Housing Development and Urban Renewal:

Integrated Approach of Inner City Revitalization:

A case study of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Wendwosen Demrew Addissie

Architect / Planner
Addis Ababa Housing Development Project Office, Ethiopia
Supervisor- Dr Rachelle Navarro
Lund University, Sweden

1 Shelter Situation Analysis of Addis Ababa

1.1 General

Addis Ababa, situated in the central part of Ethiopia was established and became the
capital city of the nation in 1886 with about 50,000 inhabitants. Since then, settlers
who came from all over the nation populated the place. Currently the population of
the city is estimated to be 3,363,114 out of which the female and male population is
51.97 % and 48.3 % respectively (FEDB, 2006). The projected rate of population
growth of the capital city is about 3.3 (FEDB, 2006). Moreover, the share of the
city’s national total urban population is about 25% (RUSPS, 2006).

Addis Ababa is a self-governing city under the federal system of the political
administration. It is a very recent occurrence that cities are given due attention in the
country’s economic development strategy. The city in its decentralized
administration has three levels; 199 kebeles at the lower level, 10 sub cities in the
middle and the city administration itself at the top.

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The ever-increasing urbanization fuelled by the high level of unemployment,

according to CSA 2004 reaching 32.1% in 2003, along with the lack and inadequacy
of housing and basic infrastructure services results poor economic development,
which define the general urban poverty characteristics of the city.

1.2 Facts on Shelter Situation of Addis Ababa

Different actors contribute to the housing supply of the city with varying intervention
types and magnitude at different times. The major interventions in the provision of
shelter however are in the form of individual housing construction, housing
cooperatives, housing schemes by governmental and non-governmental
organizations as well as through real estate developers adding up to the current
housing stock of the city. According to the census conducted by the city government
in 1995/1996, the total dwelling units were estimated to be 238,000.
Despite the fact that there is insufficient and unreliable data on current housing stock,
the city administration officially estimated the increase in housing stock, considering
the contribution of private and public housing supply, and indicated that the total
housing units reaches 449,592 in 2004 (AACA, 2004).

Based on these data of housing stock and population as well as an average family
size of 5.2 (ORAAMP, 2006), enumerations of housing deficit can be depicted.
Consequently, various studies indicated an enormous and varying gap between
demand and supply of housing, ranging between 250,000 to 450,000. However, these
results can be considered as a mere indication of quantities camouflaging the real
characteristics of the existing housing stock. Out of the total estimated existing
housing stock, 80% are found in the inner city (ACSURC, 2007) which is in an
extremely dilapidated condition needing to be replaced. According to CSA 2004;
97% of the total housing stock of the city are single storied buildings, 41% of the
housing units are overcrowded with an average number of rooms per housing unit
being 2.6 and an average of 2.1 person per room (ORAAMP, 2002), 67% of the units
lack toilet facility (CSA, 2001) and the 1994 population and housing census has
revealed that 82% of the housing units are made of wood and mud (Chicka) wall
while 53% of the units have bare soil floors. The MDG’s Urban Sector Assessment
Study (cited in AALTIDP,2005) revealed that 80% of the housing units and

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neighbourhoods are slums and that 50% of the housing units need to be replaced by
2015 to meet the MDG. These facts are supported by the shelter need assessment
conducted in the city and which is reported by the Housing Agency of the city
Administration in 2007 revealing that 453,081 citizens responded by registering to be
enlisted in the lottery system of the housing development program1. It can thus be
implied that significant proportion of these registered urban dwellers are not only
new comers in different forms to the city but are mainly those who live in areas of
inconvenient living environment described above.

Housing Tenure
A major shift of housing tenure status occurs during the 1975’s nationalization of
urban land and extra housing, which introduced not only public ownership of houses
but also changed the trend of private housing development. As a result of the
nationalization the local and federal governments (CSA, 1994) owned 37.92% of the
total housing stock. In 1991, during the change in government, few houses owned by
the federal government were privatized reducing the number of public house
ownership a few steps back to 34% (AACA, 2004). It is quiet significant to note that
the public houses owned especially by the city government, the Kebele houses, are
rented with very low price and remain the same for the last 30 years resulting in poor
housing condition due to lack of finance for basic maintenance. Paradoxically the
rate of the very low rent can be at certain places 20 times cheaper than renting a
privately owned house of the same size, quality and location. The informal housing
sector, mostly built at the periphery of the city on farmlands acquired through
purchase from the farmers, also contributes about 20 % of the total housing stock
(ORAAMPc 2001).

