Reflections on the Ghana Institute of Architects’ 2026 World Architecture Day Celebration Theme: “Housing is a Human Right. Build It.”

The theme of the 2026 World Architecture Day Celebration, organised by the Ghana Institute of Architects, “Housing is a Human Right. Build It,” is both timely and necessary. However, the theme raises a more fundamental question: Who are we building for?

Too often, discussions about affordable housing in Ghana assume that affordability automatically equates to accessibility for low-income households. In reality, affordability is relative. Many so-called affordable housing developments remain out of reach for low-income earners and are accessible mainly to middle- and high-income households. As a result, those who need secure, decent housing most remain excluded from the formal housing market.

Ghana's housing finance system compounds the challenge by largely targeting formally employed individuals with predictable incomes. Yet most of Ghana's workforce operates in the informal economy. Street vendors, artisans, market women, fisherfolk, transport operators, domestic workers, casual labourers, and many others contribute significantly to urban economies but often do not qualify for conventional mortgages or housing schemes. Consequently, many are forced to seek shelter in overcrowded informal settlements, where access to basic services remains inadequate.

From this perspective, Ghana's housing deficit is not merely a supply problem. It is fundamentally an inclusion problem. When housing policies and programmes overlook low-income households and informal sector workers, they inadvertently sustain informality, overcrowding, spatial inequality, and poor sanitation outcomes. The growth of informal settlements is therefore not simply a consequence of rapid urbanisation but also reflects housing systems that fail to accommodate the needs of the urban poor.

The 2026 theme challenges architects, planners, policymakers, financial institutions, and local authorities to move beyond counting housing units and focus instead on expanding equitable access to housing. A human-rights approach to housing requires deliberate attention to affordability, tenure security, accessibility, location, and the realities of informal livelihoods.

As we reflect on this theme, the conversation should focus not only on housing delivery but also on housing justice. How do we provide decent housing for the cleaner who maintains our offices, the artisan who builds our houses, the market trader, the street

hawker, the informal transport operator, the fisherfolk, and the public-school teacher? How do we develop housing finance mechanisms that recognise irregular incomes? How do we ensure housing policies respond to the realities of the majority, not the privileged few?

To make housing a genuine human right in Ghana, policy must prioritise inclusion alongside housing delivery. Ghana's housing deficit exceeds 1.8 million units, while approximately 80% of the labour force operates in the informal economy, limiting access to conventional mortgage finance (Ghana Statistical Service, 2021; Ministry of Works and Housing, 2023). This mismatch highlights the need for a housing system that reflects how most Ghanaians earn a living.

Three policy priorities are particularly important:

• Expand inclusive housing finance through flexible mortgage, incremental housing, and savings products tailored to informal sector workers.
• Increase the supply of affordable housing and serviced land, while promoting affordable rental housing for households unable to access homeownership.
• Strengthen housing inclusion and governance by upgrading informal settlements, enhancing tenure security, setting inclusion targets in public housing programmes, and empowering Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to lead local housing planning and delivery.

Ghana's challenge is not simply to build more houses. It is to build a housing system that works for everyone. The true measure of success under the theme “Housing is a Human Right. Build It.” will not be the number of housing units delivered, but the extent to which market traders, fisherfolk, artisans, transport operators, domestic workers, teachers, and other low-income citizens can access decent, secure, and affordable housing. Housing justice will be achieved not when more houses are built, but when every Ghanaian, regardless of income or employment status, has a realistic opportunity to access decent, secure, and affordable housing.

ARC. KWAME KWAASI DANSO

Architect | Land Administration Consultant | Urban Planning Researcher