Sites and services: Home ownership for the poor? : Issues for evaluation and Zimbabwean experience

In the short term, it is important to assess who has benefited from the initial allocation of plots in sites and services schemes and whether allottees have succeeded in constructing houses as planned. Most evaluations of serviced plot programmes to date have concentrated on these issues. It is acknowledged that individual projects in which one or more areas are serviced for ‘self-help’ house construction are insufficient to meet continued needs. Thus conditions for and achievement of replicability also need to be analysed. The provision and initial allocation of serviced plots, however, is only the first stage in the life of what are permanent residential areas. Housing processes in such areas are influenced by wider housing market trends and the policy context in addition to their original design and construction. Such processes are likely to include house exchange and rental of rooms in houses with resident or absentee landlords, and their outcomes to influence the socio-economic composition of the population who benefit from what were originally intended as low-income home ownership schemes. The outcome of serviced plot programmes will also depend on which private sector partners are involved in construction and financing and in what ways. These critical questions in evaluating the outcome of serviced plot policies are reviewed and illustrated by findings of research in Zimbabwe.