on their way with already one candidate officially nominated. There has been solid participation in the HIC Blog where nominations and comments are still coming in.

• Electoral Committee is fully constituted. Contact them here!
• New Electoral Calendar – The electoral Committee has amended the Electoral Calendar to better suit the process.
• Call to Nominations have begun (open till June 3rd) - Members that have paid their 2006 and/or 2007 dues have the right to nominate a candidate. In order for a candidature to be validated by the EC, he/she must be supported (nominated) by at least 5 HIC members.
• Deadline for paying membership fees to participate in the electoral process is on the 15th of June. If you have any questions, please contact marie@hic-net.org or juan@hic-net.org
• HIC Blog (www.hic-net.org/elections) is fully operational in unified language – You can send nominations to the Electoral Committee in English, French or Spanish and they will be uploaded in English onto the blog (max 120 words).
• Forum is open for HIC members to participate with Q&A – Ask questions to the candidates, open discussions and/or proposals online.
• Davinder Lamba, of Mazingira Institute in Nairobi and Presidential Candidate proposes his vision for HIC.

After nearly one year in development, the 2006-2007 HIC Evaluation is now complete and available to review. The evaluation provides an organizational X-Ray of the current status of HIC, detailing suggestions and observations made by the three evaluators. This document also provides descriptive information about the Coalition's activities, detailing activities and history on the following HIC Bodies: HLRN, HIC-LA, HIC-AF, HIC-FA and HIC-GS.

Read a summary of the results. Click here to view document.

You can also download the evaluation report in full length by clicking here. The full report contains the following chapters:

• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: General Overview Assessment of HIC
• Chapter 3: Assessment of HIC in the Global Environment
• Chapter 4: Lessons-Learnt and Conclusions
• Chapter 5: Recommendations.

On the 28 and 29th of April, HIC-AL gathered in Buenos Aires to work on the project to influence Habitational Policies. This initiative is financed by OXFAM-NOVIB.
On the 30th of April, SelVip organized the seminar titled “Access to Urban Land and the Construction of a Democratic City” (Acceso al suelo urbano y construcción de una Ciudad Democrática). Therein a regional HIC meeting was conducted in which HIC´s President, Regional Board Representatives and General Secretariat, along with representatives from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela were present. This meeting was conducted in a decentralized HIC member’s Assembly in which the following topics were discussed:

• HIC´s role in today’s world (at a regional and global level)
• Discussion and presentation of HIC´s activities in the WSF 2007
• Discussion on the HIC Evaluation and the follow up to recommendations
• The 2007 HIC Presidential Elections
• Towards a Regional Strategy 2007-2010: Debate on its contents and strategic activities.
  Strategic themes:
• Promotion, defence and execution of housing and land rights
• Social production and administration of Habitat
• Resistance and struggle against mega projects in investments.
• Development of alternatives of integration.
• Action strategies:
• Empowerment of processes and actors: capacity building and inter-personal training/articulation, alliance building with other organizations and networks.
• Communicational strategy and diffusion.