Un Techo para mi País (UTPMP), translated as “A roof for my country,” is an NGO that addresses the problems of shelter and social exclusion in informal settlements in nineteen countries across Latin America and the Caribbean.

Volunteers work with families in settlements to erect prefabricated 3×6 meter wooden houses, which replace the precarious shacks in which the families have been living. The next stage in the process is to help the families improve their employment prospects, through training, microcredit and funding for community projects.

UTPMP came into existence in 1997, yet its effects had not been systematically assessed until 2008-11 when a study was undertaken to measure the program’s impact on the welfare of the families that had received program support. Three countries were selected for the impact evaluation:  El Salvador, Mexico and Uruguay. 

With a different firm implementing the study in each country, Sistemas Integrales was asked to provide overall data quality assurance, including assisting in the selection of variables to be measured, overseeing training and the content of training materials, and in general ensuring consistency across the surveys in the three countries.

The results, reflecting three years of fieldwork, provided reliable information about how this program for better housing has benefited the health and social integration of the participating families. The information can be used additionally to inform the design and implementation of other poverty-alleviation programs.