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Adequate
housing an important pillar for achieving harmony in cities
Swedish Cooperative Centre
October 06, 2008
The Swedish
Cooperative Centre (SCC) in Eastern and Southern Africa, in partnership
with housing co-operatives and civil society working on urban development
join the world in commemorating the World Habitat Day, under the
theme 'Harmonious Cities'.
One of the important
pillars for achieving harmony in cities is the right to adequate
housing. The majority of poor women and men in urban areas in East
and Southern Africa live in conditions of extreme deprivation and
lack, which conditions are not conducive to achieving harmony in
cities.
SCC has been
working in Kenya and Zimbabwe to support community based initiatives
in the form of housing cooperatives and their organizations as well
as cooperative-like organizations and NGOs working in the housing
sector. The commemoration of this years World Habitat Day in these
two countries comes against the backdrop of:-
Post-election
violence experienced in Kenya and Zimbabwe in the first half of
2008 that adversely affected the efforts and achievements that some
of our partners had made working in slum areas as well as with low
income communities to access adequate shelter. The politically motivated
disturbances resulted in the displacement of housing cooperative
members, destruction of housing cooperative efforts to decent housing,
destruction of economic and social networks that were in place to
address the impact of HIV and Aids, and the destruction of property
and livelihoods.
The xenophobic
attacks on immigrants in South Africa are testimony to the need
to for all concerned to work towards building harmonious cities
as these attacks point to the growing impatience by the urban poor
to the limited attention governments in the region have paid to
sustainable urban development and to addressing poverty.
The economic
meltdown in Zimbabwe has all but rendered housing cooperatives efforts
to mobilize savings and construct housing pointless.
SCC is concerned
with the ongoing forced evictions that are still taking place in
some parts of Africa that are leaving many people homeless and defenseless,
especially women and children.
It is in light
of this year's theme, that all stakeholders involved in human
settlement will find it necessary to address habitat issues within
a harmonious environment where communities are able to address issues
affecting their habitat without the fear. SCC supports applauds
the efforts that are being carried out by local, regional and international
networks, civil society organizations in addressing human settlements
development challenges and will continue promote the strengthening
of such strategic partnerships as well strengthening partnerships
with the government, local authorities and other stakeholders in
an attempt to create a suitable environment where the right to adequate
housing can be realized.
SCC is a Swedish
development NGO, created by the Swedish Cooperative Movement in
1958. We support partner organizations and implement development
programmes in more than 25 countries worldwide. We work in three
sectors:
- Rural development
focussing on sustainable agriculture, food security and local
business development (in Southern Africa mainly through support
to farmers organizations)
- Adequate
housing; promotion of cooperative housing
- Financial
services; promotion of member-driven financial services models
The SCC Regional
Office for Southern Africa covers operations in five countries:
Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Madagascar and Mozambique. SCC-Vi in Eastern
Africa works in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda.
SCC's
vision is a world free from poverty and injustice.
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
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