Kenyan Youth Innovations To The Informal Housing Challenge.
In many developing countries, informal settlements are a widespread occurrence. "Informal settlement" is sometimes misinterpreted as a shorthand for urban poverty and misery, overcrowding, and exposure to environmental dangers. This may be influenced by the fact that informal settlements lack essential infrastructural services and facilities and have a high concentration of difficulties to cities' social and political fabric.
Population growth, rural-urban migration, a lack of affordable housing, weak governance, particularly in policy, planning, and urban management, economic vulnerability and low-paid work, marginalization, and displacement caused by conflict, natural disasters, and climate change have all contributed to the emergence of these informal settlements.
This issue affects people of all ages, young and elderly. Indeed, because most of the population has not yet decided where they will live, the informal housing dilemma disproportionately affects the more youthful generation.
In regards to this, The Youth Café organized a community ideation and innovation event on the 19th February 2022 in partnership with The Aga Khan University, University of the Fraser Valley, Innovative Governance of Large Urban Systems, UN-Habitat -Youth Café-Urban Economic Forum, and other private sector and community partners. The focus was on the informal youth housing challenge and its impact on young people to address the everyday housing challenge.
Several experts in the housing sector were in attendance, including Dr. Cherrie Enns from the University of the Fraser Valley, Canada; David Malonza, an expert in ideation; Ruth Agnes, an architectural expert; and Cobby Achieng, from The University Of Nairobi. These experts also formed part of the panel to evaluate the group's projects.
The event participants, divided into two groups, were Johnson Mboya, Jacintah Mukethi, Maxwell Onyango, and Ezekiel Nyamanga for group one and Rebecca Wenani, Roseline Wamuyu, Jane Abonyo, and Peter Njuguna for group two. Elizabeth Muoti, John Mwaniki, and Edwin Kimenye joined virtually via zoom.
The Youth Cafés staff, including Rhoda Atieno, Akwomi Godwin, Vivian Gathecha, and Julie Jepkemboi, were present to help the participants present their ideas in affinity diagrams and the persona Creation Exercise.
The event's objective was to bring together a multidisciplinary team of professionals, community leaders, and students to facilitate improved development processes and policy outputs in response to youth informal housing challenges that promote the collaboration and participation of all relevant stakeholders.
The event was jump-started by Dr. Cherrie Enns of The University of the Fraser Valley, who gave a brief session on the Youth Oriented Housing Challenge idea. Dr. Cherrie raised the concern of the World Economic Population estimated to have a 300% increase by 2045, which would be 6 billion, calling for an emphasis on changing and improving housing conditions and statuses worldwide, especially among the youth, as the larger population. Sustainable development goal 11 of sustainable cities and communities, Target 11.1, states that:" By 2030, ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services and upgrade slums."
United Nations Declaration of Human Rights; homelessness: an issue of Basic Human Rights gives insight into what The Youth Café aims to achieve through the Youth Informal Housing Challenge. The UN Declaration acknowledges and pushes to achieve an adequate standard of living, health and well-being, housing, and social services. In light of the Youth Informal Housing Challenge, Dr. Cherrie highlighted the New Urban Agenda "Leave No One Behind, by ending poverty in all its forms and dimensions to ensure equal rights and opportunities and provide equal access to adequate and affordable housing." This brief session of information helped set the mood of the event's agenda and outlook on The Youth Informal Housing Challenge.
"So, what three most important aspects would you desire in your house?" asked Dr. Cherrie Enns. The participants were asked this question for evaluation and grouped in similarity with differing priorities, including cost, water, security, food accessibility, electricity, access to social amenities, waste disposal, and interior design. It was apparent then that affordability and energy access, including internet access, are vital priorities for a house. Noted too was that the government should intervene in such projects as The Youth Informal Housing Challenge for funds and acceleration to create awareness to stakeholders who can assist in its success.
Fundamental in The Youth Informal Housing Challenge was the persona creation. Guided by Dr. Cherrie Enns and David Malonza, The Youth Cafés staff and the participants understood the nitty gritties for the exercise to commence. Dr. Cherrie Enns explained that the persona answers, "Who are we designing for?". So for the persona's creation, the needs, problems to be solved, fulfillment of the persona's requirements, characteristics and attributes or personalities, age(the youth as a demographic), lifestyle, income, and family need to be understood. The persona creation activity and model was to help create an image of the subject or person to see how their life can and will be transformed by The Youth Informal Housing Challenge, for example, if they were to build a house that fulfills their needs.
