Enabling housing markets not to work - an examination of serviced land and low cost housing delivery in Zimbabwe 1992-1998.
Date
2011-03-25
Authors
Butcher, Colleen
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
From 1982 to 1998, sufficient housing-related finance was mobilised in Zimbabwe to provide every low and middle income urban household with its own starter-home comprising a fully services plot and one room plus wet block superstructure. Despite this significant resource mobilization, low cost housing production throughout the 1990s only achieved 12 percent of he Government's targets. This research examines the ways in which delivery mechanisms under-performed and analyses the underlying contributory factors. It goes on the show that the provision of once-off financing coupled with improvements in a country's regulatory framework do not result in sufficient structural change to ensure sustainable housing delivery for low income households in developing countries. The research is primarily a case study assessing the performance of low cost housing and urban services delivery in Zimbabwe over the seven years 1992 to 1998. The 1990s in Zimbabwe (prior to the current disarray which set in towards the end of that decade) saw a number of national econmic and poverty reduction reforms taking place. Following the centralized planning of the 1980s, from 1991 the Government pursued a market-oriented strategy aimed at economic growth and culminating in the launch of th ePoverty Alleviation Action Programme in early 1994. This saw the inflow of significant amounts of donor funding to, amongst other sectors, urban services and housing, coupled with notable improvements on the regulatory front. The research quantifies, by means of a set of selected performance indicators, the rgulatory framework governing housing delivery. It goes on to assess, by means of a set of selected sustainability indicators, the decentralization framework or operating environment of th elocal governments which were the main implementing agencies. Where possible, the data from the indicators is benchmarked against the government's own policy targets as well as against data from other countries with similar income levels in Sub-Saharan Africa. The data shows that there were significant increases in the number of plots services and houses built in 1994 and 1995. Importantly too, there were a number of policy gains resulting in improved access to mortgage finance by low income groups, to secure tenure by women headed households, and entry access to the housing market by households on the median and below income prcentiles. Furthermore, compementing national reforms, a number of key responsibilities were devolved to local govrnments. However, in reality, the central government retained substantial and strategic powers over local governments and this power was under-written by a deeply entrenched centralised conrol over local government finances. The Zimbabwe regulatory reforms of the mid-1990s are not atypical of similar reforms that have taken place and continue to be underway in a number of countries in the southern Africa region and elsewhere. As such, the lessons from the Zimbabwe case study have broader relevance. In sum the research argues that low income housing and services land delivery is a function firstly of the regulatory framework within which the sector operates but it is equally a function of the intergovernmental fiscal framework. It is the latter which is needed to underwrite the foscal health of local governments where they are the primary delivery mechanisms. Given that low income housing and service delivry to the poor are cross cutting concerns of the Millennium Development Goals, this is an area deserving of national attention.
Description
PH.D thesis - P&DM
Keywords
Housing, Zimbabwe, Low cost housing, Zimbabwe