Leading the Transition Towards Sustainable Affordable Public Housing (SAPH) in Small Island Developing States (SIDS)

Affordable public housing has been identified as a key programme initiative towards social infrastructural development. Scholarship has shown that sustainable affordable public housing (SAPH) aids in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) and SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities). There exists a dire need for sustainable and affordable housing initiatives in Small Island Developing States (SIDS). The purpose of this research paper is to investigate the relationship between sustainability and affordable public housing development by extracting and ranking critical success factors (CSFs) associated with SAPH in Caribbean SIDS. By adopting a quantitative methodology, a closed-ended questionnaire was administered to relevant personnel associated with the construction industry to rank the risk impact of various success factors relating to SAPH and produce a Structural Equation Model (SEM). The findings revealed that CSFs for SAPH in SIDS are context specific and deviated from the general literature. CSFs were broadly grouped into economic, energy efficiency and transparency, and construction execution categories. The most pertinent CSF was the implementation of risk reduction inputs into the planning stages of construction projects. These risk reduction inputs are important preventive measures for disasters and contribute to achieving social, economic and environmental sustainability within Caribbean SIDS. This research aims to bridge the gap between academic research and praxis to advance a sustainable construction industry within SIDS while contributing to the critically limited body of knowledge on SAPH within developing nations. It also aims to form the foundation of sustainable housing within SIDS based on the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) theory.