Ghana - The Urban Housing Project

59748 No. 55 August 2000 Ghana : The Urban Housing Project The Ghana Urban Housing project was completed in 1999 ( some three years later than anticipated ) using a World Bank co-financed credit of US$ 109.9 ( World Bank- 72.2 percent; OPEC-18.9 percent ;Government of Ghana – 8.9 percent ). The project objectives were to: ( i) help rehabilitate and improve essential infrastructure, services and environmental systems; (ii) strengthen the technical, financial and managerial capacity of local government; (iii) help initiate the development of a sustainable housing system; (iv) reform the housing parastatals; (v) begin to relieve the acute shortage of affordable houses; ( vi) improve environmental conditions for housing; (vii) provide essential infrastructure and service for the urban poor; (viii ) strengthen the Ministry of Works and Housing ( MWH); and (viii) help improve environmental management and monitoring through support to the Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA). Impact on the ground • Roads, street lighting, sanitation and solid waste management were rehabilitated in Accra, Tema, Sekondi-Takoradi, Kumasi and Tamale with attempts at setting up permanent maintenance facilities. • The technical, financial and managerial capacity of local government increased through greater local revenue collection, reforms and management improvement efforts. This was across the five project cities. • A sustainable and unsubsidized housing finance system is now in place. The Home Finance Company ( HFC) set up provided mortgages to 4,100 houses, more than twice the original target. The HFC also raised US$20 million through the issue of inflation-indexed bonds that were the best performing for the institutional investor, the Social Security and National Insurance Trust. • Three parastatals working on housing have been reorganized into commercially oriented and viable companies. • Through achieving double its intended output, the project contributed to relieving Ghana’s housing shortage. • Urban upgrading schemes improved environmental conditions by giving access to basic sanitation in three cities – the beneficiaries were the poorer, deprived  members of the respective urban communities. For the first time in Ghana, solid waste management was tackled systematically and professionally in a major city ( Tema) and serves as a model to be followed. • Inter-agency co-ordination improved and liaison with local assemblies became more intensive. • The EPA’s environmental monitoring capacity was enhanced. • There was a clear gender impact through training provided to women in housing construction, a traditionally male-dominated activity. • There was a reported reduction of crime in Ashaiman as a result of the street lighting provided. Lessons learned • The achievement of substantial development impacts across a broad front takes time and is something that needs to be factored into project design. • It can be worthwhile to extend the life of a project in order to extend the range and depth of its development outcomes. • An unsubsidized mortgage housing finance system can be viable in a developing country in the medium term if it has, among other things, high caliber management and streamlined foreclosure laws and processes, and factors in local conditions - notably in this case, inflation. • With civil works packages designed to encourage their participation, local consulting firms can provide high-quality and competitive design and supervision support. This is a critical part of local capacity building within the private sector. • Public sector capacity building at the municipal level is key to ensuring project sustainability. This article is excerpted from an Evaluation Summary prepared by Roy Gilbert of the Operations Evaluation Department, World Bank, Washington, D.C. The Implementation Completion Report for the project was prepared by Charles K. Bokaye, Eleanor V. Warner, and Jagdish K. Bahal.