Social Housing in Gabon

Gabon is one of the most well-developed countries in Africa and the country is constantly working on ways to further improve their economy by focusing on various sectors including economic diversification, infrastructure, and social housing.

This year in 2016, Gabon has focused a lot of attention on developing social housing for residents. In the effort to get social housing units up and running in Gabon, the country has taken a few steps to make housing easily accessible for residents. For example, in May of this year, a state in Gabon known as Angondje financed a housing lottery that awarded over 800 social housing units to low-income residents.

Example of Social Housing units in Angondje
Photo Credit: ANGTI

The Gabonese government has also formed important partnerships to help push their housing initiative. Gabon teamed up with an engineering and project management company known as Bechtel. The company began working with Gabon in 2010, and renewed their partnership with the country in 2016. According to the company website, Bechtel is currently working on developing 5,000 public-housing units. In addition, the company is also involved in other Gabonese developments such as a wastewater treatment plan for the country.

Gabonese Workers for Bechtel
Photo Credit: www. Behctel.com

Further demonstrating the development of social housing in Gabon, the World Bank recently approved a 100 million dollar loan to help with various areas of municipal development that includes improving living conditions for residents. The benefits of this loan will not only come in the form of public-housing units, but residents of low-income neighborhoods will have the opportunity for temporary employment in building the housing units.

It's imperative that the government of any well-developed country puts effort into providing adequate housing for residents without the means to do so. This is why the initiatives of the Gabonese government to provide public-housing units is a major win for the country. Since many residents don't have sufficient income to afford quality housing, public-housing units will give low-income residents the opportunity to live in modernized housing. This of course will greatly improve the living conditions for a lot of people. In addition, developments for public-housing units will give some residents an opportunity to earn a temporary income, as many of the companies working on developing the units are looking to hire Gabonese residents for the projects.

Housing is a basic necessity for any individual, and the people of Gabon will experience a great improvement in their standard of living through social housing. The social housing projects are one major step to the country providing a better quality of life for Gabonese people. Improving housing will be sure to lead to improving other areas such as water sanitation, better waste management, etc., all contributing to a more comfortable life-style for the people of Gabon in the long run. 

Sources: 

News Ghana: "Gabon accelerates steps to build social housing units". 27 May 2016.

https://www.newsghana.com.gh/gabon-accelerate-steps-to-build-social-housing-units/

Public Finance International: "World Bank Support for Gabon's municipal development". 18 Jan. 2016.

http://www.publicfinanceinternational.org/news/2016/01/world-bank-support-gabon-municipal-development

Bechtel: http://www.bechtel.com/projects/gabon-national-infrastructure/

Agence Nationale Des Grands Travaux D' Infrastructures (ANGTI): http://www.angt.ga/angt/en-us/

Holdsworth, Rachel. " Infrastructure, integration, and what Gabon can teach cities about planning for the future". 29 Feb. 2016. City News. http://www.citymetric.com/politics/infrastructure-integration-and-what-gabon-can-teach-cities-about-planning-future-1859