Gov’t launches campaign to support people living in informal settlements 

The government of Uganda in collaboration with Habitat for Humanity has launched the Home Equals campaign which seeks to increase access to adequate housing for people living in informal settlements.

The five-year plan which was launched by the minister of Lands and Housing Judith Nabakooba will increase collaboration with settlers of informal settlements, accessible quality basic essential services, and improve land governance and leadership by local government land committees.

The campaign will be implemented in Kamwokya, Bbiina in Kampala and Kumi district. About 60 per cent of Uganda’s urban population, or 6,840,000 people live in informal settlements, according to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) 2021 report.

“It is in a home that we build our self-esteem among the family and communities. As government, we have put up a lot of focus on the home as the best starting point for all our interventions. The major challenge is how to improve the housing condition coupled with improving access to basic services, especially in slums, which house around 65 per cent of the population,” she said.

She said government recognizes slums as informal settlements and this points to the housing crisis that the country faces, and therefore the challenge is to provide better housing for such communities.

“We are looking at sanitation, housing, good environment, and clean water but we need to improve their economic well-being by strongly using the opportunities the government has put in place,” she said.

Robert Otim, the national director for Habitat for Humanity in Uganda said they want to ensure that the people who are most impacted in the informal settlements have their voices heard, included in decisions, and planning for the communities or settlements that they live in.

“We also want to ensure that as actors, we recognize that basic services like water, sanitation, and hygiene are part and parcel of the services that we are going to be providing. We want to make sure that the people within these settlements have some sort of security of tenure. They are not vulnerable that at the end of the day, they evicted from the settlements that they are in the urban or informal settlements within the surrounding city,” he said.