Housing and Infrastructure Provision for Informal Settlements: Comparing Accra and Buenos Aires

On June 14, 2022, IMFG Post-Doctoral Fellow Hsi-Chuan Wang presented his ongoing research on informal settlement policies in two capital cities in the global south: Accra, Ghana, and Buenos Aires, Argentina. 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.