We, the African Ministers and Heads of Delegation of Ministries in charge of Housing and Urban Development, African Finance Ministers , the Directors and Management of Shelter Afrique, and representatives of international, regional and national institutions, the private sector and civil society, meeting in Yaoundé, Cameroon, from 21 to 24 June 2021, at the 40th Annual General Assembly of Shelter Afrique, to address the challenges of housing in Africa under the theme “Forty decades of Housing Policies in Africa”, agree on the enhancing of mechanisms for the mass production of decent and affordable housing in the continent to achieve social and economic development.
Preamble –
Recognizing the importance of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the African Union’s Agenda 2063, and the need to accelerate the reduction of the deficit of decent affordable housing.
Considering that the housing problem is regional.
Stressing that this statement is intended as a contribution to the work and debates of the 40th session of the Annual General Assembly of Shelter Afrique.
Recognizingthe role that Shelter Afrique, international and national institutions, the private sector and civil society, and the people should play in the context of urban and rural expansion.
Welcoming the efforts already made by member countries to improve public policies and access to decent and affordable housing.
Makingthe following recommendations to be implemented within a reasonable timeframe:
LEADERSHIPANDGOVERNANCE:
- Prepare a common position of African Heads of State on housing and development issues.
- To develop tools and strategies that will enhance sustainable housing and urban development that align with the objectives of attending to challenges of climate change.
POLICIESANDLEGISLATION:
- Effective, pragmatic strategies should be put in place to address and solve the challenges of affordable housing delivery.
- Enforce legislation to enhance quality control in the delivery of decent and affordable housing.
- Promote the rent to own schemes in housing delivery.
- Ensuring decent housing for women and young and other related vulnerable groups such people living with disabilities ;
- Implement strategies to improve the land tenor system.
- Define and set up a mechanism to enhance incremental housing delivery to cater for the informal sector.
COORDINATION:
- Property developers should establish themselves into a federation or association to facilitate engagement with the relevant public and private stakeholders.
- Set up one-stop shops at housing and urban development agencies to facilitate the procedures for property development by individual investors or groups or federations of property companies.
- Propose the creation of the board of governors at Shelter Afrique which comprises of finance ministers in the respective
member states; This is in order to enhance engagement between the housing and finance ministers in attending to affordable housing challenges.
LAND:
- Mobilization of constructible land and at appropriate cost as an essential component of housing production.
- Build strategically located land reserves, close to basic facilities.
- Member states will donate to Shelter Afrique well located land and subsidize the services for social and low cost housing projects.
FINANCEANDTAXATION:
- Put in place more innovative financial mechanisms supporting favorable interest rate (buyers and investors) and facilitating financial inclusion.
- Develop mechanisms for planned, monitored incremental housing delivery.
- Supporting tax exemptions for developers and purchasers throughout the housing production chain, taking into account the sharing of risks, particularly land and employability risks ;
- Establish a guarantee fund for informal sector buyers for hire purchase ;
- Diversify local sources of finance for decent and affordable housing through national and local capital markets.
- Support the Setting up of a Housing Fund for Africa under the auspices of Shelter Afrique
CAPACITYBUILDING:
- Promote research in the field of housing and also the training of real estate development companies ;
- Supporting economic operators who want to engage in social housing;
- Strengthen the technical assistance to property developers ;
- Develop more flexible urban planning tools that can evolve with the territories and meet the demands of the population;
- Enhance the financial, technical and operational capacity of the developer to undertake and manage housing project.
CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES AND TECHNOLOGIES, MANAGEMENT ANDMAINTENANCE:
- Strengthen the ecosystem and mechanisms for processing and using local building materials at the territorial level in order to reduce customer costs, ecological footprints and the cost price of housing;
- Develop mechanism to facilitate the adoption of emergent technologies in the housing and the building environment practice;
- Strengthen design of housing and accommodation that integrates the socio-economic dynamics in respective communities;
- Enhance the provision of bulk and link infrastructure to support affordable housing delivery.
From the above, we:
Agreeto implement and monitor the implementation of key recommendations made during the work of the meetings recommending concrete actions by national governments; and request the follow-up group to establish a mechanism to monitor and report on the status of implementation of these resolutions and to prepare a report on the status of implementation of this resolution at the next session of the General Assembly of Shelter Afrique.
We decide on the composition of the monitoring group as follows : Facilitator: Houda Boudlali, Shelter Afrique.
Co-facilitator: Dr. Claude Albert Meutchehe Ngomsi, UN Habitat.
Rapporteur: Dr. Muhammad Gambo, Shelter Afrique. Rapporteur : Edmond Adjikpe, Shelter Afrique.
Member : Natasha Koli, Shelter Afrique. Member : Babatunde Oyateru , Shelter Afrique.
The group may appoint other members if necessary.
Engage,inform our respective Heads of State and Government of the
Declaration and to facilitate its implementation, as appropriate to national and local requirements.
Yaoundé on June 24th, 2021
