Ethiopia Can be Model in Unlocking Enormous Housing Assets across Africa: Habitat for Humanity International CEO

Addis Ababa, August 21, 2025 (ENA) -- Habitat for Humanity International has affirmed Ethiopia's potential to be a model in unlocking its enormous housing assets and opportunities across Africa.

Habitat for Humanity International CEO Jonathan Reckford, who attended the high-level Panel Discussion on Housing in Ethiopia and across Africa this week in Addis Ababa, told ENA that Africa is central to Habitat for Humanity’s global strategy.

“We have made an ambitious goal of helping 50 million people over the next three years”, he revealed, adding that Habitat for Humanity hopes that Ethiopia can be a model for the work across Africa.

“We really hope Ethiopia can be a model for our work across Africa. There is a huge need, but there are also enormous assets and opportunities here.”

Habitat for Humanity will build more housing and play as a partner and a catalyst to bring research and technical assistance for Ethiopia, among others, he said.

According to the CEO, 1.1 billion people are living in informal settlements globally; and that is expected to double without intervention.

“So we know we need to dramatically increase the amount of housing we are building, but also find ways to help informal settlements formalize and unlock the opportunity there.”

For the CEO, the two mega trends in the world are rapid urbanization and climate change; and Africa is the most rapidly urbanizing continent that just exacerbates the housing crisis.

Therefore, “it is so important that we create resilient housing and resilient communities. Habitat for Humanity always tries to build with sustainable local materials wherever we can; we try to build ways that are safe for families and then resilient to the risks around.”

Reckford further emphasized the need for both adaptation and mitigation, underscoring the significance of building critically with more sustainable materials.

Investing in housing actually solves a lot of other problems as well, he said, adding that housing certainly lowers medical costs, increases economic activity, and creates jobs.

“If we can create an enabling environment, families can then upgrade their own. So I think what the government can do is invest in the infrastructure and the environment where housing can then be created, the markets can come in and support it.”

The CEO finally underscored the need for the active engagements of the public sector, the private sector, and civil society in working together to tackle something as complicated as housing.