Close to my heart is my ongoing campaign for a 'Fair Trade Housing Charter'. As an amorphous entity, the charter would adjust its policy and guidelines according to which country/province in which it is operating or intervening in to take into account their own idiosyncrasies and nuances. There are though over-riding principles which would apply to all countries, jurisdictions and situations which could also be a mission statement. These are: 'Endorsing equity and transparency in the provision of housing and the promotion of a safe and secure living environment' to support and/or change the countries' housing policy.
The backing of relevant ministers to lobby their respective governments to help enshrine or enact any new housing policies into their constitution is vitally important for without 'teeth' no policy no matter how well meaning is simply relying on goodwill and ethical values which are sadly lacking in many societies especially in developing countries, i.e it's useless to introduce the carrot without the stick.
I know the below examples are all mainly London based but if this kind of thing is happening in a wealthy so called transparent and democratic western city like London then similar issues are happening in developing countries magnified multiple times where corruption and greed is rife exacerbated by 'big business' as developers move in to exploit so called 'emerging markets'.
Of course the instances are endless and the situation is getting worse as competition for homes in all countries increases. The current refugee crisis has highlighted an epidemic of people fleeing war and persecution into lands already struggling with enormous challenges of their own with housing just one of them. I know a 'Fair' housing initiative/charter is not a 'magic bullet' to cure all but an endorsement by the WFTO and it's reputation as a respected household name across the world would in some way help to alleviate some of the above issues.
My plan of action is to source a suitable 'case' perhaps in London purely by virtue of the fact that is where I live so geographically it makes sense. I would undertake a thorough investigation of the issues perhaps on the premise of saying 'I represent the World Fair Trade Organization and we are doing a 'pilot' study of a particular case to determine whether a 'Fair Trade Housing Policy/Initiative' is viable, to learn from it and to perhaps develop it into something we could launch on a bigger scale and into other countries'.