The United Nations Migrations Agency, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), says it is partnering with the Federal Government and some states to provide houses for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the North East, a move that would see them leaving transitional camps for more permanent abodes.
IOM says it is ready to unveil a housing prototype for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), and vulnerable families in rural areas of North-East Nigeria, to enhance humanitarian impact and to promote Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.
The Chief of Mission, IOM Nigeria, Mr. Laurent De Boeck, who disclosed this at a news conference ahead of the Housing Design Competition Awards Ceremony in Abuja, also explained that the escalating violence faced in the North East region has led to an unprecedented housing emergency.
The competition titled ‘Nigeria: Home After Crisis,’ is organised by IOM through funding from the Nigerian Humanitarian Fund (NHF), to engage domestic and international design-communities in developing low-cost, incremental, and modular housing solutions for displaced people and vulnerable families in rural areas of the North-East.
IOM report of 2023 shows that about 3.5 million people had lost their homes, while others are living in terrible condition.
To address these challenges, an international housing design competition was put in place to select the best housing design for the proposed project.
“At IOM, we commit to supporting the government and the People of Nigeria to increase the current production rate of housing construction with the private sector. Home After Crisis design competition presents the changes we are trying to bring in the way we operate to those in need of protection through shelter, but what we want to change is the concept. The country has faced a humanitarian situation in the past decade, particularly the North-East but what we actually want to do in the North-East can be replicated all over the country. We have worked with the government in the North-East in responding to the crisis of those non-state armed groups, in the huge displacement of more than 3.3million people.”
The Chief of Mission also noted that the project would help reduce the nation’s housing deficit.
“We have operated a response through camps-like settings, we have worked with the community for them to be welcomed for a period of transition, until they can find a durable solution. We believe after years of work jointly with the government at the Federal-State levels, we can come to a juncture. We can change our approach of moving to provision of shelter to building back to the people a home,” he noted.
IOM Chief added that “It targets challenges at the specific location of the North-East and looks at the rapidly growing population, so it needs to have housing which is adaptable, increasing in family size. It must also be affordable for the people and must use materials which are there, while respecting their environment and ensuring that any of those construction will respect the new laws of states like Adamawa and Yobe,” he added.
On his part, IOM Project Coordinator, Mr. Nicola D’Addabbo, noted that the 2023 ‘Home After Crisis’ design competition has attracted over a thousand professionals across different countries.
“The ‘Home After Crisis’ design competition was launched internationally and more than 1,600 architects, designers and engineers responded to this call with 250 design proposals, while working in groups, a quarter of them were Nigerians.”
In a related development, the Programme Manager, Shelter in North East, Mr. Davies Okoko said 9000 people had so far benefited from housing project of IOM in the North East.
Source: Voice of Nigeria
