In Ouagadougou, Yaam Solidarité supports vulnerable communities in rehabilitating their homes while promoting the use of local, sustainable construction materials.
Within the framework of the project « Living and living better in the non-housed areas », driven by the NGO Craterre, urbaMonde supports Yaam Solidarity in developing a partnership strategy and consolidating its role in urban development and the production of dignified and sustainable housing in Burkina Faso. Housing improvements in informal settlements are carried out using an approach that promotes the use of local and sustainable materials.
In Burkina Faso, as in many other African countries, uncontrolled urbanisation and a severe shortage of urban housing have led to widespread informal development and significant land insecurity in the housing sector. Yet housing policies focus primarily on the middle class, private home ownership, and the formal sector. Consideration of the issues surrounding informal housing and the needs of the most disadvantaged populations is virtually nonexistent in public policy at both the national and local levels. Furthermore, the relevant statistical data is incomplete. Yet, according to 2018 data from UN-Habitat, 57% of Burkina Faso’s urban population lives in informal settlements, and 21% of households live in unallotted areas.
The project, therefore, aims to meet the needs of the informal settlements in Ouagadougou. In particular, it supports the implementation of financial mechanisms, land, and organisational structures that are likely to strengthen the capacity of the inhabitants of the informal settlement of Boassa (district 7 of Ouagadougou) to own and develop their living environment. This is how housing improvements in informal settlements are carried out.
The establishment of a revolving fund, managed by the Federation of the inhabitants of Burkina Faso, formalised in 2020, and powered by the savings of the inhabitants, is the result of this work.
Towards a confederation of the WAEMU region
The project also includes a multi-country component that aims to network existing residents’ federations in West Africa to promote the exchange of practices and advocacy for the right to decent housing in informal settlements across the sub-region.
Initially bringing together the residents’ federations of Senegal (FSH), Burkina Faso, and Guinea-Bissau, along with their supporting NGOs (urbaSEN, Yaam Solidarité, and Grdr respectively), the initiative gained momentum and gradually incorporated emerging federations from five other French-speaking West African countries: Benin, Togo, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, and Niger. In March 2022, in Canchungo, Guinea-Bissau, an initial expanded meeting of representatives from these eight residents’ federations laid the foundations for a confederation within the WAEMU zone.
The process of strengthening this confederation, known as C8, is now continuing in conjunction with the project’s activities, under the leadership of urbaSEN and the Senegalese Federation of Residents, whose work was recognised with the gold medal at the World Habitat Awards in 2023. UrbaMonde is supporting this initiative by helping to build capacity and developing communication and advocacy tools for the national federations and the confederation.
The « Living and living better in the non-housed areas » project will enter its third phase in 2026, funded by the French Development Agency.
