Empowering youth leaders

The Asia-Pacific region is home to approximately 1 billion young people (United Nations Population Fund). These youth have the power and potential to create social good. At Habitat for Humanity, we know this first-hand through the Young Leaders Build campaign. In the 13 years since the campaign was launched, more than 17 million supporters have partnered with 38,000 families to build or improve a place they call home in Asia and the Pacific.

The escalating need

The Asia-Pacific region is experiencing a housing crisis, driven by social and environmental factors such as urbanization, in-country migration, and climate change. Globally, 3.4 billion people live in inadequate housing; 1.5 billion of whom reside in Asia-Pacific. There are almost 1.1 billion people living in slums and informal settlements, and more than 600 million of them are in this region.

Around the world, housing markets are broken. As an organization with a vision of a world where everyone has a decent place to live, the housing crisis gives us a sense of urgency. To make significant progress, we must step up our impact by working with partners such as youth leaders to deliver people-centered, sustainable housing solutions.

Investing in youth-led solutions

In 2025, Habitat for Humanity deepened its partnership with young leaders and support for innovative, youth-led housing solutions through a three-strand youth engagement initiative in the Asia-Pacific region.

• Innovating: Through Habitat Youth Solutions, we provided 10 young individuals, youth groups and youth-led organizations in Asia-Pacific with US$4,000 to start, scale up, or replicate solutions to help families access adequate housing. Learn more about the winners. 
• Convening: Habitat for Humanity hosted more than 40 delegates at the Habitat Youth Assembly in the Philippines. They connected with experts in housing, urban development and project management, learned and ideated with peers from across the region and celebrated success with winners of the 2025 Habitat Youth Solutions grant. 
• Mentoring: Winners of the 2025 grant have been receiving mentorship from Habitat experts and thinkers and implementors from its network of volunteer leaders and development partners.