MKBT: Make Better is a hybrid organization (NGO + consultancy firm) that has been working for urban development and regeneration in Romania since April 2014.
As a local development advisor, we assist both public and private entities. That is to say that we are drafting, validating and coordinating processes for local development and urban regeneration in order to help as many cities become their best possible version and the best home for their inhabitants. As a local development advisor, we assist both public and private entities.
We substantiate our work on a thorough understanding of local needs and specificities of the communities we work with. We acknowledge, at the same time, the global inter-connectivity of local challenges. Our proposed solutions are therefore grounded in international best practice, while at the same time capitalizing – in a sustainable and harmonious manner – on local know how and resources.
During the past four years, when we also started developing projects as an NGO (Make Better Association), we worked in over 30 communities in Romania, supporting local authorities, NGOs and companies alike in getting a better grasp of the communities where they are active and in coming up with the viable strategies, programs and services that would foster the local regeneration and development.
În our projects, we are focusing on marginalized urban areas. Our priority ares are small, shrinking towns, plagued by urban poverty (in the last years most of our projects where in Reșița and Făgăraș), using practices of work such as: participatory work, community immersion and collaboration with ecosystems of organizations.
+ Housing, especially informal housing and improved housing legislation for more inclusive access to housing. As a matter of fact, our organization is one of the most important actors that where involved in writing and promoting the legislation paper for the Law 151/2019 on informal settlements, that was promulgated in 2019. We also created a platform, www.locuireinformala.ro, that aims to grow in a library of resources useful for a better understanding of the informal housing phenomenon, but also for mobilizing communities to identify and implement solutions.
+ Land management & brownfields: how to capitalize on existing urban assets to improve liveability and inclusiveness of cities; prospecting urban reconversion; co-governance of city assets.
MKBT provides advisory, both at strategic and operational levels, to: