Despite showing significant economic growth over the past two decades, Zambia has high levels of inequality and the housing deficit is at 1.5 million units at present, expected to reach three million units by 2030. Making effective housing interventions, then, is essential to ensuring that the housing deficit doesn’t continue to grow. Zambia’s Urban and Regional Planning Act, passed in 2015, intends to do just that, and also repealed the Town and Country Planning Act of 1962, as well as the Housing (Statutory and Improvement Areas) Act, 1975.
With Zambia’s housing stock and urban areas dominated by informal settlements, equitable urban planning policies are necessary. The Urban and Regional Planning Act of 2015 provides a framework to guide urban planning in Zambia, establishing a democratic, accountable, transparent, participatory and inclusive process for planning that permits the participation of a variety of actors and stakeholders throughout the planning and development process.
Source:
UN-Habitat. (2021) Evaluation of The Impact of UN-Habitat’s Housing Approach to Adequate, Affordable Housing and Poverty Reduction, 2008-2019: Zambia Country Report (4/2020). UN-Habitat.