Total cost
$437,000
Partners
Ministry of Public Works
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
United Nations Centre for Human Settlement
UN-Habitat
Background and objectives
All the urban centres of Eritrea have
been affected by 30 years of war, and many were seriously damaged.
There is an extreme housing shortage, especially now that many Eritrean
refugees are returning, most of them to urban areas. At the same
time, there is a serious lack of qualified and experienced civil officials
and almost no private sector. Eritrea has not yet articulated policies
and plans for human settlements. National reconstruction is the priority
which will evolve into sustained development. The Government has
adopted a cautious and practical approach of learning by doing and institutional
capacity-building. This programme helps the Government to build capacity
in crucial areas, while developing the processes that will define long-term
national human settlement policies and programmes. This programme
is designed to improve the institutional capacity of local administrations
to manage urban services, stimulate economic development and facilitate
development of housing. The programme is funded by UNDP with UN-Habitat as the cooperating agency. A number of United Nations volunteers,
mainly from developing countries, are providing technical assistance.
Activities
The programme's activities were directed
towards training surveyors, cartographers and planners in the latest geographic
information system techniques in the first phase of the programme.
The aim of these activities is to provide direct assistance to the municipalities
of Asmara and Massawa in preparing urban development strategies and improvement
of infrastructure and development of a national human settlements strategy
and action plan.
Results
The programme, which became operational
in August 1996, has provided training in geographic information system
techniques, technical assistance to Asmara and Massawa on the development
of infrastructure and strategic planning. Training programmes for
physical planning officers were conducted as planned. Officially,
this project has been completed, however, the Government and UNDP support
the preparation of a national housing policy. UN-Habitat submitted
a programme proposal for a pilot project low-cost housing, in the housing
sector. The new project was submitted to the Ministry of International
Cooperation and Macro-Policy and UNDP for approval in November 1999 and
was approved in January 2000. However, activities have been disrupted
by the border dispute between Eritrea and Ethiopia, which has caused a
delay in implementation of activities in the second phase of the programme.
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