Community-Led Habitat Awards for Africa 2019

The Community-Led Habitat Awards for Africa recognize inspiring habitat solutions from across the continent with the aim to advocate for the expansion of community-led housing. The Awards are a joint initiative by SDI, World Habitat and UrbaMonde implemented through the CoHabitat Network.

A call for contributions open to resident-led or grassroots organizations was issued in March 2019 across the SDI Network and beyond in three categories: Best Project, Best Partnership and Best Video Award.

The winners are:

• Best Project. The Walukuba Material Building Training Center (Uganda) is a social enterprise and a resource center for Incremental Upgrading and sustainable building materials in Jinja. The project was established by National Slum Dwellers Federation of Uganda (NSDFU), ACTogether and SDI, and is self-managed by the Jinja community.

• Best Project. The Dzivarasekwa Slum Upgrading Project (Zimbabwe) is a housing project based in the community of Dzivarasekwa extension. This projects forms part of the greater Harare Slum Upgrading Project which is being implemented by the alliance of the Zimbabwe Homeless People’s Federation and Dialogue on Shelter for the Homeless Trust, in partnership with the City of Harare and the Zimbabwe central government benefitting 480 families in terms of access to land for housing development, leading to secure tenure and provision of adequate water and sanitation facilities among other essential services.

• Best Project. The Home Improvement/Upgrading Project in Flood-prone areas (Senegal) is a home improvement and reconstruction program stewarded through the federation’s revolving fund, benefitting to date more than 300 households who were able to improve and rebuild their homes

• The winner in the Best Partnership category is Namibia for "A Multiple Partnership Approach for Community-led Housing and Services in Namibia.” Partners include: Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia, Namibia Housing Action Group, Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST), Local, Regional and National Government of Namibia, and private sector.

  

• There was a very close call in the Best Short Film category, where the Nigeria and Kenya KYC.TV teams tied as winners of the Audience Award, with each team mobilizing over a thousand votes. The award for overall Best Film was given to Nigeria, for their film “Undevelopment: Forced Evictions in Nigeria,” with a special mention to Uganda for their submission.

An Awards Ceremony and peer exchange will be organized during the UN Habitat Assembly in Nairobi on May 29th to showcase the winning projects and to enhance experience sharing between peers.