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Haiti - Politic : A Ministry of the City and Habitat ?
10/04/2013 12:53:36

In the report of research on housing in Haiti, published on Wednesday 10 April, international agency Oxfam urges the Haitian government to establish a "Ministry of the City and Habitat" in order to address the complex issue of housing in Haiti. Oxfam called on the Haitian government, the private sector and the financial sector and donors to invest in the implementation of the national housing policy.

Oxfam calls for a revitalization of public bodies working in this sector including DGI, CIAT, MTPTC the UCLBP the EPPLS, among others, which will constitute an embryo to the establishment of the Ministry of the City and Habitat. This ministry would be the governmental interlocutor for land acquisition, identification of strategic areas of urban development, overall planning, housing construction, their attributions and their management.

« Haïti doit faire beaucoup pour revitaliser son économie, aménager les villes, engager une vraie Politique Nationale de l’habitat, offrir des logements neufs ou rénovés en qualité et en quantité suffisantes, faciliter leur financement pour alléger les dépenses pour les ménages », a déclaré Yolette Étienne, directrice associée d’Oxfam.

This research conducted by Oxfam in partnership with the "Affordable Housing Institute" and the urban architect Paul-Emile Simon was also an opportunity to identify the blockages to the housing sector Haitian both at supply and demand. Among others we can quote the almost impossible to obtain land to build residential, lack of funding for construction companies in the private sector, very limited financial assistance available to low-income households and chronic institutional weakness of government.

"We must create an environment to encourage the private sector to take business risks while the government must absorb the non-commercial risks," added Ms. Étienne to stress the importance of public-private partnership. "The private sector must provide products and services of quality at competitive prices on the market, through grants from the Government to make affordable these products and services to Haitians in the lowest income."

To address the chronic problem of access to land in the country, Oxfam suggests the creation of a Land Agency, with two Directorates, one dedicated to land development to consolidate all land actions into a single entity, including those linked to expropriation fair and the other to the land regularization to solve the problem of illegally occupied of land.

Oxfam has made recommendations to various actors likely to interact in the housing sector. Indeed, the Haitian government must make public and applicable the procedures of land acquisition, of permit of subdivision, and building permits. Landowners should explore the opportunities for joint projects while developing legal forms for land leases extended. The private sector is expected to develop innovative models of partnership public-private, while developing business models with others.

HL/ HaitiLibre