NGOs commit to providing affordable houses

May 31, 2017

Speaking on behalf of African governments, state minister for housing Dr Chris Baryomunsi reaffirmed the commitment of African governments to provide affordable houses in Africa.

Renting affordable and decent houses is a still a problem to many Ugandans and other people in Africa. For this reason Shelter Africa and UN Habitat have come up with plans to deliver affordable houses and policy suggestions for governments.

Shelter Afrique and UN-Habitat want to jointly create a coalition of large employers in Africa to implement "Employer Sponsored Housing Programs in Africa". The programme target to produce 100,000 housing units by 2020.

This was during the 26th General Council of UN-Habitat held in Nairobi, Kenya. The two organisations expect to create a rental housing promotion Initiative that will influence regulation and create the enabling environment for Rental Housing in Africa.

A statement from Shelter Afrique said the two organisations want to address the creation of a 360-degree housing policy review to provide feedback to governments on policy flaws and Gaps and establish a monitoring mechanism to evaluate progress.

Speaking on behalf of African governments, state minister for housing Dr Chris Baryomunsi reaffirmed the commitment of African governments to provide affordable houses in Africa. Baryomunsi expressed commitment to the objectives of the New Urban Agenda and the success of the two institutions.

The new urban agenda is a new UN framework that that lays out how cities should be planned and managed to best promote sustainable urbanization. "I want to assure you that we will not pay lip-service to the goals set out today, I think I can speak on behalf of my colleagues on our commitment to the New Urban Agenda and Shelter Afrique. I will speak specifically for Uganda now," Baryomunsi said

"We have initiated several successful projects with Shelter Afrique and UN-Habitat. We rely on them for policy and implementation advice, and we have been grateful for their support, but we require ceremonies like this to recommit ourselves to the future of affordable housing in Africa," Baryomunsi added.

Shelter Afrique, the Pan-African finance institution supporting the development of affordable housing and real estate sector in Africa and UN-Habitat, the United Nations agency responsible for Human Settlement and Housing signed a memorandum of understanding which will see collaboration on delivering on the new urban agenda.

The memorandum seeks to see the two organisations work towards delivering affordable housing in Africa. The meeting was attended by government and senior representatives of member countries and staff of Shelter Afrique and that of the UN-Habitat.

Acting managing director for Shelter Afrique, Femi Adewole highlighted similarities in the new urban agenda and Shelter Afrique' s strategic vision for delivering impact on the continent. "We are committed to this action because the scale of the challenges that face us as a continent, require ambition, dedication and commitment," Adewole said.

He added: "Our commitment to delivering on the objectives of the New Urban Agenda has always been resolute and frankly at this time for us as an organisation, necessary, but today we take the first of what will be many steps in realising it. We do this, also, in the expectation that our shareholders and members will match our commitment to delivering these objectives and use Shelter Afrique as the instrument for implementation."

The memorandum between the two organisations seeks to deliver on the creation of a funding mechanism for housing and housing-related infrastructure in Africa by 2018 which will aim to raise a total of $1 b by 2020. It will also elaborate a Pan-African Slum Eradication program based on best practices and successfully implement such a program in 20 countries by 2021.

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