Housing The Urban Poor in Sudan Cities; Rethinking Current Policies and Practices
Sudan Future Conference
Future strategic vision for Sudan sustainable development
London, UK
20-21 June, 2019
The urban poor of Sudan cities struggles to access adequate housing which can maintain proper livelihood for them. The majority of urban poor still lives in slum conditions and informal settlements; facing on-going risks such as vulnerability to climate change hazards in rainy season, experiencing higher rate of diseases due to lack of adequate infrastructure, being exposed to arbitrary forced eviction actions by local government authorities that lacks appropriate relocation mechanism approaches and being victims of crimes due to absence of public authorization patterns.
The urban poor of Sudan cities struggles to access adequate housing which can maintain proper livelihood for them. The majority of urban poor still lives in slum conditions and informal settlements; facing on-going risks such as vulnerability to climate change hazards in rainy season, experiencing higher rate of diseases due to lack of adequate infrastructure, being exposed to arbitrary forced eviction actions by local government authorities that lacks appropriate relocation mechanism approaches and being victims of crimes due to absence of public authorization patterns.
On the other hand, the local government officials have not yet come up with appropriate policies that can increase the urban poor accessibility to adequate housing, the right to adequate housing have not been constitute in all national and local legislations. As well, the policies and frameworks have not taken the social, physical, natural capitals into consideration, this is obviously noted in the housing process and outcomes; as the majority of urban poor are excluded from being a part of housing policies and plans, and their natural are being neglected from housing planning process. So, most of urban poor are excluded from accessing adequate housing.
In addition, public housing projects are not fit with the socio-economic life of urban poor. Cities in Sudan are facing high rate of urbanization that challenges the government officials to come up with appropriate policies that would build up urban poor capacities, facilitate accessibility to adequate housing and create a well-structured platform to utilize local resources and capitals for the benefit of urban poor. the conference paper and presentation will examine issues associated with current housing policies and practices taking place in Sudan such as the implication of urbanization, the growing of slums, the issue of land, forced eviction and housing finance, all these issues are critically broken-down into many social, economic, legislation and natural factors for the sake of delivering alternative policies that can maximize the accessibility of low income people to adequate housing.
KHALAFALLA OMER 