Effectiveness of Sites and Services Schemes in Low and Medium Income Housing Provision in Nigeria

Abstract

This work examines the effectiveness of Site and Services schemes in Low and
Medium income housing provision in Nigeria. Site and Service Schemes represent a major innovation in shelter policy in developing countries and have been sponsored by international and local aid agencies for more than a decade. Such government projects deliver a package of shelter-related services. Typically, such projects represent a sharp break with pre-existing government shelter policies in that they attempt, in principles, to focus directly on lower-income group and to deliver shelter and services with small or no subsidies. This study describes the background of Sites and Services, reviews recent evaluation of sites and services projects, presents an analytical model of the sites and services paradigm (which is used to examine how major project outcomes are influenced by project design), recapitulates housing demand in developing countries (which is relevant to designing appropriate sites and services projects). Conclusively, the management of sites and services scheme should be revisited, redesigned and made in line with the socio-cultural attributes of the local communities where they are to be sited because a universal approach may not be suitable for all communities in Nigeria, given the diversity of value, culture and social values as well as natural environmental settings.