Housing the Urban Poor
Africa : Focus on Housing the Urban Poor FACT : 62% of sub-Saharan Africa's Urban Population live in Slums.Millions of people move to Africa's cities every year, swelling the numbers of urban poor. "We cannot chase people away from slums," says Kelvin Mmangisa, chief executive of the Lilongwe City Assembly. "But we can improve the conditions there to make their lives better." Mmangisa made this call for investment in affordable housing for the poor in an interview with IPS on Jun. 10 in Nairobi, where he was among 200 delegates at a conference addressing challenges of urbanisation and poverty reduction for slum dwellers in developing nations. The conference was organised jointly by the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific Group of Countries (ACP), European Commission and UN-HABITAT - the United nations human settlement agency. His remark resonated with a key highlight of the Jun. 8-10 meeting - financing the upgrading of informal settlements in order to provide nec