Previous Degrees
Postgraduate Program in International Affairs, 2006
Robert Bosch Foundation, German Academic Merit Foundation
In cooperation with the German Foreign Office

Master of Arts in Architecture and Urban Planning (Dipl.-Ing.), 2004
Bachelor of Arts in Architecture (Vordiplom), 2000
Technical University Darmstadt (TUD), Germany
 

Interests at Harvard
Political and Economic Development
Housing, Urban Development, and Transportation
Applied Microeconomics
Macroeconomics
Finance and Microfinance, especially Infrastructure and Housing

Short CV
Matthias Nohn, Master in Public Policy Candidate 2008, passed the trade examination in "Masonry and Concrete Construction" with distinction in 1998. After earning his Bachelor in Architecture at Darmstadt University (TUD) in 2000 he was awarded a one-year research fellowship at the Institute for Research of Light-weight Construction. From 2002 to 2004 Matthias lived in Latin America: in Mexico City he studied the development of informal settlements, in Sao Paulo (Brazil) he volunteered in a drug and AIDS prevention project, and as a DAAD Fellow he studied at PUC and UFRJ in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). In 2004 he was awarded the Master in Architecture with Specialization in Urban Design and an acknowledgement for his "Outstanding Performance" at TUD.

As an Associate Lecturer Matthias continued at Darmstadt University before starting his career in international development in 2005: after being awarded the BOSCH Fellowship in International Affairs for his research on Urban Planning in International Development Cooperation, he worked for GTZ in a Cairo slum (Egypt), the World Bank (Washington, DC), and UN-HABITAT (Nairobi, Kenya) before coming to the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in fall 2006. Since 2007 Matthias has worked with the Self-Employed Women's Organization (SEWA) in Ahmedabad (Gujarat, India) managing an NIUA research project on the habitat and employment of Ahmadabad's poor.
Together with the NGO he now develops a market-based business model for delivering affordable housing to India's urban poor. For his Policy Analysis on this issue Matthias won Harvard Kennedy School's Outstanding Thesis Award.

Matthias is a member of the German central left Green Party. At Harvard he is Co-Chair of the 14th Annual International Development Conference at Harvard. Amongst the conference speakers rank the Former President of Bolivia Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, the Former President of Ecuador Jamil Mahuad, World Bank President Robert Zoellick, UN Under-Secretary General and UNDP Associate Administrator Ad Melkert, DFID Permanent Secretary Nemat Shafik, and Geoffrey Lamb, the Managing Director for Public Policy at the Gates Foundation. For further information please visit IDC 2008.

After his studies Matthias intends to continue his work in international development. Please find his detailed CV here.

Research
Current Research
Matthias developed the financial, delivery, and business models for two social enterprises that are now being launched with the mission to provide marked-based affordable housing to the growing numbers of Indian urban residents. For his analysis Matthias won Harvard Kennedy School's Outstanding Thesis Award.
The first enterprise is a housing developer, the second a housing finance corporation; both institutions aim at achieving a profit margin of 15 percent. Beyond the business, delivery and financial model, Matthias also provides a thorough analysis of how to optimize the four key housing inputs: land, construction, policies, and finance in three different markets: the free land market, public private partnerships, and the slum redevelopment market. Matthias provides solid evidence that delivering market-based affordable housing in all of the markets is not only viable but also viable on a for-profit basis. He now seeks to launch the social enterprises together with his research client, the Gujarat Mahila Housing SEWA Trust (www.sewahousing.org), and looks for investors to raise the $1.5 million required for the pilot project.

Matthias Nohn also investigates the factors driving informal urban growth and the patterns leading to changes in housing and infrastructure conditions.

Finally, Matthias works on alternative bottom-up schemes of infrastructure and basic service provision that are financed or co-financed by local communities and that aim at generating local employment and social inclusion of informal construction workers and waste pickers, etc.

Research Papers/Reports
Matthias Nohn. Market-based Affordable Housing in Urban India: Policy Analysis Exercise for the Gujarat Mahila Housing SEWA Trust, Master's Thesis at the Harvard Kennedy School, 2007.
Download the PAPER and the FINANCIAL MODEL here.
Read the Harvard Kennedy School's EVALUATION here.
Read a follow-up on INNOVATING HOUSING MICROFINANCE here.

Matthias Nohn, Tara Sinha, Falguni Patel, Bijalben Bhatt. NIUA Study on the Habitat and Employment of Ahmedabad's Poor, 2007.
Download an EXTRACT here.

Robert Buckley, Gerald J. Lynch, Matthias Nohn. Peer Review on UN-HABITAT's Monitoring Target 11 of the Millennium Development Goals. The World Bank & Cities Alliance, forthcoming.

Matthias Nohn. Improving the Measurement and Inferring the Policy Effectiveness of MDG Target 11on the Lives of Slum Dwellers, 2006.
Download the FINAL DRAFT here.

Matthias Nohn. Rio 365+ Low Energy Urban Renewal in Rio de Janeiro's Harbor. Master's Thesis, with the academic advise of Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Mathey and Prof. Pfeifer, Technical University Darmstadt (TUD), Germany, 2004.   
      Download the thesis here; in German only:
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