The role of Housing conditions on social sustainability and well-being of residents

This is the sixth workshop from a series of workshop on Sustainable Innovative Affordable Housing (SIAH) for Africa, funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering's Frontiers Champion Project. This workshop aims to discuss the innovations, challenges and opportunities to improve the housing conditions for various communities in a sustainable manner.”

Over the past years, the standard of living and social well-being in Africa has been on a steady decline. The effects are quite evident, shifting various communities into poverty with no sign of improvement in their livelihoods. Social and economic inequalities are on a rise, which correlate to the increasing number of people living in inadequate housing. The potential for improved livelihoods through direct and indirect benefits concerning social equity, health, and well-being can be achieved by building good quality and affordable houses using targeted, viable and innovative ways and by improving social equity for marginalized groups in different regions. Therefore, there is a need to provide more affordable and sustainable housing solutions, which is essential and urgent due to the unprecedented decline in good quality housing besides rising disparities in Africa.