This work examines the effectiveness of Site and Services schemes in Low and
Medium income housing provision in Nigeria. Site and Service Schemes represent
a major innovation in shelter policy in developing countries and have been
sponsored by international and local aid agencies for more than a decade. Such
government projects deliver a package of shelter-related services. Typically,
such projects represent a sharp break with pre-existing government shelter
policies in that they attempt, in principles, to focus directly on lower-income
group and to deliver shelter and services with small or no subsidies. This study
describes the background of Sites and Services, reviews recent evaluation of
sites and services projects, presents an analytical model of the sites and services
paradigm (which is used to examine how major project outcomes are influenced
by project design), recapitulates housing demand in developing countries (which
is relevant to designing appropriate sites and services projects). Conclusively,
the management of sites and services scheme should be revisited, redesigned and
made in line with the socio-cultural attributes of the local communities where
they are to be sited because a universal approach may not be suitable for all
communities in Nigeria, given the diversity of value, culture and social values as
well as natural environmental settings