This publication is part of the activities of the Global Network for Sustainable Housing (GNSH) managed by the UN-Habitat Housing Unit. The handbook presents practical solutions to outgrow accessibility barriers for persons with disabilities and older persons in the contexts of slum upgrading, reconstruction, large-scale affordable and social housing programmes. 

This handbook aims to bridge the existing gap between the needs and rights of persons with disabilities and older persons with slum upgrading, reconstruction, large-scale affordable and social housing programmes. Through the provision of concepts, major policy approaches, practical information and technical tools, the handbook intends to build capacity regarding designing and implementing accessibility in identified contexts. Likewise, it brings into light the implication and the global importance of developing accessibility of sustainable human settlements.

It is a reality that providing adequate housing to millions of low income households globally and particularly in urban centers is one of the greatest challenges facing present-day society. In Liberia, meeting this challenge would require constructing a new dwelling every five minutes until 2030.

To contribute towards addressing this challenge, the Liberia Housing Profile offers a comprehensive in-depth analysis of the urban housing sector. The Profile contributes to the creation of a framework that enables provision of adequate housing for all. It builds a comprehensive understanding of the functioning of the urban housing sector that can serve as an authoritative reference point for all actors involved in the direct provision or enablement of housing in Liberia.

It provides a series of recommendations for policy design to the key stakeholders in the housing delivery system, including prioritized actions necessary for its improvement.

Access to adequate housing is a fundamental human right and is enshrined in numerous international agreements and conventions. Yet millions of women and men continue to live in towns and cities without security of tenure and with inadequate housing and related services. This guide’s objectives are:

• To increase understanding of gender concerns and needs in housing and slum upgrading 
• To develop capacity to address gender issues in this area 
• To encourage the integration of a gender perspective into policies, projects, and programmes for sustainable urban development 
• To support the institutionalization of the culture of gender mainstreaming and gender equality, the implementation of gender-sensitive projects and programmes, and the monitoring of gender-mainstreaming progress.

The lack of recognition of the right of self-determination and the large-scale dispossession and degradation of their lands, resources and territories has had a devastating effect on indigenous peoples’ livelihoods, cultures and overall socio-economic conditions. Widespread poverty and destitution flowing from this has had a significant impact on their housing. Indigenous peoples often lack security of tenure and live constantly with the threat of forced eviction from their homes and/or lands. In some countries, indigenous peoples are often found in over-crowded houses that are in poor condition and that often have neither schools nor hospitals nearby. Indigenous women and men face discrimination in most aspects of housing. Housing and development policies and programmes either discriminate against indigenous peoples directly or have discriminatory effects. The loss of traditional lands andhousing contributes to the increased migration of indigenous peoples to urban centres, where barriers to adequate housing (such as unemployment/poverty, discrimination, and lack of affordable and adequate housing) are particularly acute.

Indigenous women in particular often bear the brunt of these inadequate conditions. At the same time, they experience gender-specific problems, such as domestic violence, together with discrimination and inequality as a result of institutional and cultural factors. These often curtail or prohibit women’s access to, control over and the right to inherit land, property and housing. Indigenous peoples with disabilities, youth and children, elders and sexual minorities also experience greater adverse conditions in housing.

This Quick Guide proposes a range of policy and action frameworks that can steer urban development in positive directions, using the resources of knowledge and experience that exist within urban communities across Africa.

This Quick Guide 2 describes several ways of addressing low-income housing in African cities at the programme and project level. It focuses on well tried methods of improving the housing and living environments of people living in slums and informal settlements, and providing adequate housing for future generations of urban poor.

Key approaches to addressing the housing needs of the urban poor are outlined and alternative strategies are considered for what to do about existing slum conditions and informal settlements, and how to avoid future slums through the production of new housing.

This Quick Guide 3 looks at the different forms of land tenure which operate in African cities and examines some of the problems and benefits of these different land tenure systems.

It discusses how land is supplied, valued, financed and sold in the formal market, how this formal market is failing to make secure, appropriate land available to their cities' low-income populations, and why the majority of Africa's urban poor are being forced to obtain land for their housing through informal land markets.

This Quick Guide 4 explores how communities facing eviction have organized themselves, and drawn on the support of community-based networks and institutions in Africa and globally to find alternatives to the destruction of their settlements.

The guide presents guidelines to help governments and policy makers to develop better formal procedures to minimize evictions and to ensure that resettlement, if inevitable, follows international standards.

The objective of this Quick Guide is to introduce some of the key concepts of housing finance and to provide a quick overview of how a housing finance system works.

The guide presents information about both the formal and informal systems of housing finance and suggests ways in which the two can be better integrated. It sets out the different kinds of housing finance, and offers tips for policy makers to enhance access to affordable housing finance especially by the urban poor.