Promoting Urban Poor Women's Housing and Property rights in Uganda

The project is aimed at empowering urban poor Women groups in central and eastern Uganda urban communities to access property and adequate housing for economic development. The project targets the districts of Kampala and Jinja. This is being achieved through three main strategies which include:

1.       Training and Capacity development for women groups;

2.       Lobbying and advocacy;

3.    Fostering networks and Coalition towards promotion of women’s property and housing rights for economic empowerment.

Through these strategies the project is empowering women with skills in property and housing development, paralegal skills for women to actualize their rights to property and fostering partnerships and coalitions towards promotion of women’s property and housing rights for economic empowerment. 

The project also links the urban poor women groups to key stakeholders to ensure synergy in support of women rights to property as a means to better their economic status. 

The project also intends to develop resource tools that will guide sensitization and awareness of communities on benefits of asset development for women. The project aims to institute sustainable services that can be scaled up to other areas within the districts and subsequently to other districts and regions of Uganda.

The secondary focus for the project is Promoting Entrepreneurship and guaranteeing social protection for urban poor women. 

The logic behind this project is that by increasing access to property there will be increased businesses which translate into promotion of entrepreneurship.

Promoting Eco-friendly Technologies in Informal Settlements in Uganda (PECTIS)

This intervention is aimed at supporting community led initiatives to provide environmentally sustainable sanitation. This is through the use of various approaches as detailed below.

The first approach of this project is the use of Interlocking Soil Stabilized Brick making machines (ISSB) as an affordable and environmentally friendly technology, for construction of essential infrastructure; e.g. toilets and solid waste collection points.

The project takes on a “Learning by Doing” approach in which community participation plays a crucial role in the choice of sites, equipment, structures, and methodology.

In addition, students of ‘built environment/architecture’ will assist communities in construction design, sitting, and construction. This enables a learning culture that goes beyond the theoretical model of teaching and incorporates a ‘hands on’ approach.

The project provides skills and awareness creation to the communities in entrepreneurship, cooperatives, and management structures for sustainability. This project aims to help youth to have income generating activities and boost the economic status of this area.

Finally this project has increased awareness of the communities on the importance of environmental sustainability and the impact of their activities on the wetland. This is through environmental campaigns carried out through the area, spear headed by the local authorities.

More information is available at

www.ssauganda.org

and

 http://pectis.wordpress.com

Decent Living; Improving the lives of people living in slums. A collaborative project of SSA

This project promotes decent living within slum communities through integration and promotion of housing and water, sanitation and hygiene good practices. The project aims at improving the lives of people living in slums in Kampala through improved housing, water and sanitation.

The project objective is to improve the living conditions and contribute to a dignified life for people living in the slums of Kampala City by ensuring decent and safe housing as well as access to safe water and sanitation. The projects targets areas include; Busega, Mutundwe (Rubaga Division), Kibuye and Ggaba (Makindye Division) as well as limited activities with the groups in Central Division.

·         It will bring equitable and sustainable access; to shelter for 180 people, to water (6300), sanitation (10 000) and hygiene (37 000) for a total of 53 300 people.

·         It  will bring vocational business skills training for 90 selected women and youths that will be trained in WASH/housing related business initiatives, for example solid waste management and managing communal toilets viably.

·         It will strengthen partnerships and coalitions engaging and influencing housing and WASH related policies programs and practices.

·         It will enhance civic engagement of Government and urban private sector in coordination, integration financing, and good governance for sustainable and equitable WASH and housing service delivery.

·         It will strengthen organizational and management capacity of participating institutions and target community groups.

This is being achieved through the following strategies in place; partnerships, capacity building, lobbying and advocacy, mainstreaming, HRBA, service delivery/ construction of facilities and information sharing.

As a result the project will lead to; increased access to safe, healthy and decent housing and improved access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene for slum dwellers in Kampala, strengthened partnerships and coalitions influencing housing and WASH related policies programs and practices and enhanced good governance for sustainable and equitable WASH and housing service delivery.

This project is funded by We Effect and WaterAid. More information on these partners can be found at: www.weeffect.org and http://www.wateraid.org/where-we-work/page/uganda

More information at www.ssauganda.org

Promoting Housing Rights Awareness in Uganda’s Informal Settlements; a project by SSA: UHSNET

This project aims at an empowered network engaging in policies programmes and practices for the sustainable improvement of Uganda’s informal settlements in Uganda/ East Africa. 

The project is funded by We Effect (formerly Swedish Cooperative Center) as part of their Housing Programme titled: "The Right to Adequate Housing in East Africa". More on we effect at: http://www.weeffect.org/

The purpose of the project is to raise awareness and conscious actions to the improved living conditions in informal settlements. 

The project is empowering communities with awareness to improve their situations and make a difference in their housing. 

The project aims to demonstrate to government that the support of communities that have recognized their roles and are willing to work under a self help approach is sustainable and desirable for all. 

The project will ensure the promotion of sustainable community approaches that can be replicated in different areas of Uganda and that can address specifically the issues of the informal settlements in the ten (10) districts that will be engaged in the project.

This project is a right based project that aims at lobbying government to honor its obligations to communities specifically the informal settlements. This will be done through increased awareness and demanding for accountability in the housing sector and advocating for the right to adequate human settlements for all in Uganda. 

Some of the key issues of the project include:

·         Engagement with government and key duty bearers to advocate towards change in policy and legislation as a network

·         Engagement with communities to identify relevant modes of interventions that are sustainable

·         Building capacity of members and stakeholders to engage in effective advocacy, and housing interventions

·         Facilitated knowledge management to provide a clear direction and information for housing in Uganda.

The direction of the project emphasizes the advocacy and capacity building past successes to better serve the target population of the network. 

The project also seeks to maintain and develop regional partnerships that can increase cross border advocacy towards the housing agenda.

MORE INFORMATION CAN BE FOUND AT:  www.ssauganda.org

The Housing Situation in Uganda

      A FEW FACTS ABOUT UGANDA’S HOUSING SITUATION.

·         National Population is estimated at 37 Million people with a growth averaging 3.5% per year

·         It was estimated (2012) that Uganda has about 6.82 million households living in 6.2 million housing units with an average household size of 5.0 persons.

·         The national occupancy density is estimated at 1.1 household per housing unit, giving a total backlog of 710,000 housing units. 

·         There is also a backlog of about 900,000 housing units as a result of sub-standard houses and structures which were never meant for human habitation. Out of a total backlog of 1.6 million housing units, about 210,000 units are in urban areas while 1.395 million units are in rural areas.

·         The annual need for new housing for the entire country is estimated at 200,000 (two hundred housing units) of which 135,000 are rural and 65,000 in urban areas resulting from the population growth of 3.5% national and 5% urbanization.

·         The construction rate of reasonably good houses is estimated at 40,000 housing units in the rural areas and 20,000 in urban areas.