The Affinity Diagram creation exercise followed after creating and presenting the personas by the groups. The activity was guided by David Malonza, who explained how the affinity diagram interlinks or groups together ideas for prioritization and later puts ideation into a context that can be presented, explained, and understood.
According to Malonza, the Affinity Diagram is grounded on; "quantity being better than quality" to broaden specs of ideas and develop innovative solutions. The participants of each group came up with suggestive ideas of solutions to problems that were placed as a priority through the Disruption Model introduced by Malonza. The Disruption Model depicts a square, a triangle, and a circle to represent conventions, disruption, and vision. Conventions explain insanity - doing the same thing repeatedly while expecting different results; the disorder entails ideas of change and acceleration or conversion from conventions to the vision which outlines the intended achievement and aspiration. The groups effectively created their affinity diagrams giving a holistic life to their persona, placing importance on the hierarchy of needs to get to the core of what matters to the youth.
David Malonza and Dr. Cherrie Enns made remarks concerning the participants' affinity diagrams, focusing on the concepts and outlook of how the generated ideas will transform their persona's life, accessibility mostly in terms of affordability and the size of apartments or units to be built for the youth. The youth are the voice and can invite investors to incline to concrete, compelling, and justified ideas, which The Youth Café strives to achieve through The Youth Informal Housing Challenge.
The Youth Informal Housing Challenge event was a success. The program ran smoothly and accomplished the day's agenda, including an introduction, problem statement, persona creation, affinity diagram, and ideation. All individuals in attendance left content having made great connections, shared their experiences and opinions, and finally had a great learning experience. The participants, in particular, learned and gained a lot from the event and were able to interact and learn a lot from experts like Dr. Cherrie Enns, David Malonza, and Ruth Agnes Omollo with years of experience and skills from their areas of expertise.
The participants successfully came up with two personas; one depicting the life of a 20-year-old student struggling with his living situation and with a desire for an affordable house closer to his college that fits his budget as a student, access to the internet for his school research, and a quiet place to study. The second persona depicted the life of a young school dropout living with her family in Kibera, struggling with unemployment and lack of a stable income, affordable home for her family, access to education and electricity, and poor drainage.
The persona desires an affordable home, a safe and clean environment, access to good health and education, access to electricity, and standardized infrastructure. The participants completed the creation of an affinity diagram, with each group coming up with their own. The exercise involved members of the two groups coming up with several ideas meant to address The Youth Informal Housing Challenge. These ideas were then grouped according to their similarities, creating an affinity diagram. The affinity diagram spearheaded the ideation process as several ideas were generated and shared amongst the participants.
One group came up with possible solutions to address the critical needs of their persona. The university student's needs included transport, internet access, a good workspace, security, proper sanitation, furnished house, and recreation. The solution to the transport challenge to college was to build a house near campus, roads with good infrastructure, and accessible and convenient means of transport. The internet challenge for this case will be addressed by ensuring the availability of electricity and having ready installation included in the rent amount.
A good workspace requires somewhere quiet, not so much of a busy place with construction noises or cars. The security solution is to have street lights put in place and use solar as a backup for electricity, save on costs, and hire a security guard to be paid, inclusive of the rent. Sanitation includes waste, drainage, and clean water through weekly garbage collection and disposal or making a manageable garbage area to be taken out over some time, for example, monthly. The house shall be furnished to the persona's affordability because self renovation is expensive, and having it near a place with recreation activities like art studios will be refreshing.
For their 24-year-old persona earning small wages in Kibera, the other group prioritized the need for sound drainage systems, affordable housing, and access to technology. Evaluation of the capability to pay for an improved house and encouraging single sectional apartments which can accommodate more than one or two people with shared spaces like the kitchen.
The ideas generated will then be presented on Thursday of the 24th, February 2022 at 4:30 pm in an online convention with the attendance of UN-Habitat and later on progress to present selected ideas to the Urban Economic Forum, whose pavilion is in Canada on 3rd March 2022.
The Youth Café works with young men and women around Africa as a trailblazer in advancing youth-led approaches toward achieving sustainable development, social equity, innovative solutions, community resilience, and transformative change.
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