Housing Construction Cost and Affordability

The ever-increasing cost of construction material as well as the frequent occurrence
of shortage of supply soared the housing construction cost beyond the capacity of the
majority of the population, who earn Birr 391(a little less than 45 USD) monthly
median income in Addis Ababa (PADCO, 1997) and Curran, 2007 estimated the
current median income to be between Birr 500-525(a little less than 55 USD). The

1 The housing development program, intending to identify the beneficiaries and estimate the demand
conducted a registration followed by the announcement made public to the city dwellers.
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current cost of housing with minimum habitable construction, estimated with unit
area cost per square meter, could fall in the range of Birr 25,000-75,000 for housing
units of 20-60 square meters. These facts clearly indicate that the majority of the low
income group, the unemployed and people working in the informal sector accounting
to more than 60% are unable to afford even the down payment required which is in
the range of Birr 5,000-15,000.

Access to Basic Infrastructure

Water supply, sewerage system, solid waste management, access roads, transport,
electric and telephone services are the basic infrastructure services, which are crucial
elements, which needs to be linked with the housing sector development. In the case
of Addis Ababa, the later two are in reasonable status while the rest need intense
intervention of improvements. The coverage of water supply in the city in 2004 was
69% (AAWSA, 2004), the sewerage system of the city is able to connect only 1600
housing units (AALTIDP,2005). Similarly, the development of solid waste
management, transport and access roads are sluggish.

1.3 Housing Policy

Housing policy as any other policy is a course of action designed by government or
non-governmental body to guide interventions in certain manner and involves not
only shelter provision but also social, economical, political and cultural issues. In the
case of Addis Ababa, until recently the attention given to such policy was little to
none letting the housing development interventions to have a sporadic effect.
In 2005, however the national urban development policy was formulated and within
its framework, a national integrated urban housing program was established. In the
policy document the different actors and there roles are specified. Based on this
policy the national integrated urban housing development program deliberated a five-
year plan of constructing 396,000 low-cost housing in selected 33 major cities and
towns of the nation (IUHDP, 2005). The major actors assigned to execute this plan
are the local governments and the lion’s share of the plan, which is 192,500 housing
units, 48.6% of the total housing to be constructed, goes to the capital city Addis
Ababa. Apart from the major objective of provision of shelter, the integrated urban
housing development program has other components such as the development of
Micro and Small Enterprises, Employment generation, capacity building in the
construction industry and regeneration of inner urban areas.
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1.4 Actors in Shelter Delivery and their Roles

The individual and cooperative housing development on individual and group plots,
government intervention on low-cost housing construction and provision of rental
housing by the local and central government as well as the more recent sector of
private real-estate developers played major roles in the supply and delivery of
housing in the city. It is also appropriate to signify the role of the existing private
houses, regardless of their type and size, which nowadays are the major suppliers of
rental units to citizens who cannot afford to join the housing market to buy or
construct their own new dwellings. Similarly, despite the continuous treats of
eviction, the informal settlements continue to play their role in the housing supply,
which was estimated a few years ago to be more than 60,000 units.

1.5 Shelter Design and Development

Most part of the inner and intermediate area of the city undergoes rather sporadic
development long before the relatively recent structure plan is prepared and put to be
acted upon. Along with the structure plan, supplementary regulatory framework is
placed to guide the development of the city, such as building construction and height
regulations, environmental protection and strategic investment area plans, etc.
However, it is often seen that the existing consolidated settlements within these areas
have little in common with the envisaged structure plan often hinder and create
challenges to development activities.
Although some unique features and styles are displayed in certain old buildings, it is
difficult to categorize the design of shelter in the city in certain styles or pattern.
Mostly it involves vernacular type architecture with the special arrangement and
material usage determined by sheer availability and cost minimization. Many of the
dwellings constructed before two decades where of mud and wooden single storey
structures with corrugated iron sheet roof covers, which persevere in some part of the
city particularly in informal settlements without any material modifications or
development. Recently these main building construction materials are replaced by
reinforced concrete structures, concrete blocks and at a lesser extent bricks and other
building materials.
A typical layout of an individual dwelling plot is composed of the main building at
the front, service rooms at the back with a kitchen yard in-between and a front yard

