Urban land policy and housing for poor and women in Amhara region : the case of Bahir Dar City
Birhan, Eskedar
Bahir Dar is one of the major cities of the region that has been facing a plethora of problems of acute housing shortage. To address housing shortage since 2003 land was made available through leasehold system. Nevertheless, the policy failed to solve housing problem at large scale. Thus, since the year 2006 the incumbent the regional government- instead of directly availing serviced land to the poor- has opted out to undertake an ambitious regional wide Integrated Housing Development Program (IHDP) to address the shelter needs of the lower income households. In Bahir Dar city the five-year programme has already finished. Therefore, this study empirically examines the practice of addressing shelter need of urban poor and women through leasehold policy and IHDP. The study also based on desktop studies, literature reviews, land and housing policy review, interview and field observation. With all these, the study found that the Amhara regional urban land policy by default excludes right of access to land for development of housing because land is allocated through auction in which this group of the society cannot afford. The study also reveals that in implementing IHDP many urban poor and women households are excluded because they cannot afford the down payment or monthly mortgage and service repayments. The results show that leasehold policy and IHDP are basic, but require proper interpretation in terms of the context of urban poor and women needs.
Event: FIG Working Week 2012 : Territory, environment, and cultural heritage
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