Initiative: Integrated Housing and Development Program (IHDP)
Institution: Ministry of Urban Development Housing and Construction
Problem: The initiative was a response to the severe housing shortage in the major urban centres across Ethiopia. A sizable percentage of the urban population resorted to living in overcrowded houses or slum neighborhoods. There was a major need to enhance the production of housing units by provisioning land to real estate developers and housing cooperatives. However, the construction sector was underdeveloped and unable to cater to the population’s needs, especially the need of urban poor. Additionally, there were no financing institutions in place to invest in affordable housing.
Solution: This project assisted the construction sector to reduce construction cost and time and allow labour intensive construction without the need of sophisticated machineries. The initial goal of the IHDP was to construct 400,000 housing units, create 200,000 jobs, promote the development of 10,000 micro enterprises, enhance the capacity of the construction sector, redevelop for inner city slum areas, and promote home ownership for low and middle-income households. The production of housing units was embedded into a comprehensive intervention, linking production of housing units with the active development of the construction sector, the redevelopment of slum areas and the reduction of poverty.
Impact: As of 2014, the IHDP system developed new residential areas with more than 170,000 condominium units. The sites also included all necessary technical and social infrastructure facilities. In Addis Ababa, 108,482 units were finalized and 66,763 units were undergoing new construction. In Diredawa and other regional states, 62,607 units were finalized, and 6,587 units are under construction. This initiative created more than 530,000 jobs and provided respective capacity development in the construction sector. The IHDP has also included the redevelopment of urban slums. In three inner-city sites, comprehensive and integrated urban renewal projects have taken place and they included the construction of 5,356 households. Therefore, besides the visible benefits of housing supply, slum reduction, job creation, poverty reduction, development of a saving culture and the development of the construction sector, IHDP has also strengthened the confidence of the involved public sector stakeholders and citizens. The program managed to deliver 171,089 housing units for low and middle-income households in 56 Ethiopian cities.