Like many other Sub-Saharan African cities, Mauritania’s urban population has grown significantly over the past two decades, with half of the population living in informal settlements. With the assistance of the World Bank, Mauritania launched an upgrading program to improve the quality of life in informal settlements. Residents became eligible to receive a serviced plot of land less than 1km away from their settlement, as well as microcredit loans for improvements and compensation for their existing property.
Some residents utilized their compensation to purchase a credit that could be used to build a cinderblock house, while others rebuilt their previous homes on the new plots – allowing for residents to choose what their housing provision looked like and supporting incremental approaches to housing. In a later survey, a majority of residents reported that they had an improvement in housing conditions, access to transportation, and community cohesion. Governments, then, don’t always been to be the direct provider of housing, but instead can improve access to quality housing by effective use of subsidies.
Source:
World Bank Group. (2015) Stocktaking of the Housing Sector in Sub-Saharan Africa: Challenges and Opportunities. World Bank, Washington, DC.