 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|||||||||
* DOCUMENT : 14
Report
for
April
6, 2005 at La Palm Royal Beach Hotel,
on
Affordable
Housing in
Introduction:
The meeting took place at La-Palm Royal Beach Hotel in
Before the meeting started the “uninvited” guests who were
attending the conference (mostly federation members) were invited to
move forward and sit at the larger discussion table.
After the move, federation members were sitting elbow-to-elbow
with representatives from HFC Bank, T.U.C., and various consultants. Sitting at the same table were the Director
of Rural Housing, representatives of SSNIT, as well as members from
the Ministry of Works and Housing’s Policy Planning, Budgeting Monitoring
& Evaluation Committee. Already,
People’s Dialogue and the Ghana Homeless People’s Federation had achieved
a major goal: here were people from slums in
Mr.
James Hokans, CHF Development and Finance Expert- CHF Findings:
The meeting began with a presentation of CHF’s findings by
James Hokans. Early in his presentation
Hokans stressed that policy needs to emerge that promotes community,
government, and private sector participation and that a broader range
of people from a much broader range of incomes must have access to sustainable
finance. After highlighting
He immediately emphasized that the informal sector is completely
neglected with respect to housing policy and finance and that in a country
where 80% of the population works in the informal sector (down from
88% in the early 1990s) this is unacceptable.
He also mentioned that to his knowledge the informal sector was
not well organized but that this might be improving.
Hokans then posed the question what does affordability even mean?
and affordable to whom? In a
country where 27% of the population lives in extreme poverty and 39%
of the population lives below the poverty line, most people cannot afford
to buy a new house let alone afford finance and lending.
Hokan’s also spoke on population trends, specifically mentioning
that Ghana was rapidly urbanizing and that this was clearly leading
to the growth of informal urban settlements and slums such as those
in Old Fadama.
Speaking on lending institutions, Hoken’s explained that organized
communities need to work with community and rural banks that in turn
should work with larger banks. Unfortunately
lending rates from all financial institutions were still too high to
help the large majority of Ghanaians looking to own houses and that
realistically, under the current systems, only 5% of the population
in
Some of Hokan’s recommendations for alleviating the housing
crunch and providing affordable and adequate housing to a much broader
spectrum of people, including those in the informal sector and those
living in slums, are listed below and were repeated often by the various
panelists at the conference.
-lower costs on development driven projects (using local materials,
local consultants, local labor etc.)
-facilitate informal settlement upgrading
-microfinance institutions and community based savings schemes
must be started and aided by other established financial institutions
-more communication and a stronger link between banks and community
banks and the communities and people they serve.
-Banks must focus on low-income financial needs.
Hokans
also spoke at length on the importance of:
-Incremental Housing and Progressive
housing
-community-led settlement upgrading
-community organization especially
in slums and the informal sector
In large part Hokans’s presentation
was an explanation of why organizations like PDG and GHPF must emerge
in the informal world and that organizations like these and small micro
finance strategies were key in creating affordable and adequate housing
for all tiers of society. He
was very supportive of PDG and GHPF strategy and process and CHF’s findings
and suggestions were very promising for our organizations.
Dr.
Kwame Amoako Tufuor, Special Advisor to the President:
Dr. Tufour wished the participants
in the round-table discussion the best but said he had to leave to meet
with the President.
Mr.
Kwame Pianim, Economic Consultant:
Mr. Pianim spoke briefly but made several
salient points. Like Mr. Hokans,
Mr. Pianim also raised the question of what affordability meant. He also mentioned how the creation of affordable
housing went hand in hand with economic growth and development through
the creation of jobs. He also
mentioned that he was pleased with the concept of People’s Dialogue
and was happy to see people from the informal sector represented at
a formal event.
Hon.
Cecilia Dapaah, Deputy Minister of Works and Housing:
Hon. Dapahh spoke first on the rapid urbanization of society.
Early on in her presentation the Deputy Minister also suggested
three changes which needed to be made: 1)the financial sector and the
formal sector in general must be induced to help poor, 2) target change
to effect people who live below the poverty line, and 3) NGOs and community
organizations need to work together with the government and private
sector to improve informal settlements (Community participation in slum-upgrading).