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depending on the size of the plot. Moreover, the common part of every dwelling is
the fence around the plot signifying the typical characteristics of privacy and sense of
security. This typical feature of an individual private dwelling plot layout applies to
almost all levels of social groups with few exceptions. However, the development of
the layout usually reaches its complete form incrementally. Due to lack of access to
financial institutions and low level of income, the service rooms with simple row
type units are the first stage along with the fence to be constructed. In addition, in
many cases the single or basic rooms gradually will continue to extend forming a
linear or random development within the plots. The extension of rooms creates an
opportunity of extra income to the households through renting the extended rooms.
This opportunity often becomes an alternative way of financing the extension of new
rooms or the main building for the household. Apart from the benefits gained by the
households this extension of rooms within existing compound becomes a substantial
source of shelter to many city dwellers who cannot afford to buy or construct their
own dwellings and don not have access to land.

2 The Addis Ababa Integrated Housing Development

Project Office
The city, with its ever-increasing population of about 4 million is entrapped with the
manifold challenges of urbanization like, high level of unemployment, shortage of
housing, congested living conditions of slums, inadequate sanitation, etc. In 2004,
attempting to address these urban challenges, the city government launched the
Grand Housing Project with specific objectives of regenerating slum areas,
development of Micro and small enterprises (MSEs) and consequently create large
number of employment, promotion of cost efficient housing construction technology,
provision of decent affordable housing & insuring tenure security through ownership.
Unlike many other programs and proposals envisaged only to remain on paper, the
grand housing program got the chance of reaching the stage of implementation due to
the high commitment of the local government.
To this end, the city government of Addis Ababa established the new Housing
Development Project Office under the city government administration and lead by
board of directors to execute the grand housing program. The cabinet of the city

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decided to allocate the largest share of annual financial budget to go to the project
office. The annual budget allocated for the year 2006/2007 was Birr 1.2 billion
(about 135 million USD). The board of directors is assigned by the mayor of the
city consisting of members and higher officials of Federal Ministry of Urban
Development & Works, the City Manager’s office, Commercial Bank of Ethiopia,
Land Development and Administration Authority, Water and Sewerage Authority,
Finance and Economic Development Bureau, Micro and Small Enterprises
Development Office, Justice Bureau and the Addis Ababa Integrated Housing
Development Project Office. The combination of all these organizations, which are
the major stakeholders of the project activity, is thought to be serving the cause of
the project directly in making decisions in an integrated manner. The Addis Ababa
Integrated Housing Development Project Office, established and assigned by the city
government as an implementing body has the following structure;

Fig.1 Organizational structure of Addis Ababa Housing Development Project Office

Board of Directors Audit

Department

Training Center G/ Manager Plan & Program

Service

Construction Sector Housing Transfer Agrostone Production Support Sector

Deputy G/ Manager Deputy G/ Manager Center Coordination
Deputy G/ Manager Deputy G/ Manager

Housing Documentation Agrostone MgO

Transfer Department Factory Factory
Department

10 Sub-City Land Supply, Construction Micro & Small

Logistics & Finance &
Branch Infrastructure & Quality scale Enterprise
purchase Administration
Project and Design Control Development
Department Department
Offices Department Department Department

The implementation of the first grand housing development project play an essential
role in creating feedback mechanism for evaluation and observation of various
integrated smaller projects laying foundation not only for future improvement of the
original plan but also became a national program and replicated to 33 other cities of
the nation under the national integrated urban housing development plan. So far, in
the grand housing project 32,378 housing units are at its final stage of construction.
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Apart from this the spread effect of the project has managed to establish 1,566
MSEs in various activities of the construction industry, generated about 38,000
skilled, semi-skilled & daily labour employment opportunities and created various
opportunities for capacity building in the form of on job trainings for technical and
vocational training institutes (TVET) & professionals engaged on the project. The
Integrated Urban Housing Development Project of Addis Ababa has continued its
second phase of the overall four-year plan of producing 200,000 housing units by
launching the construction of 33,000 housing units within the city in May 2007.

