Social Housing Developing countries face many challenges, an important one being a lack of suitable low-cost housing. This is a major obstacle to improving populations’ quality of life. In Senegal, since 2009, SOCODEVI has been building the capacity of the cooperative social housing movement to build housing for member families and provide populations with decent and sustainable living conditions.
The experience of Quebec’s social housing cooperatives confederation (CQCH) was put to work to help with the transfer of models and reference tools to the Senegalese partners in the Thiès, Saint-Louis, Kaolack and Ziguinchor unions.
Hand-in-hand with the Union régionale de cooperatives de construction et d’habitat de Thiès (URCCHT) and the Réseau international Éco-Développement (RIED), SOCODEVI also developed innovative solutions for targeted problems, including socially responsible urbanization and healthy management of living conditions, adaptation to climate conditions and access to essential services.
Under the Canadian-funded PROCED project, the governance of the URCCHT has been improved for the benefit of its 4600 members. There are regular meetings of the governance bodies, the statutes and by-laws have been revised and an information program to improve the member's use of their cooperative services has been set up.
Results
2,000
PLOTS OF LAND
were approved for the construction of housing in the Thiès region
AFFORDABLE
HOUSE PLANS
and energy-efficient homes developed
65
COOPERATIVES
members of the URCCHT supported since 2009
58%
OF WOMEN REPRESENTATION
on URCCHT's Board of Directors
FACTORY
of compressed earth bricks
In terms of gender equality, the bylaws now include the notion of parity and inclusion. The Board of Directors elected its first president in 2020 and is now gender-balanced. In addition, the URCCHT has implemented a program to improve access to decent housing for women.
The URCCHT now offers several services. It manufactures its own bricks through a compressed earth brick factory. A purchasing group for building materials has been created. In addition, it offers garbage collection and security services.
URCCHT is the only union of housing cooperatives in Senegal to have its own head office built with the support of SOCODEVI and Promutuel Assurance.
