Urban poverty and shelter

There is no easy solution to urban poverty. However, Practical Action’s experience in shelter and infrastructure development, commitment to working together with communities, and success in demonstrating to governments and authorities how their decisions impact on the lives of the poorest people have combined to produce a programme of work that is reaping results.

Today, Practical Action is working with communities across Kenya, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal helping families find solutions to the problems arising from the environment in which they live.

The need for shelter

Shelter is a fundamental human need. People require protection from the elements, somewhere to bring up their families, a place to work from and a home to call their own. Yet, at present, a fifth of the world's populationare either homeless or live in very poor housing. The majority of them are the poorest people of the world's developing countries

Poor families in developing countries are forced to improvise with their housing, either because building materials are too costly or - in areas vulnerable to natural hazards such as floods and landslides - good building land is too expensive.

With affordable, suitable land becoming scarcer, especially in urban areas, poor people find it increasingly difficult to find the resources to build houses of their own or to buy or rent houses built by professionals.

Sometimes, they are prevented quite simply by archaic, unsympathetic local building codes and regulations that either prohibit or do not recognise the legality of constructions built using the sort of alternative technology that poor people could afford.

For over 30 years Practical Action has been developing ways to help communities develop their own solutions to these housing problems. We help poor communities to make the best use of their own labour and to use locally produced building materials and construction techniques that they can afford and manage themselves.

We have also helped to change obstructive national and local government policies, so people can obtain housing loans and get secure tenure on their land, as well as persuading relevant authorities to develop building codes that allow the use of alternative and low cost materials in construction.

Video: improved Maasai housing in Kenya Combining local knowledge with new techniques has been key when adapting Maasai homes to more permanent structures. 2 min 24 sec modem 605k | broadband 1.8Mb

Our shelter and urban environment work forms part of the Access to Infrastructure Services programme