Without looking at the issue of land there can be no meaningful discussion on how to solve the problems of housing for the poor in our cities and towns. Administrative and legal blockages such as government procedures,... more
Without looking at the issue of land there can be no meaningful discussion on how to solve the problems of housing for the poor in our cities and towns. Administrative and legal blockages such as government procedures, over-bureaucratization, transfer difficulties, etc. have been the major constraints of access to land for housing in urban areas of developing countries. Consequently, the urban poor are unable to obtain land by legal means or they are unable to afford such land on market prices. Such common problems are administrative and technical due to gaps created by policies, coupled with the lack of understanding of issues by people in power. In sub-Saharan Africa particularly, the challenges and issues of access to land for urban housing are urbanization, urban poverty, corruption in land sector and inadequate institutional capacity of land administration. Sub-Saharan African countries need fundamental reform in the policy instruments in order to avoid the urban poor to be further impoverished.
