Urbanization finds its way on Ethiopia’s doorsteps

Most urban centers are becoming congested with a constant influx of migrants, which subsequently transforms those areas into slums. A failure to determine how to effectively deal with the multidimensional aspect of urbanization causes harsh repercussions to cities.

The workshop that was held on 23-24 April 2018 entitled a SES Thematic workshop training sessions, which was sponsored by Erasmus, focused on a number of topics. The training session described the necessary steps that countries should take to combat the issues that will arise in cities.

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The two day discussions and presentations included Gondar housing plans, settlement typologies and planning strategies and development scenarios to name a few. The objective of the workshop is to explore the types of informal settlements and appropriate strategies for the development of Gondar and to find out the stakeholders in the process of development planning.

Dr. Meseret Kassie, Business and Development Vice President, opened the event by welcoming the guests to the workshop. Individuals from various countries attended the event which incorporated many university and governmental stakeholders.

Around 70% of Ethiopia’s residents currently live in substandard housing. And with the rural population constantly seeking city centers that number will only increase and this may lead to informal settlements.

“Informal settlements can be seen as the failure of governments in anticipating and planning an adequate housing policy. This is also the symptom of a defective housing sector, due to the high rate of income variation, and the lack of serviced land and housing” said Kienast Gotsch.

The 2 day workshop is an important notion because countries face critical issues once their development progresses. Individual country’s state of knowledge, research and policy, concepts, political mandates, international frameworks and informal settlement typologies are all things to consider in the 21st century.

Ethiopia cannot be compared with the likes of the more urbanized countries when it comes to informal settlements and slums, but, nonetheless, this training session and workshop is a topic that all people should look into so that a direct path towards a more sustainable approach towards urbanization is realized.

Samuel Malede| Public & International Relations Directorate