Continent: Africa

Ethiopia – JIFAR Association

0

Ethiopia – JIFAR Association

Main objectives of the project

Ethiopia, located on the Horn of Africa, is rich in archaeological vestiges and is the second most populous country in Africa. Oromia, the largest region in Ethiopia, is known for its highlands and agricultural advantages. However, due to internal conflicts and drought, Oromia is facing a significant population emigration, leaving families in dire conditions. The JIFAR Association aims to provide aid, including nutrition, medical assistance, and education, while constructing sustainable villages using local materials and traditional techniques. Your contribution is crucial in saving lives and helping people regain their dignity and self-sufficiency.

Date

Stakeholders

  • Promotor: JIFAR Association

Location

Continent: Africa
Country/Region: Ethiopia

Description

Cradle of humanity, Ethiopia is located on the Horn of Africa, crossed by the Great Rift Valley, there is an archaeological vestige more than 3 million years old, including the oldest hominids (Lucy) 3.18 million years old and Ardipithecus Kadabba, a 5.2 to 5.8 million year old hominid. Second most populated country in Africa, 115 million inhabitants, 85% of whom are under 20, Ethiopia has common borders with Eritrea (former province) to the north, Somalia to the east-south-east, Sudan to the northwest, South Sudan to the west-southwest, Kenya to the south and the Republic of Djibouti to the northeast.

Oromia is the largest region of the country (353,960 km2) as well as the most populated, the administrative capital of which is Addis Ababa, other cities such as Jimma, Welega, Haramaya and Ambo are home to the largest universities. Mainly made up of highlands, Oromia is known for the origin of coffee and its biodiversity, a climatology that favors agriculture all year round.

Despite all these advantages and in the absence of rational management of natural resources, Oromia is today experiencing one of the largest emigrations of its population in the world, caused by internal armed conflicts and persistent drought.

This emigration has thrown hundreds of thousands of families, women and children, onto the roads, who find themselves without shelter, without food or medical aid, left to fend for themselves in inhuman conditions.

JIFAR Association is a non-profit association, with a humanitarian vocation, founded by friends of Ethiopia including the Bon-Abajobir Abajifar family, which aims to come to the aid of the population of Oromia thanks to aid from all nature (nutritional, medical and educational), and the construction of integrated villages with permanent habitats built from biosourced materials (BTC, rammed earth, wood, bamboo, etc.) and local traditional know-how. Modular and autonomous, equipped with devices for managing natural resources and recycling waste, these scalable and modular habitats adapt to welcoming families of all profiles.

Your contribution to our action is dear and essential to us because it saves thousands of souls from famine and despair, by offering them the means to develop their human resources and the acquisition of self-sufficiency capable of restore their dignity and taste for life.

Authors:

Housing that is produced and housing that is needed

0

Housing that is produced and housing that is needed

Mismatches

Main objectives of the project

A recent report highlights the housing crisis in Ghana, with an annual need of 70,000 units and a deficit of 250,000 units. Current delivery rate meets only 21% of demand. Housing is expensive, and low incomes make it unaffordable for many. Even low-cost government housing is beyond the reach of most households. The main obstacles include high land costs, financing challenges, expensive mortgages, inadequate infrastructure, complex approval procedures, limited building materials, institutional coordination issues, and governance for shelter provision. The goal is to provide affordable and sustainable housing with infrastructure and address these challenges by improving land supply, extending infrastructure development, promoting local building materials, and increasing access to credit.

Date

  • 2010: Construction

Stakeholders

  • Promotor: UN-HABITAT

Location

Continent: Africa
Country/Region: Ghana

Description

A recent report, Housing as a Strategy for Poverty Reduction in Ghana (2010), highlights how the Ghanaian housing problem is ‘a national development crisis’ as there is a current annual need of 70,000 units, in addition to the accumulated deficit of 250,000 units ‘needed to de-crowd urban households from over 10 to 7’ occupants per house. In the coming twenty years an average annual delivery of 133,000 is needed, far more than the current delivery rate of only 28,000 units (equating to only 21 per cent of demand). 

Housing in Ghana is simply too expensive and incomes are too low. A low-cost government housing project house costs a minimum of 9,000 USD. However, this is prohibitively expensive for low-, and even many middle-income households. The report states ‘given the current minimum wage is 1.3 cedis per day (0.87 USD), it will take someone on the minimum wage 17 years to service the loan, excluding interest, and committing his or her entire salary to it’. 

Therefore, a quick calculation indicates that if he or she spends half their income on servicing the loan (still a considerable proportion of income), it will take 34 years to pay off the principal only. Furthermore, this assumes he or she has formal, reliable fixed employment contract, has the required down-payment, and has the credit worthiness to secure a loan in the first place, all of which are not common for many Ghanaian households. In Ghana and throughout Africa, even for a ‘low-cost’ government house, there are evidently many obstacles to obtaining and retaining housing that households can afford. 

The most vulnerable groups are the urban and rural poor, most of whose houses are built with poor quality materials and with little or no basic services and infrastructure, such as adequate drainage and waste disposal systems. Key factors hindering the effective delivery of housing in Ghana include the following: 

The cost of land and its accessibility; 
Financing; 
The high cost of mortgages; 
Infrastructural development; 
Development approval procedures; 
Availability and cost of building materials; 
Institutional coordination; 
Governance for shelter provision.  

Therefore, the ultimate goal of the country’s housing policy is to provide adequate, decent and affordable housing that is accessible and sustainable with infrastructural facilities to meet the needs of Ghanaians. This will be complemented by the following policies that address the challenges listed above. 

Improve the supply of serviced land available for housing, especially for the target groups. 
Extend infrastructural development to all parts of the country and ensure access to all citizens through a clear infrastructure policy and development programmes. 
Develop, produce and promote greater use of local alternative building materials of acceptable quality to effectively respond to the housing construction needs of the majority of the country’s population. 
Provide greater access to credit, especially for the target groups. 

Links

Authors: