Providing access to land for low-income groups in sub-Saharan African cities: using a partnership model and good governance principles to improve customary land allocation in Lusaka, Zambia

Figures & data

Figure 1. Housing finance and land titling influences on informal growth

Source: Author based on literature

Figure 2. Locations of Zambia and Lusaka City, respectively, highlighting the boundary between statutory urban and peri-urban areas

Figure 3. Urban sprawl situation caused by formal and informal land use changes

Source: Japan International Development Cooperation Agency Study Team (2009)

Table 1. Respondent institutions

Institution	Selection rationale
Department of Physical Planning	A central government department, responsible for human settlement development planning. This responsibility is carried out in conjunction with local authorities.
Department of Housing and Infrastructure Development	A central government department responsible for facilitation of urban housing and infrastructure development.
National Housing Authority	A state owned enterprise created to facilitate low income housing development and clearing of squatter areas to plan for their upgrading and redevelopment.
Lusaka City Council Planning Authority	Prepares urban structure plans and implements housing development programmes and strategies, as well as development control.
Ministry of Lands	Responsibility for statutory land administration.
Zambia National Building Society	A state owned enterprise formed to provide real estate and banking services to the general public.
UN-Habitat	An agency of the UN mandated by the General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all.
Habitat for Humanity	A non-profit, Christian organisation, which seeks to eliminate housing poverty and homelessness by making shelter a matter of conscience and action. Its approach to housing delivery for families in need is based on partnership.
Zambia Land Alliance	Network of local NGOs that work and seek fair land policies and laws that take into account the interests of the poor. Among many other interests, the organisation exists to promote secured access, ownership and control over lands, for development by the urban and rural poor through lobbying, networking and advocacy.
Civic Forum on Housing and Habitat	An NGO which looks at the issues of housing and habitat in terms of laws and policy issues. It plays the advocacy for changes in policy and practice by actively engaging local and central government institutions and offering support to the poor urban communities to plan and implement their own solutions to the challenges of land and housing inadequacies.
Entrepreneurial Financial Centre	Microfinancing institution which provide mortgage facilities to both formal and informal housing applicants. This is against a setting that most lending institutions in Zambia only offer mortgages based on official title deeds and related documentations. But the kind of people which the Entrepreneurial Financial Centre targets are not for all intents and purposes the high income group that can easily access loans from financial institutions. An innovation in mortgage loaning of interest to the study include, the ‘home improvement loan facility’ which capture real concerns of low-income home developers. The arrangement provides borrowers without the necessary documents with the option of using relatives or friends, as guarantors. The loan is given directly to the recipient, but in a default situation, the guarantor becomes liable for the debt.
Meanwood Property Development Corporation	A leading land development company in Lusaka.
University of Zambia	Offers academic courses related to urban planning and housing.

Japan International Cooperation Agency Study Team. 2009. The study on comprehensive urban development plan for the city of Lusaka in The Republic of Zambia Draft Final Report – Summary. Tokyo: Kri International Corp.

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