Remarks of Ambassador Harriet Babbitt, USAID Deputy Administrator

This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
Remarks of Ambassador Harriet Babbitt, USAID Deputy Administrator
at the Binational Commission Housing Work Group
Cape Town, South Africa
February 16, 1999

I wish to congratulate the Housing Working Group on its accomplishments to date. I welcome the opportunity to participate in this program, knowing that South Africans have identified housing as one of the nation’s three most critical needs.

The housing challenge facing South Africa is enormous. According to your 1996 population census, nearly 2 million urban households are living in grossly inadequate shelter and another 1.6 million rural households are poorly housed.

In view of these challenges, the Republic of South Africa -- and particularly the Department of Housing – deserve to be commended for what has already been achieved. You have put in place significant and sustainable housing delivery systems since 1994. In effect, the government set itself the challenge of providing up to one million housing opportunities by the year 2000. It appears that you will meet, or come extremely close to meeting, this ambitious goal.

This is indeed a remarkable accomplishment.

In the 35 years that USAID has worked in the housing sector -- in some 55 countries -- we are unaware of any other nation which has established so many institutions and administered so many programs to deliver housing in such a short period of time.

Your National Housing Finance Corporation, Social Housing Foundation, National Home Builders Registration Council and People's Housing Partnership -- to mention but a few that I have read about -- are testaments to your commitment to increasing housing opportunities for low income families.

The U.S. government is proud to have been a partner in some of these efforts. We have been supporting the Republic of South Africa (RSA) in the housing sector since the 1994 transformation. That support includes some $80 million in grants to local shelter-sector NGOs such as the Urban Sector Network, People's Dialogue and Habitat for Humanity.

In addition, USAID has provided approximately $175 million in loan guarantees to three private sector financial institutions including First National Bank, Nedbank, and the Infrastructure Finance Corporation (INCA).

These USAID guarantees have leveraged more than $414 million in Rand-denominated loans for housing and municipal infrastructure for beneficiaries who earn less than 2,700 Rand per month. This is one of the programs that we are hoping to continue in the future.

We have an equally comprehensive program with the Department of Constitutional Development supporting the provision of urban environmental services such as water and sanitation, electricity, roads and solid waste collection. This is important because infrastructure networks and capable municipal management are essential to expanding the housing supply.

Finally, we have a major urban environmental program with the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. The program is intended to increase understanding of environmental issues and improve the capacity of municipal managers to plan and deliver environmentally sustainable development.

The U.S. government is also pleased to have supported a number of activities under the auspices of the BNC Housing Working Group.

Based upon my review of Housing Working Group Activities to date, it is clear that South Africa has made impressive use of the information and support provided by the BNC’s Housing Working Group. We hope these achievements will prove to be sustainable.

We now look forward to working with you on a number of important new initiatives in areas that are critical for facilitating housing improvement.

I am particularly pleased to note your interest in examining the relationship between gender and access to housing. Here, as in many other emerging markets, women are disproportionately represented among those who are inadequately housed. We look forward to working with you to better understand the causes of this urgent problem --and to find solutions.

I am also aware that the Department of Housing has been working closely with the African Union of Housing Finance Institutions and Absa Bank to host a series of courses from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Thousands of private and public sector housing officials from emerging markets have taken this internationally renowned course on housing finance and found it help in their home countries.

One of South Africa’s more exciting proposals is an initiative that encourages the delivery of environmentally sound low-cost housing. It has emerged from the work of an interdepartmental task team which includes the departments of housing, energy, environmental affairs, water and health. This program seeks to create an awareness of the benefits to be gained from incorporating environmentally efficient practices and technologies into housing construction.

We in the United States know very well what a significant long-term impact such an initiative can have on the health and pocket books of individual families, as well as on the health of the environment.

A major theme of this year's BNC meeting is the commission’s role in maximizing job creation. We know that the provision of shelter is one of the most effective means of generating jobs. The construction of houses and associated services provides jobs linked to the manufacture and distribution of building materials as well as to the actual construction of units.

Even more long-term impact comes from the jobs created when portions of newly-built or upgraded housing complexes are used as places of business, such as tailor shops, beauty parlors, snack bars, grocery shops or for child care.

In the United States, we have ample proof of the positive impact of housing construction and home ownership on the health of the nation's economy. I believe that a better understanding of the linkages between the supply of housing, jobs and economic growth is essential, and I hope that we will find a way to contribute to that pool of knowledge.

Ideally, we would like to use this BNC meeting to examine the linkages between the provision of shelter and employment. We want to ensure that investments in shelter have the maximum impact on job creation.

Let me close by saying once again how pleased I am to be here with you -- and how much I look forward to working with you on the proposals and concepts that we will be examining today.

Thank you.
This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.

Last Updated on: July 12, 2001