Housing Abroad: Africa

Northern Africa

According to The State of African Cities 2010, North Africa has considerably reduced the number of its slum dwellers due to public policies over the past 20 years. It cites the examples of Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia, which have been able to reduce their collective number from 20.8 million in 1990 to an estimated 11.8 million in 2010. It further observes that by year 2010, nine out of 10 urban slum households in northern Africa suffered from lack of improved sanitation (Egypt) and insufficient living area (Morocco). In Libya, the development of new towns has facilitated the assimilation of demographic increase and the meeting of the attendant expansion in the demand for urban housing. Meanwhile, in Algeria, a rural housing program involved the construction of “1,000 Socialist Villages,” the objective of which was to transform the peasantry and to restructure rural space.

Western Africa

The total urban population of western Africa was 6.6 million people in 1950, 92.1 million in the year 2000, and 137.2 million in 2010. The proliferation of slums and the imbalanced sharing of urban prosperity are some of the unfortunate expressions of this speedy urbanization.

In response to the general demand for the better management of the consequences of undesirable urban trends, the governments are increasingly encouraging both public and private-sector development of pluralistic land markets that are quick to respond to the varying housing needs of the different income groups of the population. The degrees of success of these interventions, however, vary considerably. The Nigerian government's policies for housing its urban poor and the working class continue to be unproductive, in spite of its considerable oil wealth. Similarly, housing conditions in Liberia are still problematic largely due to the destructive effects of the 14-year civil war. According to Urban Health Updates’ 2009 publication on Monrovia, barely one third of the city's 1.5 million residents had access to hygienic toilets in 2009, with 20 to 30 cholera cases being reported weekly. The government of Liberia has developed a 3-year (2008–2011) program called Poverty Reduction Strategy, which is focused on national growth and reconstruction.

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