She also spoke about ¢200,000,000 being used to embark on a new
National Housing Board Scheme and later praised the land bank system.
At the end of her presentation she also stated that we should
desist on building on or around waterways [Old Fadama comes to mind].
Mrs.
Staphanie Baeta-Ansah, Managing Director of HFC Bank:
Mrs. Staphanie Baeta_Ansah made many
suggestions and had many criticisms about housing in
Hon.
Theresa Tagoe, Deputy Minister of Lands:
Hon. Tagoe mentioned the problems associated
with customary land ownership which dominates
Mr.
Farouk R. Braimah, People’s Dialogue
Farouk then spoke on People’s Dialogue and the Ghana Homeless
People’s Federation. We were
planning on criticizing the CHF report for including very little on
the informal sector, but as most of the issues we wanted to bring up
had been mentioned and several of the previous speakers highlighted
the need for the informal sector and the slums to organize, Farouk seized
the opportunity to introduce PDG and GHPF as just that type of organization.
Comments
Section:
Dr.
Ohene Sarfoh, IHS A&A:
Ohene spoke about the absence of reliable housing data and
the lack of coordination among the government’s ministries and how this
led to the absence of a national housing strategy.
He also criticized the government for doing very little to promote
housing for the poor especially slum dwellers.
A representative from GHPF from Tulaku, Ashaiman, explained
GHPF and gave some statistics on the federation, including its size
and total savings and stressed that the GHPF was motivated and that
members were trying to improve their own lives through the federation. Mr. Pianim responded that the government
would probably be interested in learning more about such an institution.
Habitat
for Humanity:
A rep from Habitat for Humanity suggested
that Habitat could build a starter core house for around $1,500, (speakers
were visibly impressed), but went on to explain that government needed
to do more for Habitat and the housing situation in general and lift
some of the constraints to building.
Fuseini further stressed the importance
of the Federation to the urban poor and talked about how hard these
people were saving; ¢1,000 a day, ¢2,000 a day for more than one year
now. He again urged that the urban poor were trying
to help themselves so the government should aid them in some way. He also talked further about the federation
as an international network and mentioned that through the federation
he and other slum dwellers were able to travel to Kenya, Thailand etc.
to see how other people in informal settlements were improving their
lives (Speakers were visibly impressed).
Salomey addressed the panel in Ga and
spoke about how the government must include the informal sector in planning,
policymaking, and construction of housing in
A
Discussion on Land Banks followed…
Lunch:
For lunch the GHPF and People’s Dialogue
asked for lunch invitations from the conference, even though only Mr.
Farouk was invited. Dr. Judith Hermanson, Senior Vice President CHF
International, obliged and all of the members were given meal tickets. GHPF members were then able to enjoy a buffet-style
lunch served in La Palm –Royal Beach Hotel. Drinks were also served. Federation members ate together while Farouk
spoke with the Rep. From Habitat for humanity who mentioned how habitat
was finding it difficult to work in urban areas because of the absence
of the familial social support networks in the rural communities but
that with organizations like GHPF it might be easier.
Mr. Hokans also expressed his support for the steps GHPF and
PDG were taking.
The Deputy Minister of Works and
Housing and the Deputy Minister of Lands expressed interest in PDG
and requested PDG to expose them to what the Federation and PDG is all
about and to take them on an exposure to see the practical manifestation
of what we actually do.
Dr.
Judith Hermanson, Senior Vice President CHF International:
Dr. Hermanson opened the second half
of the panel discussion by giving an overview on CHF. In her presentation she stressed that CHF was
very interested in housing micro finance, formalizing informal housing,
giving women a larger role in development, and maximizing community
resources. She also seemed to suggest that CHF provides
financial assistance to NGOs which are in line with CHF’s priorities,
which PDG and GHPF very much are.
Dr.
David Andah, Executive Secretary Ghana Microfinance Institutions Network:
Dr. Andah’s presentation seemed very
pertinent to PDG and GHPF. He
began by saying that commercial banks’ financing has always been short
term and that they lend short term.
Commercial Banks are not interested in helping low-income housing
because there isn’t enough profit involved.
This means that almost all microfinance institutions that help
the poor get their funding from donor institutions (like PD and GHPF).
