Accelerated Knowledge Transfer (AKT): Value added to Reall

From March to July 2024, the University of Warwick partnered with Reall on an Innovate UK Accelerated Knowledge  Transfer (AKT) project. As part of this collaboration, Warwick AKT Associate Natalie Rothwell was embedded within Reall to support the organisation’s gender equality goals and enhance its positioning in the increasingly competitive field of gender-focused development funding.

Incorporating gender into affordable housing is essential for addressing the challenges of accessing safe, secure, and sustainable homes. Women, particularly those from marginalised communities, are disproportionately affected by housing insecurity, environmental degradation, and climate change, yet their needs and perspectives are often overlooked in housing policies and practices. By applying a gender lens, affordable housing initiatives can promote more inclusive, equitable solutions that not only improve housing access for women but also create broader social, economic, and environmental benefits.

While Reall has long understood the importance of gender in its work, it had not positioned gender as a core component of its affordable and green housing strategy. Recognising this, the recent collaboration with the University of Warwick through Innovate UK’s AKT was essential for embedding gender more deeply into Reall’s policies and practices. By focusing on gender as a central factor, this initiative aims to transform Reall’s approach, ensuring that gender is prioritised and integrated into every aspect of affordable housing development.

The AKT project united gender and housing experts to explore how gender impacts access to and use of housing, and alongside a variety of internally focused resources and recommendations, three key public-facing outputs emerged from this work: a Fast Facts Sheet emphasising the importance of incorporating women into Reall’s mission of delivering sustainable, affordable housing; a Toolkit outlining strategies for integrating gender into housing-focused policies and programmes; and a Thought Piece advocating for a double mainstreaming approach in affordable housing. 

• The Fast Facts Sheet calls for the need for the affordable housing sector to demonstrate women-led, women-focused housing delivery, evidence the viability and impact of gender-sensitive housing, and advocate for increased focus on women in green affordable housing 
• The Toolkit emphasises the importance of using a gender lens to address the inequities women face in accessing housing, offering recommendations for integrating gender into both internal and external organizational practices. Drawing on case studies from Reall’s programmes in Pakistan, Nepal, and Kenya, the findings have global relevance and aim to initiate broader discussions on creating a cohesive, sector-wide approach to mainstreaming gender in affordable housing. 
• The Thought Piece stresses that climate change and housing are both gender issues, demonstrating their commitment to placing women at the centre of the ‘Green Affordable Housing Revolution.’ Their “double mainstreaming” approach integrates gender and climate considerations into policies simultaneously, with case studies in Pakistan, Mozambique, and Kenya showcasing how this strategy leads to more inclusive, sustainable outcomes. 

These outputs explore conceptual discussions around the need to include gender and climate in decisions regarding affordable housing and provide evidence of their impact by highlighting existing examples within Reall’s work that demonstrate historical links to this double mainstreaming approach.

In addition to these external deliverables, the AKT Associate compiled a fundraising strategy that explored potential funders for Reall in the gender space and created an action plan to engage with these findings. Reall’s internal policies were also updated with regard to adding a gender lens, with Risk Management, Procurement, Investment, and Safeguarding expanded to explore the gendered implications of these business areas.

The work conducted through the AKT has the potential to significantly impact both Reall and the wider affordable housing sector. By integrating gender considerations into housing and climate policies, this research can promote more equitable housing solutions that better meet the needs of women, especially in regions disproportionately affected by climate change. The Toolkit, blog, and Thought Piece all emphasise the importance of systemic change, providing a foundation for other organisations to adopt gender-sensitive, climate-resilient approaches.

Reall is seeking opportunities to further develop this work and explore how gender and climate affect how housing markets work for people, prosperity, and the planet.

Blog Written by Hannah Jayne Robinson (Reall). AKT deliverables were jointly authored by Natalie Rothwell (University of Warwick), Juanita Elias (University of Warwick), Ben Atkinson (Reall) and Hannah Jayne Robinson (Reall). Research assistance was provided by Mehru Shahid (University of Warwick).