Housing
Against a backdrop of poverty, underinvestment in basic infrastructure and contested land development, housing provision is lacking in African cities. In the absence of state support and affordable market opportunities, many households – including those in the middle classes – find housing in the informal sector, with associated insecurities.
As well as providing safety, security and access to essential basic services, housing also gives urban residents access to labour markets, a legal address and even a site for household economic activities. For city and national governments, housing construction is an important source of enterprise activity and employment. The cost, availability and suitability of urban housing options are influenced by multiple formal and informal systems, with a wide range of actors involved.
ACRC will examine the connections between these various systems and actors, along with other pertinent issues – including mass housing programmes versus incremental development, affordable housing, subsidies and environmentally friendly building materials – and how these intersect with other urban development domains.
LATEST NEWS from ACRC
African cities in the wake of Covid-19: Impacts and grassroots responses in Harare, Kampala, Lilongwe and Nairobi
From 2021 to 2023, our action research in Harare, Kampala, Lilongwe and Nairobi analysed the pandemic’s impacts and bottom-up responses by affiliates of Slum Dwellers International (SDI). Across the four cities, SDI affiliates led our data collection and policy uptake activities as part of the FCDO-funded Covid Collective programme.
Voice, agency and citizenship: The everyday politics of young people’s lives in the global South
Young people across the global South face much economic, social, political and environmental uncertainty that impacts their daily lives as well as their futures.
Five African cities selected for ACRC’s implementation phase
The African Cities Research Consortium (ACRC) is commencing pilot action research projects in four African cities: Nairobi, Kenya; Harare, Zimbabwe; Maiduguri, Nigeria and Mogadishu, Somalia.