More than 60% of Africa’s urban population lives in slums and most African countries' population subsist on under US$2.0 per day, and the average probability at birth of not surviving to age 40 is about 38%. 25 to 30% of housing in SA cities is informal; the majority of land and housing transactions are unrecorded. A worldwide Millennium development goal is to significantly improve the lives of 100 million slum dwellers by 2020. It is estimated that approximately 85% of urban land parcels in developing countries and between 40% and 53% of their rural land parcels are held in such a way that they cannot be used to create capital. Suggested solutions to these problems is to extend secure tenure; formalize land markets; extend bank and formal micro-finance (indebtedness of the poor); privatization; complex, strategic decision making tools and have research based on formal information.
Reference:
Napier, M. 2006. Understanding formality and informality in land and housing exchanges in African cities. IPaDS, DEIF CoF Workshop, CSIR, Pretoria, 15 February 2006, pp 22.
Napier, M. (2006). Understanding formality and informality in land and housing exchanges in African cities. http://hdl.handle.net/10204/2799
Napier, Mark. "Understanding formality and informality in land and housing exchanges in African cities." (2006): http://hdl.handle.net/10204/2799
Napier M, Understanding formality and informality in land and housing exchanges in African cities; 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10204/2799 .