Adequate housing is a key issue in Asia and the Pacific. More than 500 million people or 45 percent of all urban residents of the region live in sub-standard housing (in slums and squatter settlements). UNESCAP has launched a regional project on Pro-Poor Housing Finance in Asia-Pacific Region. The project includes preparing and publishing country reports on the state of pro-poor housing finance in five Asia Pacific countries viz. India, Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Mongolia. The project also aims at preparing a comparative analysis, which also briefly covers Pakistan, Bangladesh and Philippines, and documents pro-poor housing finance best practices and innovations. The initiative also aims to establish a regional network on housing finance for the region.