By THANDIWE MOYO –
THE Civic Forum on Housing and Habitat Zambia (CFHHZ) says decent and affordable housing for all can be delivered by involving communities through the formation of housing cooperatives.
CFHHZ executive director Grace Mtonga said this during a stakeholders’ meeting held in Lusaka on Friday.
She said most of the housing units built in cities in the country by institutions such as the National Housing Authority (NHA) were not affordable to ordinary people.
“Most of the houses in Zambia are on the commercial side with prices ranging from K450,000 to around K1 million, if not above in some cases,” she said.
Ms Mtonga said social housing through formation and participation in housing cooperatives was the way out from the housing challenge mainly affecting the marginalised and the low-income earners in Zambia.
She said the housing deficit in Zambia currently stood at 1.5 million and was estimated to increase to around three million by 2030, and could be reversed or avoided by the involvement of communities through building low-cost houses.
Ms Mtonga said the overall objective of the stakeholders’ forum was to engage duty-bearers in the housing and infrastructure sector to act on the 2030 Agenda for SDG 11 and promote the concept of housing cooperatives as a vehicle for delivery affordable housing for the marginalised in Zambia.
She further said housing cooperative training and civic engagement were aimed at utilising social accountability and advocacy tools and was, therefore, an important tool towards housing.
Ms Mtongo said social accountability in this context focused on citizen action aimed at holding the State to account using strategies such as social mobilisation.
She urged communities to engage professional planners in the construction of houses to create a better environment.