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Private Bag 13388
Windhoek
NAMIBIA
T: +264 61 207 2483
F: +264 61 207 9483
E: ilmi@nust.na
W: www.nust.na
Faculty of Natural Resources and Spatial Sciences
Integrated Land Management Institute
Namibias urban revolution
Article in The Namibian newspaper, published on Friday, June 29th, 2018
Recently, the United Nations latest World Urbanization Prospects were released. While the global trend
continues to be an increased growth of urban areas, there was an important landmark for Namibia. 2018
appears to be the moment when half of Namibias population is living in an urban area. To put this in
perspective, South Africa experienced this precisely in 1990; while Latin America as a whole reached this
point in the 1960s. Differently from earlier projections in 2014, Namibias urbanization seems to be
happening at an even faster rate than expected four years ago. The current estimates foresee that by 2050,
only a third of Namibias population will live in a rural area.
Such a transformation is not linear, and is not only about the growth of urban centres. The rural becomes
more urban with widespread telecommunication coverage, improved transport and energy networks, or
modern building in traditional contexts. The traditional also doesnt disappear, but finds itself with new
tools at its disposal and new circumstances in its development. The question is whether there is nation-wide
awareness of the significance of the deep socio-spatial transformation that Namibia is undergoing to be able
to steer this transformation.
Source: World Urbanization Prospects, 2018.
An example of this is the Second Land Conference, which is set to take place later this year. In 1991, when
the first Land Conference took place, less than a third of the population lived in an urban area. It may have
been understandable then that little emphasis was placed on urban land matters. However, the
consequences of neglecting urbanization are experienced by many today. While the informal urban
population in 1990 was estimated to be only 20%, today the majority of those living in urban areas live in
informal settlements, as the Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibias Community Land Information
Programme shows. Similarly, recent figures also point to the fact that Namibias informal economy is
overtaking the formal economy in terms of employment, and even GDP. These are massive changes which
took only three decades to take place. Therefore, the Second Land Conference should not merely look at the
50/50 rural/urban context in 2018, but at the 2050 situation where more than 3 million inhabitants are
expected to be living in urban areas in Namibia alone, and when the urban/rural proportion will be exactly
the opposite as that in 1990.
13 Storch Street
Private Bag 13388
Windhoek
NAMIBIA
T: +264 61 207 2483
F: +264 61 207 9483
E: ilmi@nust.na
W: www.nust.na
Faculty of Natural Resources and Spatial Sciences
Integrated Land Management Institute
Attention to the urban question is required. While indeed Africa as a whole is still largely rural, it is the
fastest-urbanising continent in the world. Despite this, only one in three African countries have a national
urbanisation plan or strategy; Namibia is not one of them. Without such a plan, future and ongoing
developmental programmes remain without a clear lead on how to achieve more with the most strategic
use of public resources. Such a plan could also lead the grassroots, civil society and the private sector in
joining government in its efforts, as the objectives in terms of where socio-spatial development is heading
would be outlined. To do so, it would need legitimacy, which would require engaging the various voices
claiming their right to the city.
The key aspect of urban growth, is how the growth is taking place. Namibia continues at the top of the
most unequal countries in the world, and its towns, cities and settlements, as well as its rural areas and
other spaces are not only a reflection of this, but also engines perpetuating and expanding structural
inequities. The urgent call is to start imagining an urban future; to envision a kind of growth that is less
uneven, that breaks with the segregated past, and that presents a vision of the new society that is hoped for
in the future.
Guillermo Delgado coordinates the Land, livelihoods and housing programme at the Integrated Land
Management Institute (ILMI); Phillip Lühl is a lecturer at the Department of Architecture and Spatial
Planning; both at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST). They can be reached at
ilmi@nust.na
Reference
UNDESA. (2018). World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revision. United Nations Population Division,
Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Retrieved from https://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/
About ILMI The Integrated Land Management Institute is a centre at the Namibia University of Science and
Technology (NUST) committed to develop reputable and multidisciplinary research and public outreach
activities in the field of land, administration, property, architecture and spatial planning. http://ilmi.nust.na/