3 Shelter Problem Identification

The trend of population increase of the city with an annual growth of 3.3% (FEDB,
2006), due to both rural-urban migration and natural growth, lead to an inevitable
horizontal expansion the city. The sprawl development eventually demands new
infrastructure works investment such as; extension of roads, basic services of water,
telephone and electricity power supply, Sewerage treatment, transport network, etc.
This kind of development will also require various types of social services like
educational and health facilities, policing and other municipal services located within
the neighborhoods to ease the difficulty of accessing these facilities. These new
development activities and services require considerable amount of public
investment, which usually turns out to be insufficient, and not included in priority list
of budget allocation plans. However, the consolidated and saturated inner part of the
city, housing the majority of the urban poor along with the concentrated business
activities and services, is in no condition to be considered as a better place to live and
work. These places; with dilapidated structures, overcrowding and inadequate
infrastructure services have become slum areas for decades without improvement
and are mostly beyond the point of repair. Global and national information indicate
that the level of slum in the city is much worse than in most developing nations. The
lack of basic infrastructure coverage of the city compared to other cities is at a higher
level, 85% in Addis Ababa, 70% in Dar Selaam, and 40% in Mexico City (Action
Planning for Cites, Nabeel Hamdi, and Reinhad Geothert). More than 80% of the
urban area is categorized as slum, (UHRLI, 2005). About 40% of the housing stock
of the city is rental dwellings owned by local and central government, which are
confiscated three decades ago and remained without maintenance. Close to 97% of
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the dwellings are of single storey, about 82% of the housing units are constructed by
mud and wood structure and 67% of total housing units lack toilet facility
(FEDB,2006). These figures and facts portray the general condition of living in most
part of the inner city.
Despite the inevitable and intricate challenges, containing urban growth and
development in the inner city, where the urban problems persevere most, is a daring
effort to be made but advantageous in many aspects. Among which, effective
utilization of valuable inner city urban land with proper density, avoiding eviction
and maintaining the social network and livelihood, revitalizing the area as well as the
city economy, improve the image of the cityscape, etc. The integrated urban housing
development program of Addis Ababa, with its potential opportunity of the full-scale
support and considerable budget allocation by the City Administration, the Federal
Government, the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia and other financial institutions could
boost the revitalization of the inner city through collaboration of 2private developers,
the community and other stakeholders.

To this end the shelter problem identified in this paper is how to exploit the
opportunity created by the large scale urban housing development scheme within
high value locations of the city, and at the same time retain the urban dwellers in
these inner city development areas without disrupting their livelihood and long
established social network, which they very much depend upon.

The challenges encountered during the implementation of the first phase of about
32,000 housing units project generated valuable lesson to be considered in the next
phases to be executed, particularly within the inner city. Unfortunately, the second
and third phase of the project did not continue in the inner city to be able to see the
faults corrected. Instead, the projects are pushed away to the out skirt of the city due
to lack of vacant land at the inner city and apprehension to the challenges of
revitalization. Moreover, this paper will highlight the advantages of inner city
renewal and recommend an inclusive and participatory approach of inner city
integrated housing development, against the continuation of the program at the
periphery.

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4 Proposal for Change and Improvement

The main objective of this proposal is to amalgamate the opportunity of the large-
scale housing development project with the long overdue inner city revitalization
through an inclusive and participatory approach. And the following are identified as
specific goals, which are to be achieved during the course of implementation;

 To improve considerably the dilapidated living condition of the inner city

dwellers through the provision of new and better housing. The improvement in
shelter situation shall also incorporate the improvement of infrastructure within the
area.
 To create sense of security to the inner city dwellers who lacks formal
ownership status and provide a chance to acquire an asset.
 To maintain and uplift the livelihood of the inner city low-income dwellers.
 To maintain the existing social network
 To provide incentives and efficient service delivery for the potential private
developers to encourage investment in the proposed area
 To use the opportunity to change the image of the city
 To use the scarce urban land economically
 To create various public forums and empower the major stakeholders in the
development process.

The later however, are the short-term goal and is the focus of this paper to start
the implementation and go forward to achieve the long-term goals. The proposal will
focus on establishing and increasing the level of participation of all stakeholders,
particularly the direct beneficiaries, the community living within the proposed
project areas and potential developers. The participation shall start at the planning
level and various floors of discussion, sharing ideas and interests, debating on issues
shall be provided and updates and improvements will be incorporated in the
preliminary proposals provided to the public. In the end, this process intends to
empower the direct beneficiaries and the potential developers of the proposed area to
own the project, involve in the process of implementation and monitor each activity.
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Housing Development and Urban Renewal

