Camila Cociña

Researcher (housing justice), Human Settlements research group

Camila Cociña is a development planner and architect who co-convenes IIED’s work on housing justice.

This work focuses on:

Enhancing the capabilities and mobilisation of grassroots groups, working with organised communities to advance housing rights
Influencing policy and practice and the wider governance systems that support the realisation of housing rights, and
Forging international alliances and advocacy strategies for housing justice, seeking to consolidate and strengthen collective efforts and solidarity networks.

She has worked on collaborative projects with researchers, communities, international agencies and public organisations in Latin America, West Africa and Southeast Asia, seeking fairer ways of mobilising diverse knowledge from a social justice perspective.

Expertise

Housing justice, with emphasis on urban equality and gender. Camila's housing work relates mainly to informality, participation and local governments.

Before IIED

Research fellow, Knowledge in Action for Urban Equality (KNOW) programme, University College London
Teaching fellow, the Bartlett Development Planning Unit, University College London

Education

PhD development planning, University College London
MSc building and urban design in development, University College London
Architect, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Current work

Camila co-convenes IIED’s work on housing justice, working across several projects. This includes:

Research on housing rights and communication practices, through the action-research project 'Civic media for housing rights: lessons from struggles against evictions in São Paulo and Lagos’ and a project on digital technology for equitable urban governance in Nepal and India.
Research on the governance of the value chain of building materials in informal settlements, working with local partners and federations of slum dwellers in Freetown and Harare, and
Several collaborations with international organisations around the role of local governments in advancing the right to housing (with UCLG), the human development implications of improving housing in informal settlements (with Habitat for Humanity), and housing policy options to tackle urban inequalities (with CIC-NYU and SLURC).

Camila is currently based in Santiago de Chile.