**6.3 Regulation and standards**

Sustainable housing should be long term, requiring a healthy and clear institutional setting that allows all stakeholders to play their part without fail [35]. To achieve this, the government which is the key stake holder by virtue of the crucial position which they occupy in the country has to introduce a national housing strategy and a strong legislative framework. Policies and governance structures as it pertains to various developing countries has to be reformed, strategic investment, research and training programmes launched. All these will help full institutionalization of sustainable housing policy in both governmental and non-governmental structures that is not subject to changes in government [34].

#### **6.4 Financial incentives and economic instruments**

Mobilization of financial resources by advocacy with government institution, involving the private and public-private partnership for the implementation of sustainable housing projects.

Provide funding to support emerging businesses and innovative technologies.

Low-income households, especially in developing countries, often do not have the initial capital needed for building sustainable housing or can face problems of paying back loans [10], therefore it is important to make available financial support that provide cheap credit [42].

Creating jobs for locales through sustainable construction projects.

### **6.5 Capacity building**

Building capacities of institutions and actors is crucial for scaling up sustainable housing practices. Capacity development refers to the development of the whole housing sector whereas capacity building is targeted at improving skills of stakeholders through education, skill acquisition programs, collecting and sharing data bank of best practices. This is important for recognizing crucial needs, develop capacities to implement housing that takes care of these needs and scale up sustainable practices [34, 35].

#### **6.6 Pilot studies and scaling up**

Embarking on pilot projects addressing sustainable housing is very important to test the viability of the project before executing it at full scale. It helps manage risk and reveal serious deficiencies or errors in the plan before committing major

## *Sustainable Housing in Developing Countries: A Reality or a Mirage DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99060*

resources to the project. However, it is crucial to scale up sustainable housing practices to meet the massive housing demand that exists, and that will be in demand over the coming decades as expected of developing countries. Scaling up requires three key ingredients; a supportive institutional and regulatory environment, timely monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, and appropriate capacity development of the housing sector and capacity building of housing sector actors [35, 43]. Achieving sustainable housing in developing countries could still remain a mirage if necessary measures such as the recommendations listed above still remain out of place.
