The missing link in Hlalani Kuhle urban poor housing programme in Zimbabwe : interrogating supply and demand side instruments

Meeting the demand for adequate housing by the urban poor in cities of the developing world remains a pipe dream. This is particularly so in the Southern African region that has relied on stringent supply side instruments that prescribe stringent statutory housing standards and unaffordable development prescriptions that exclude and discourage the majority of the urban poor to participate in the formal housing market and the housing delivery processes. It has repeatedly been proven that innovations that facilitate access to suitable and properly sited land and housing financial sources and economic opportunities for the urban poor have received minimal attention from governments. This paper evaluates the Zimbabwean government’s efforts to promote the provision of housing for the urban poor in the country’s cities through Operation Live well/Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle housing programme that was adopted in 2005. The paper acknowledges efforts by the Zimbabwean government to facilitate and substantially improve access to land for housing by allocating thousands of unserviced plots, a critical supply side instrument. It however highlights the missing link in the programme; that is the lack of facilitation for financial sources or access to income generating projects to beneficiaries of the plots, an essential demand side instrument that is vital for onsite infrastructure provision and plot development