Habitat Defenders Africa (HDA) is a non-profit network bringing together variously qualified professionals to work together with the main purpose of improving the habitats of needy communities through knowledge creation, awareness raising, problem-solving, lobbying, advocating and sharing information for better policies, programs and practices that defend, protect, promote and realize human rights related to habitat both in urban and rural areas.
HDA considers that the habitat comprising human settlements with their environment is the natural home where many diverse people and communities coexist. Likewise, HDA founders and officers form a diverse but complementary collective of like-minded university graduates and professionals commonly seeking to preserve the habitat within an indivisible human rights and sustainable development framework, localizing the best of global norms. Toward building such a “human rights habitat,” HDA’s core mandate is coordinating professionals of diverse backgrounds to join forces and pool resources to defend, protect, promote and realise human rights related to habitat both in urban and rural areas.

Our mission is to develop and advocate transformative standards, practices, and means to achieve societal justice and improve living conditions within the normative framework of human rights related to habitat with a professional team of practitioners equipped with the knowledge and capacity to influence public policies within the urban and rural areas, while seeking progressive and systemic change.