Urban Statistics
GDP Growth
- US$: 62.36 billion
Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index
-
Population
- 6.155 million
Urban Population
- 85%
Population Growth Rate
- 0.8%
Urbanization Growth Rate
- 1.1%
Youth Population (15-32)
- 32.4%
Proportion of Urban Population Living in Slum Areas
-
Refugee population and Asylum seekers (% of urban population)
- 64000 (HNO, 2018)
IDPs Population (% of urban population)
- 179400 (DTM, April 2018)
Land and Urban Planning Management and design
The total area of Libya is about 1.75 million km2, more than 90% of the total land area is desert or semi-deseRT. The most convenient lands for living in Libya are in the coastal cities of Tripoli and Benghazi regions, while the vast areas in the south are characterized with a harsh desert environment with few oases and valleys. Most of this land is not suitable for any kind of development because it is arid and divergent, except the areas where oases and valleys are located. Given the limited nature of land convenient for living, this has led to an existing conflict between urban development and agricultural land in Tripoli and Benghazi regions.
The challenges can be detailed as follow:
- Lack of detailed plans approved (2000 up to now) for expansions in urban areas, which caused confusion and delay in the implementation of the technical and social infrastructure projects, in accordance with the second planning phase.
- Failure of laws and regulations related to urban planning and development to keep pace with the construction boom and time requirements.
Adequate and affordable housing
Although the Government has tried to address the problem of the adequate and affordable housing to the nations over the past 25 years, the progress is slow, and the problem of "informal settlements" is still growing. The challenges today is to fill the missing link between the delivery system of affordable housing and the low-income communities, together with the long term commitments of the Government and private sectors who involved in the housing industry to resolve massive housing problem at the same time, seeking a balance between shareholder value and social responsibility.
Libya suffers from a severe housing shortage, particularly in urban areas, where housing programmer are mostly dominated by public social rental housing. The housing sector does not perform well when measured against either economic growth or social shelter objectives. This situation is due to a combination of a malfunctioning housing market and policy constraints impacting housing supply and demand. On the demand side, effective demand for housing is suppressed by lack of access to finance mortgage market and the absence of long-term investment accessible mortgage loans. The current stock of mortgage loans represents only 1% of GDP (particularly low even for an emerging economy), and housing loans to individuals remain less than loans to developers (mostly public owned).
Informal Settlements
The unstable security situation has negative repercussions on the progress of work to complete the third-generation schemes and the organization and management of land schemes, as well as on the effectiveness of regulatory authorities to monitor violations and encroachments relating to land and schemes to take the required corrective action. It is also reflected on the Prevalence of the informal settlements and land division in violation of the approved schemes, and infringements upon agricultural land, green spaces, parks, squares, sidewalks, public urban spaces, old cities, and historic and archaeological buildings and sites.
Technical Capacity on Urban Planning and Management to be enhanced
Libyan technical capacity need to be strengthened and these challenges should be addressed:
- Non-participation of stakeholders and partners from the private and public sectors and local authorities and the absence of public participation in the development of schemes and facilitation of review.
- Centralized decision-making and lack of updated laws and legislation relating to urban planning and management of urban land.
- Absence of sectorial and local strategies and lack of future vision that provides a broad base to discuss the programs and policies of higher authorities.