One reason is that although banks have lots of money, they have
little expertise in microfinance and helping the poor and are unwilling
to risk it. For this reason, banks tend not to lend to NGO’s.
At the same time, banks, Dr. Andah says, believe that “NGO’s
can’t be trusted.” NGOs have virtually no assets or collateral
because it all comes from donors, so the bank has no guarantee if an
NGO fails to pay back a loan. Dr.
Andah expressed the need for some form of guarantee system to emerge
whereby commercial banks can trust NGOs.
A rating system of sorts should also be created.
Another problem, Mr. Andah explained, was how many microfinance
institutions haven’t made themselves known and that their returns are
much better, but banks don’t know this (this seems relevant to PDG and
GHPF as this was the first time the organizations really appeared at
a political event). He urged the government to create a common poor
fund that organizations could access and also spoke on affordable housing
bonds. With regret, he revealed
that interest rates for microfinance loans are always higher because
of the lack of a guarantee and that these interest rates made loans
unaffordable. In the end he gave three suggestions to improving
the situation: 1) Direct lending to microfinance institutions, 2)Lending
based on guarantee, and 3)The government should create a common fund
which could be accessed by microfinance institutions.
Ms.
Mawusi Anyidowo, West African Coordinator for COHRE:
Ms. Anyidowo focused her discussion
presentation mostly on the judicial problems with housing. She stressed that a standard needs to be set
for people living in informal settlements and that to date the government
has no system or plan in place to deal with people living in informal
settlements or with resettlement and evictions.
Ms. Anyidowo also pointed out that there is no budget line for
affordable housing and that if housing was a priority, there should
be more money coming from the government to finance housing.
She also urged that the judiciary should be educated more about
legal issues surrounding housing and in general the importance of a
vibrant civil society. As side notes she mentioned that women should
be included in micro-finance and that there should be more communication
between the government and NGOs.
Dr.
Adusei, Ghana Consultant Team:
Dr. Sei first outlined that there is
no profit in building low income housing so the private sector would
not build affordable housing without serious incentives.
To illustrate his point, he spoke with Salomey from the Ghana
Homeless People’s Federation. He
asked her questions about how much she could afford to pay for rent
or housing every month etc. She
would respond in Ga. Farouk translated. Dr. Sei then asked representatives from HFC
bank if they could finance her, to which they responded they couldn’t.
He than asked Farouk how much he could spend on rent, which was
significantly higher, but the banks responded again that they couldn’t.
The whole affair was very engaging and allowed GHPF members to
further communicate with bankers and officials.
The whole discussion/example highlighted how few people, even
middle-class Ghanaians, could access housing today.
To allow the private sector to help with low-income housing and
the financial sector as well, Dr. Sei suggested that the government
should provide tax breaks. Finally, Dr. Sei praised PD and GHPF for attending
the meeting and said that he was honored and that it was a step in the
right direction that the people and policy makers were getting together
and discussing issues.
Mr.
William Opare, Ghana Real Estate Development Association:
Mr. Opare stated that incentives should
be created to banks and lending institutions that help low-income housing
and that we should look to use cheaper local materials in construction
low-income houses.
Mr.
James Hokans, CHF Development and Finance expert,
Mr. Hokans repeated his thoughts about
what affordability actually meant and then summarized some of the points
made during the day.
Comments:
Mr.
Ken Mensa of
HFC Bank, a SSNIT Rep., and the Director for Rural Housing
all spoke after, but the conversation drifted to abstract policy and
away from affordable housing for the poor.
Halid,
Ghana Homeless People’s Federation (Ashaiman):
In his second comment of the day and
the final comment of the conference Halid sparked an intense conversation
between panelists and the rest of the floor, particularly the rep. from
Habitat for Humanity and Dr. Adusei.
Halid urged the government and the panelists not to discount
mud-brick construction and older local building techniques.
Many were in agreement that adobe/cement hybrids were a cheap
and durable building alternative.
After
the meeting Dr. David Andah, Executive Secretary Ghana Microfinance
Institutions Network, expressed interest in working with PDG and GHPF
as well.
Conclusion:
In conclusion the event was a breakthrough
in many respects. PDG and GHPF
were exposed to Ghana’s political and financial elite and were able
to discuss issues