Development and prototyping of low-cost housing solutions for Kigali's informal settlements
Context
The City of Kigali and the Ministry of Infrastructure have accelerated the implementation of a national strategy aimed at ensuring universal access to essential services by 2050 through the rehabilitation of so-called "precarious" or "informal" neighborhoods. As part of this strategy, the city has launched projects in several priority neighborhoods, notably Rwezamenyo, Nyakabanda and Kagugu, through the Kigali Informal Neighborhood Improvement Project (KISUP), which is receiving substantial funding from AFD. This project will improve primary infrastructure (roads, public lighting, public spaces) and build or rehabilitate a number of social and community facilities in the neighborhoods (schools, health centers, water points, green spaces, sports fields, markets, etc.).
Alongside these investments, Rwandan institutions are looking at ways to prevent the most precarious households from being evicted as a result of gentrification, and to maintain a supply of low-cost housing in the neighborhoods.
Objective
In this context, the aim of this mission was to enlighten the Rwandan government and the city of Kigali on the solutions that could be deployed to this end. It was thus intended to 1/ pre-define the objectives and content of the housing component of the KISUP project, and 2/ formulate recommendations for scaling up these solutions as part of the Rwandan government's national housing policy.
Our contribution
Carried out in partnership with the NGO GRET and the architectural firm ASA (based in Kigali), the mission enabled us to :
- Carry out a diagnosis of the characteristics and dynamics of the housing market in the two neighborhoods targeted by the study, and identify initial operational solutions,
- Identify bottlenecks in the public policy framework and make recommendations to enable the implementation and scaling-up of solutions,
- Prototype solutions (architectural principles, operational and financial arrangements) in consultation with local stakeholders, and define a strategy for experimentation in the two districts.
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