Unavailability of building materials

The scarcity of building materials affects development plans in other sectors, including agriculture, health and education. It impedes self-help construction efforts, especially in slums and squatter settlements. This forces the urban poor to use inappropriate building materials such as cardboard or mud to improve or build their housing.

In many countries there is a scarcity of local produced building materials, such as aggregates, bricks, tiles, limestone, cement etc.