Measuring the Affordability of the IHDP

There is an ongoing debate among people as to whether the trial being made by the Ethiopian Government to provide housing for the poor through the program called the Integrated Housing Development Program is reaching the target, the urban poor, or not. This research tries to find out the factors that are responsible for the determination of affordability of these housing units. And, it is found out that there are some socio-economic factors that mainly determine affordability. As per the findings, ‘internal’ factors like the household saving, type of occupation of the household head, availability of external source of finance, and finishing and related costs are found to be having the upper hand in determining affordability of these housing units. Though the research shows that these internal factors are stronger in determining affordability, the focus of the government is still tilted towards the “external” ones to make the housing units affordable to the urban poor. And, it is strongly recommended that both measures need to be effectively combined to make the housing units affordable to the target groups.