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CONSTRUYA – Anchoring systemic changes in Peru and Colombia

The Construya project addresses the challenges of unsafe, informal housing in rapidly urbanizing cities of Latin America by promoting safe, sustainable construction practices and affordable training for construction workers. In its current phase, the focus is on empowering local market system actors—such as training institutions and private companies—to fully take ownership of key services and tools developed by the project, including the training-of-trainers model and structured collaboration between companies and training providers. By anchoring these elements within national systems and strengthening the capacity of local actors, the initiative aims to ensure long-term sustainability and systemic impact in improving construction quality for low-income communities.
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Lima
-12.0466888
-77.04308859999999
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Bogotá, Colombia
4.710988599999999
-74.072092
Peru, Colombia
Project duration
2025 - 2026

The Project

Accelerated urbanization, a lack of urban planning, and a significant housing deficit are increasingly driving low-income families in major Latin American cities—such as Lima, Bogotá, and Cali—to resort to progressive housing as an alternative. In Lima alone, more than 700,000 people live in high-risk conditions prone to earthquakes and tsunamis, making Peru one of the most seismically vulnerable countries in the world. Most homes in these areas fail to meet even the most basic construction standards. In response to this challenge, the Construya projects in Colombia and Peru were launched to improve the quality of life in vulnerable urban communities by promoting safe, healthy, and sustainable construction practices. The projects focused on raising awareness among families and institutionalizing affordable training for construction workers. Applying a systemic approach, Construya collaborates with a broad range of ecosystem actors—including construction material distributors and manufacturers, training institutions, business associations, municipalities, universities, and innovation centers—to drive sustainable impact and long-term change.

Ex post impact assessment

In 2024 an ex-post impact assessment in Colombia revealed a strong appreciation for the Construya methodologies and a broad expansion of the training model. However, the ecosystem analysis showed that not all changes introduced by the project had been sustainably anchored. Despite this, there is a favourable environment for implementing systemic adaptations, and the positive impact on housing has remained stable over time.

The main challenges to systemic anchoring in both countries relate to the limited capacity of training providers to respond effectively to the needs of private companies. While Construya courses and resources continue to be used and valued, training institutions often lack the capabilities to engage with businesses, even though companies are willing to invest in training for master builders. Cost efficiency and scalability remain crucial factors in determining how widely such training can be offered.

Project Goals

The initiative aims to consolidate systemic changes by 

  • addressing the capacity gaps of training institutions and aligning their services with private sector demand.
  • Through targeted technical support and integration of Training-of-Trainers (ToT) into national training schools, the approach seeks to strengthen local market systems and enable independent continuation to deliver Construya trainings to informal construction workers.

Key performance indicators—such as the number of trained construction workers and the sustained quality of training—will be used to measure progress during the anchoring phase.

Expected Results

Colombia

  • Enhanced SENA Services (national training authority)
    - Implement new, agile procedures in three SENA offices to serve companies demanding training for master builders.
    - Maintain the training rhythm for master builders consistent with the Construya initiative.
  • Training of Trainers by ENI (national trainer school): ENI adopts the training of trainers methodology and trains 30 trainers.
  • Company Policies on Construction Practices: Five companies establish policies to address poor construction practices of master builders.

Peru

  • Strengthened Services of the training providers CAPECO (private) and SENCICO (public).
  • The workers pension fund CONA allocates 20% of its funds to train master builders through Construya and VIPRO courses.
  • Companies establish policies and adopt the "Good Construction Practices ".

Financing Partners

This project is fully financed by the Hilti Foundation. It is part of the Swisscontact Development Programme, which is co-financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA.