Housing
Two Continents
Notes for remarks by Hon. David Kilgour,
Secretary of State (Latin America &
Africa), M.P. Edmonton Southeast
to Canada-Africa Night, Northern Alberta
Cooperative Housing Association (NACHA)
and Rooftops Committee
Keegano Community Building, Edmonton, March
25, 2000
(Note: due to time constraints the following
remarks were not delivered)
It is a great
pleasure and honour to take part in this
Canada-Africa Night and to celebrate co-op
housing on our two continents.
Having recently
visited South Africa, I was pleased to hear
Silas Diamond’s account of housing
efforts in that country. It is also encouraging
to see Canadian organizations such as NACHA
and Rooftops reaching out to our friends
in Africa.
Africa faces
a critical housing crisis. The problem is
most visible and dramatic when natural catastrophe
strikes as it did recently in Mozambique.
Seeing those who were forced to flee when
whole villages were submerged by flood waters
is an image few can ignore or forget. Canadians
have contributed generously in Mozambique’s
crisis, with more than $11 million dollars
aid provided through CIDA alone.
Africa’s
largest housing problem, however, is not
one that makes dramatic footage on television
news. Nor is it splashed across front pages
of newspapers. Rather, it results from the
continual and steady migration of people
from the country into cities. Urbanization
is a major and growing trend on the African
continent.
Latin America
has experienced rapid urbanization for several
decades, and now about three quarters of
Latin Americans live in cities. Africa is
a latecomer to this trend, and the number
of Africans living in cities today is only
a bit over a third. This is changing quickly.
Combined with a high rate of population
growth, some African cities are experiencing
an explosive demand for housing.
Recently,
when I visited South Africa with the Prime
Minister, we travelled to a project being
funded by CIDA in Kwazulu-Natal province
outside Durban. On the way, we stopped at
a squalid shantytown – "informal
housing" as it is euphemistically called.
Houses were thrown together using aluminum
sheets, garbage bags, scrap wood and other
waste. Of course there was no plumbing or
running water. Even some of the journalists
travelling with us expressed shock, having
never seen such conditions before.
Our destination,
however, was a different story. There local
people were engaged in a grassroots effort
to build simple, self-contained houses of
brick. These houses had basic amenities
such as kitchens and bathrooms. CIDA money
was funding the project through a local
NGO, but most importantly the local people
were the driving force.
Canada has
much to contribute internationally in terms
of housing technology. As you all know,
however, housing is much more than bricks
and mortar. Innovative methods must be found
to finance and organize housing construction
and ownership. On these questions, the cooperative
housing movement in Canada has much knowledge
and experience to contribute. Solutions
cannot be imposed from outside. From your
own experience, you understand the importance
of enabling others to find their own solutions
that fit best with local needs. That is
the essence of capacity building.
The challenge
of housing the world’s peoples will
preoccupy humankind for a long time. Shelter
is, after all, our most basic necessity
after nourishment. In facing this challenge,
there are plenty of opportunities for collaboration
between NGOs in the cooperative housing
movement, the private sector, government,
and grassroots citizens’ groups.
You in the
cooperative housing movement have much to
contribute both internationally and here
in Edmonton. Thank you for inviting me tonight.
I salute your efforts.
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