AN INSTITIONAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN

SETTLEMENTS AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

The creation of the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD)
is a significant development in national governance. It comes amidst multifarious issues
and challenges arising from increasing urbanization, globalization and climate change.
Among these are:
 blighted urban settlements
 growing number of informal settler families and urban poor
 worsening traffic
 environmental degradation
 urban congestion, and
 rural poverty.

The Department's major mandates which are: human settlements development and
management and rational urban development aim to address these issues as they impact
on man's habitat and man's basic needs.
To achieve its mission, the DHSUD shall be guided by a set of principles that are
aligned to national development vision and goals which put premium on human welfare
and well-being and every Filipino’s right to a better quality of life. Amon these are:

 Gross national well-being and human welfare should be the measure of

development instead of traditional economic indicators with man as the center and
unifying factor in development

 The planning, development and management of human settlements must be

based on man's basic needs and his natural environment and shall be an integral
part of national economic development

 Proper use and development of natural resources to minimize environmental

degradation that will affect the viability and integrity of human settlements and
urban systems

 Resources must be allocated and applied based on efficiency and equity

 Urban development as a major determinant in the over-all economic development

shall reinforce and complement rural productivity
  Orderly and rational urban growth and development shall be pursued in
consonance with increased opportunities on improving human and institutional
capacities

 Human settlements development shall harness the support and participation of

both public and private sectors including civil society, people’s organizations and
community development groups and organizations

 Development efforts of the Government shall support urban and rural development
with full consideration of the human dimension

The DHSUD as a line agency shall formulate, articulate and implement policies, strategies
programs and projects to address housing needs, functional and economic inefficiencies
in urban and metropolitan areas, imbalances in rural and urban development and orderly
development of human settlements under the Office of the President (see Diagram).