Unpacking housing challenges in African cities

The housing challenge in African cities is far from consistent. With differing historical, sociopolitical and economic contexts, cities are seeing urbanisation play out along differing trajectories – impacting issues around housing demand, supply and justice.

ACRC’s housing domain co-leads Alexandre Apsan Frediani and Ola Uduku join Diana Mitlin for a conversation around housing in African cities, drawing on insights from the seven cities studied in their report: Accra, Addis Ababa, Dar es Salaam, Freetown, Lagos, Lilongwe and Nairobi.

Highlighting key issues and observations from the city research, they discuss the importance of local government engagement, the significant challenges facing low-income residents around navigating rental markets and accessing housing finance, and the need for more sustainable construction approaches and building materials.

They emphasise the value of building reform coalitions and developing collaborative research approaches in order to influence housing policy and programming at the city level, also noting the potential that leveraging global issues such as climate change could have to drive sectoral reform.

> Read more in ACRC’s housing domain report

Alexandre Apsan Frediani is a principal researcher in the human settlements group at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and co-lead of the ACRC housing domain.

Ola Uduku is head of school at the Liverpool School of Architecture and co-lead of the ACRC housing domain.

Diana Mitlin is professor of global urbanism at The University of Manchester’s Global Development Institute and CEO of ACRC.

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Music: Brighter Days | Broke in Summer

Sounds: Zapsplat

This podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.

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