The Situation

A network ready to think and act as one

Habitat for Humanity has operated in Latin America and the Caribbean for decades. By 2021, the region had a direct presence in 13 countries and had contributed to improving the housing situation of more than 1.9 million people in that year alone — through direct interventions, financial products, and partnerships across the housing ecosystem.

Each national office had its own track record and its own strategic direction. The regional office had long played a coordinating role. But the organisation had arrived at a pivotal moment: the potential of the network — 13 offices acting with shared ambition, collective positioning, and coordinated resources — had never been formally articulated or pursued.

The question was not whether to build a shared strategy. It was how to build one that a network of 13 autonomous national offices would genuinely own and implement.

The Challenge

Turning network potential into shared commitment

This was the first time Habitat LAC would develop a strategy that positioned itself explicitly as a network — one that could achieve together what no national office could achieve alone. That ambition required a process that was both rigorous and genuinely participatory.

The central challenge i4V was asked to address: how do you develop a strategy that is credible enough to guide investment decisions and participatory enough to generate real ownership — across 13 countries and a complex mix of organisational models?

The Approach

Five phases from evidence to Board approval

Juan Bertoldi served as Senior Consulting Director, guiding a small team through a structured five-phase process. The design principle was consistent throughout: analysis informs challenge, challenge shapes options, options are tested with stakeholders before becoming priorities.

• 1
  Context & Ecosystem Analysis

  Housing needs analysis across the LAC region, covering root causes, climate stressors, and urbanisation trends. Ecosystem mapping of stakeholders, actors, roles, and funding flows at regional and national level.
• 2
  Internal Assessment

  Capability assessment across 13 national offices — strengths, weaknesses, maturity levels. Programmatic offering analysis: which services were strong, which needed development, where the network had genuine competitive advantage.
• 3
  Challenge Formulation & Strategic Options

  Synthesis of external and internal analysis into SWOTs by national office and region. Formulation of the central strategic challenge — the critical choice the organisation needed to make. Generation of strategic possibilities to consider.
• 4
  Strategic Framework Development

  Design of the strategic framework — priorities, bold moves, and the connecting narrative. Facilitation of working sessions with national office leaders to test, challenge, and refine the framework before finalisation.
• 5
  Initiatives, Roadmap & Governance

  Documentation of strategic initiatives with objectives, impact analysis, resource requirements, and budget. Sequenced implementation roadmap. Operating model and governance structure to support delivery at regional and national level.

What Was Delivered

A complete strategy system — not just a document

The engagement produced a set of interconnected outputs that together formed a functioning strategy system: the analysis that justified the choices, the framework that stated them, the initiatives that operationalised them, and the governance that would sustain them.

What Followed

The strategy became the foundation for two more engagements

The regional strategy was not a standalone engagement. Following Board approval in early 2023, Habitat for Humanity LAC commissioned i4V for two further projects that built directly on the strategic framework: the set-up of a new Strategy Management Office to oversee implementation, and the design of a shared services model to enable economies of scale across the 13 national offices.

This continuity — from strategy through to the organisational architecture required to deliver it — is the clearest signal that the work landed. A strategy that generates follow-on implementation work is a strategy that was believed.