Adequate housing for all: bridging the gap in Sierra Leone

Throughout the world, societies are struggling to ensure adequate housing for all, and Sierra Leone is no exception. Many people in the country, particularly those living in informal settlements, are unable to access affordable and adequate housing.  

Nevertheless, little progress has been made to develop and implement effective housing policies and programmes to respond to residents’ needs for a safe, affordable and secure place to live. 

From 18-20 March, leaders, policymakers and experts in housing met in Freetown to develop a roadmap towards implementing housing policies that can advance the right to adequate housing in Sierra Leone.

The three-day workshop was the result of a collaboration between the government of Sierra Leone, UN-Habitat, the Sierra Leone Urban Research Centre (SLURC) and IIED, and featured presentations, debates and interactive sessions that analysed the barriers and opportunities to implementing policies that can bridge the gap in housing.

It was funded by the African Cities Research Consortium (ACRC) as part of its housing research uptake activities.

Forming a new housing policy

The discussions built on the conclusions of a previous workshop in September 2022 where participants developed a series of principles to inform a new housing policy, and drew from the research produced through the ACRC programme on policy responses to tackle the challenges of Africa’s rapidly changing cities.  

Dr. Turad Senesie, Minister of Lands and Country Planning, said: “The housing deficit is not just a statistic – it is a lived experience for families in Freetown’s informal settlements, for farmers displaced by land disputes, and for young professionals struggling to afford decent homes.” He shared his hope the dialogue would become “the turning point where we moved from diagnosing problems to delivering solutions”.

Throughout the policy dialogue, participants reflected on the following:  

• In Sierra Leone, rapid urbanisation and lack of capacity has led to the expansion of informal settlements that often lack access to basic services. The high cost of land and construction, along with inadequate serviced land, makes housing extremely unaffordable, and the rental market remains largely unregulated and prone to abuses.
• As Joseph Macarthy, director of SLURC, said: “For a very long time, housing has not been given the relevance it deserves in national development.” Little progress has been made on a housing policy that can adequately respond to the current crisis and deliver on the right to adequate housing. A renewed commitment needs to drive policy reforms that can deliver tangible change on the ground.
• Despite the challenges, there is a renewed commitment to address the housing crisis, and the government is collaborating with donors, the private sector and NGOs on slum upgrading programmes and other efforts to overcome financing constraints. The dialogue was a promising step towards a multi-stakeholder approach to transform housing policy in Sierra Leone, with government collaborating with civil society and using partnerships with research and international institutions to develop evidence-based solutions.
• During the workshop, Rasheed Charles Ngiawee, director of housing of the government of Sierra Leone, agreed to set up a technical working group to support the development of the country’s housing policy and take forward the workshop’s policy reform recommendations.   

Alexandre Apsan Frediani, co-convener of the housing justice work at IIED, was part of the team that coordinated the workshop. He said: “Housing policy dialogues like this one in Freetown, bringing together communities, government authorities, civil society, private sector actors and built environment professionals, are key to build reform coalitions and bring about sustained change in housing systems.”  

The dialogue, according to UN-Habitat's Saidu Conteh, was “an opportunity for meaningful engagement, knowledge-sharing and action-oriented discussions.” The interventions and activities demonstrated a shared understanding of the potential of housing policies to transform cities into centres of opportunity where people can thrive.