SWOT – Inner City Housing Development

Strength Weakness Opportunity Treat

 The focus  Lack of  The budget  the low level

given by the clear & allocation for of community
National updated the project by participation
Urban compensation the local in government
Development and relocation government projects
Policy on regulation and  the lack of
The  difficulty in agreement temporary
Integrated accessing with local relocation
Urban financial banks housing
Housing institutions  Trend of  the lack of
Development for the urban readiness of willingness
program poor the and capacity
 High  lack of community to of certain
commitment capacity in benefit from collaborators
of local and PPP approach such
central  lack of development
government organizational  The focus of
on the project setup and national and
 The capacity to central
advantages manage the government
inner city inner city on housing
renewal has revitalization development
over the  lack of inner as well as
expansion city vacant inner city
area land and renewal
development housing for  The focus of
in terms of temporary international
urban poverty replacement agenda
reduction  lack of (MDG)
 Compliance appropriate  The fact that
with the collaboration open land at
structure plan with certain the outskirt is
inner city stakeholders rapidly
renewal at the required becoming
proposals intensity scarce
 Availability
of previously
prepared
preliminary
urban renewal
studies

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Wendwosen Demrew Addissie

Methodology
The general methodology of the study is based on a participatory planning approach,
in which this paper will provide the initial proposal and background of the project.
This approach will enable the realization of the proposal by empowering all
stockholders, particularly the direct beneficiaries, starting from the planning process
to the implementation phase, creating a sense of ownership to the project. Since this
study is based on an actual large-scale on-going housing project. The scope of this
study will focus on a proposed pilot project area of the inner city to be selected with
the following pre-defined selection criteria (to be elaborated later).
 Inner city area with dominantly rental houses administered by kebele2
 Area designated by the structure plan as strategic investment area
 Neighborhood with high level of tenure insecurity
 Area with high potential of development attracting private developers which
can collaborate with the project
 Area with minimum challenge of infrastructure development
The careful preparation of planning and formulation of implementation strategy of
inner city housing development is crucial part of the process to guarantee the success
of the pilot project and thus to create the envisioned long term spread effect. To
come up with a workable strategy, the most crucial part is to involve the community
of the proposed project area and the potential developers along with various
stakeholders and collaborators at different stages of developing the strategy, planning
and implementation phase as well. This proposal is thus emphasizing to make the
intentions public and create awareness through a sequence of dialogues, workshops
exhibitions, public debates and continuously updating the proposal and the
preliminary implementation strategy, until a consensus is reached among the major
stakeholders is reached before the actual implementation takes place. The final stage
of this proposal will be to empower the direct beneficiaries of the urban renewal
project area, the community living within the area and the potential developers to
actively participate and monitor the implementation of the project.

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References
AACA (Addis Ababa City Administration)
2004 Housing Sector Development Programme: Addis Ababa

AAHDPO (Office for Addis Housing Development Project)

1998 Annual Report

AAWSA (Addis Ababa Water and Sewerage Authority)

2004 Annual Report

CSA (Central Statistics Authority)

1994 The 1994 Population and Housing census in Ethiopia:
Volume I Statistical Report

CSA (Central Statistics Authority)

2001 The 2001 Population and Housing census in Ethiopia:
Volume I Statistical Report

CSA (Central Statistics Authority)

2004 The 2004 Population and Housing census in Ethiopia:
Volume I Statistical Report

FEDB (Finance and Economy Development Bureau of the Addis Ababa City
Government)
2006 Housing Policy of Addis Ababa City Administration

IUHDP (Integrated Urban Housing Development Programme)

2005 Integrated Urban Housing Development Programme: Draft Proposal II,
Addis Ababa
ORAAMP (Office for revision of Addis Ababa Master Plan)
2001 Housing Components: Improvements and Development Strategy,
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

ORAAMP (Office for revision of Addis Ababa Master Plan)

2002 Norms, Standards and guidelines of Addis Ababa Structure plan and it’s
Components, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

2 Kebele is the lower level of administration next to sub-city and city level hierarchy
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ORAAMP (Office for revision of Addis Ababa Master Plan)

2006 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

PADCO , WAAS (Planning and Development Collaborative International)

1997 Ethiopia Housing Sector Study: Final Report

Wass International PLC

UHRLI, (Urban Housing Revitalization and Land Issues)

2005 Addis Ababa Long Term Plan Integrated Development Plan (2005-2025)
Final Draft, Submitted to GTZ/MMPDP by Matheos Asfaw Bekele

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