Report to the joint intergovernmental regional committee on human settlements and environment on trends and problems that have emerged from the application in Africa of the global strategy for shelter to the year 2000

Abstract

Housing needs estimated by the United Nations on the basis of population growth and the rate of occupancy of 1.5 households per dwelling unit- puts the number of dwellings that should be constructed in Africa per year at eight to 10 dwellings per 1000 inhabitants, A survey conducted by the United Nations on the Global Housing Situation1/ estimates the rate of shelter construction in Africa to be between two to three dwellings per 1000 inhabitants per year, This means that there is a substantial deficit at present and explains the high level of overcrowding of dwellings in Africa of about 40 per cent and even 50 per cent in some countries.