Pro-poor Shelter Development | Human Settlements | International Institute for Environment and Development

Pro-poor Shelter Development Human Settlements International Institute for Environment and Development

Pro-poor Shelter Development in Urban Poverty

Urban poverty is a significant cause of inadequate shelter. Lack of finance requires individuals or households to rent poor quality accommodation or to build informally and sometimes illegally; no other options are affordable to many of those living in Southern towns and cities.

Background
An estimated 900 million are living in inadequate housing and unsafe neighbourhoods. Individuals and families struggle to secure the resources they need for healthy and prosperous lives and this includes shelter. There are very high levels of informal tenure and incremental housing development in Southern towns and cities.
Urban poverty is a significant cause of inadequate shelter. Lack of finance requires individuals or households to rent poor quality accommodation or to build informally and sometimes illegally; no other options are affordable to many of those living in Southern towns and cities.
For those who build their own homes, consolidation is generally slow due to both an absolute lack of finance, and an inability to spread costs through acquiring loans. The lack of affordable complete housing prevents households from accessing conventional (mortgage) finance. Their financial exclusion is compounded by a preponderance of informal incomes that do not allow them to get loans from formal financial institutions. In this context, housing is primarily financed by savings.
A further problem is that there is little legal land that can be purchased and many end up squatting or buying informal sub-divisions on agricultural land. These plots are without access to basic services such as piped water and sanitation. Hence households live with insecure tenure, poor quality shelter, and inadequate services, sometimes at very high densities.
Low-quality shelter compounds the problems of poverty. In particular, poor quality shelter is associated with significant health risks, with greater likelihood of morbidity and premature death. Poor health also increases the incidence of poverty, reducing the opportunities to improve livelihoods and hence invest in better housing. The adverse location of many low-income neighbourhoods increases the costs of securing livelihoods, adding to the difficulties of securing adequate incomes.
Shelter improvements will not be secured simply by economic (and income) growth. Citizens require a supportive state able and willing to ensure large-scale opportunities for secure tenure and for improved access to basic services especially water and sanitation. Shelter improvements require finance but they also need supportive social and political processes that address the scale and nature of deprivation.
To secure the kinds of political support necessary for shelter improvements, experience has shown the effectiveness of grassroots federating and networking. Grassroots organizations are often isolated and vulnerable in their strategies to engage with political systems.
Federating reduces the isolation and enables peer support. As significantly, it shifts the engagement from individual communities to the neighbourhood or city level. In recognition of the success of their strategies, IIED has developed a close working relationship with Shack/Slum Dwellers International to promote and support pro-poor people-managed development.

Solution
moladi was designed and patented in 1986 as a solution to house the homeless and to create employment for the youth and to date moladi is implemented and exported to more than 20 countries, changing lives.

moladi - technology builds quality homes faster for less, employing local unskilled labour, quelling two issues faced by governments – housing backlog and job creation
moladi - construction technology provides accredited training and skills development
moladi - an empowerment company creating SME entrepreneurs and employment
moladi - a South Africa designed and patented product, manufactured in Port Elizabeth, exported to 20 countries and expanding
moladi - promote and implement the development of cleaner alternative energy solutions reducing carbon footprint
moladi - winner of the South African Bureau of Standards Design for Development Award
moladi - winner of the NHBRC ABSA BANK Innovative Housing Competition
moladi - awarded Science and Technologies Best Man 2009
moladi - Bottom of the Pyramid - BoP addressing shelter, unemployment and job creation
moladi - employed local unemployed to build the schools - Sowetan

Our recent country launches in Africa are - moladi Tanzania and moladi Botswana
Creating employment for the bulk who do not qualify for bursaries from governments to study at universities.

Keywords - Pro-poor, Shelter, Development, IIED, Shack Slum Dwellers International, Low-quality shelter, poverty, inadequate shelter. Lack of finance, mortgage, finance, human settlements, concrete homes, unemployed, inadequate shelter

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