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Housing and Infrastructure Provision for Informal Settlements: Comparing Accra and Buenos Aires
June 14, 2022 @ 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
In response to the growth of informal settlements, governments around the world have taken different approaches to improve access to adequate, safe, and affordable housing and basic services for low-income populations.
On June 14, IMFG Post-Doctoral Fellow Hsi-Chuan Wang will present his ongoing research on informal settlement policies in two capital cities in the global south: Accra, Ghana, and Buenos Aires, Argentina. Although Ghana and Argentina have different socio-economic, political, and institutional contexts, they share common traits. Both countries experienced significant financial system reform, economic liberation, and far-reaching public sector restructuring in the 1990s. Since that time, Accra and Buenos Aires have taken different approaches to housing and infrastructure provision in informal settlements.
The findings suggest that the perceptions and approaches toward low-income residents changed in both places at the national and local levels between the 1980s and 2000s. Moreover, compared with Accra, Buenos Aires has undertaken a wider range of policies and strategies to improve settlements, especially after the economic depression in the early 21st century. This difference in approach can be partly attributed to different governance structures in the two cities.
Speaker: Hsi-Chuan (Andrew) Wang is the 2021-2022 IMFG Postdoctoral Fellow. His research focuses on spatial inequality through different perspectives, scales, and themes to interpret how they may affect the broader pursuit of urban sustainability.