Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)

Re-growing a country

The Côte d’Ivoire, nestled in the West African coast, produces 40% of the world’s cocoa crop. Just a decade ago the country was one of the most stable and prosperous in the region, with a strong economy based on the export of coffee and raw cocoa.

The Côte d’Ivoire is now a broken, crippled country. In 2002 civil war erupted, tearing the nation in two. Ethnic tensions between Ivorians and non-Ivorians soared to breaking point as rebel forces in the North faced government armies in the South. For five years the war ravaged the Côte d’Ivoire, destroying infrastructure and social stability, ripping communities apart along ethnic lines, deepening already extensive poverty and displacing almost 800,000 people.

Peace was finally agreed in 2007, bringing with it the opportunity for new stability. But, in the fragile post conflict environment, the effects of the civil unrestare far-reaching and not easily overcome. The most basic of government infrastructures have yet to be rebuilt: the majority of the population lacks proper sanitation and clean water. Infant mortality rates, due largely to malaria, are amongst the highest in the world. Ethnic tensions still trouble communities and hinder enewal. Many men have migrated from rural areas to Abidjan City, leaving women, without land rights, to head farming households. They are particularly vulnerable to exploitation, domestic slavery and dispossession.

Lurking in the background, behind all of these problems is poverty housing. Three quarters of the population live in substandard conditions. Government housing solutions are still prohibitively expensive, meaning that the vast majority of people in the poorest Western and Central areas live in unclean, unsafe, crude housing. The mud floor and walls of the rural houses harbour mosquitoes and tsetse flies. Children use the backyards as latrines because they are too young to use the terribly dangerous public pit latrines. Maintaining the house, making repairs and cleaning up human waste take up a lot of time every day. Without land rights, families can be evicted from their houses at any time, leaving them homeless and farm-less.

In post-conflict Côte d’Ivoire, the displaced, women and poor farmers are the most vulnerable. These farmers are the most likely to live in appalling, oppressing poverty housing. What’s more, the country’s economy relies on the trade created by these farmers. Before the conflict, raw cocoa accounted for 80% of the country’s commodity exports and 21% of the GDP. The farmers now have no security, no decent housing and no hope.

Habitat for Humanity’s response is a project, starting in July this year, to build up community resiliency with shelter, water and sanitation for 400 rural families, 200 of which will be female-headed households, and 200 internally displaced households. Habitat for Humanity currently works with fifteen communities in the Côte d’Ivoire and has housed nearly 700 families, giving over four thousand vulnerable, disabled and displaced people a safe place to call home.

The emphasis of Habitat for Humanity’s work in the Côte d’Ivoire is on building up communities in every possible way, starting with durable, safe and healthy homes. The new houses are constructed from sturdy, locally-produced bricks and mortar with a corrugated iron roof and easy-to-clean cement floor that won’t harbour insects. The windows have mosquito netting and the families are given insecticide-treated mosquito nets, making malaria prevention so much easier. Each house has its very own VIP latrine (Ventilated, Improved Pit latrine), safe enough for the children to use and clean enough to prevent the spread of disease. The rights for the lands are settled with the tribal chiefs and district administrators so the families really find security in their new home.

Having a secure, decent place to call home means that Habitat for Humanity’s education partner organisations can work with the families, giving them skills they need to flourish and grow. Families receive training in hygiene, sanitation and mosquito net maintenance and can look forward to healthy futures. Water facilities in the communities are being built or restored, signalling for hundreds of women the end of the long trek to collect unclean water. Through the partner organisation ANADER (National Agency to Support Rural Development), farmers are trained in financial management and increasing their income through micro-enterprises: this includes researching market opportunities, developing trading relationships and establishing transport systems. The farmers and their families can look forward to better trading, more efficient working and increased profit. Lastly, OICI (Opportunities Industrialisation Centres International) is working with community and tribal leaders to reconcile multi-ethnic communities, gradually solving the root cause of the conflict.

Whole communities will benefit directly and indirectly from Habitat for Humanity’s activities, with vastly improved access to water, the dissemination of training and skills, paid employment for builders and social cohesion.

Habitat for Humanity Côte d’Ivoire wants to give 600 families a fresh, secure start in life. But, more than this, Habitat for Humanity wants to kick-start a nation-wide re-growth. With bottom-up development, the economy can be re-stabilised and the country rebuilt.

As a result of this project, children will now grow up in the Côte d’Ivoire in safer, cleaner environments. With a safe, decent home, proper water and sanitation facilities, better business skills and training, farmers can work more effectively and grow their business above simple subsistence levels. More children can go to school, get an education and in time build up their own businesses.

Starting with secure, decent housing, proper sanitation and a training programme for the poorest farmers, this project heralds the re-growth of the whole country.

Return to the Côte d'Ivoire

Read about the experience of Habitat homeowner Kouadio in the Côte d'Ivoire

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