Background
Namibia is moving towards an urbanised country. This is illustrated by the fact that at independence Namibia was only 28% urbanized by
2011 urbanization has already grown to 42% and current projections are that by 2020 urbanization would by 66% and more than 70% by
2030. As the urban population is growing the need for serviced land and housing is also growing. As Namibia has failed to respond through
appropriate strategies to facilitate this change in the human geography of the country it resulted in the growth of poorly serviced informal
settlements. These settlements are often far from jobs, services and social and economic amenities thus further increasing poverty level
in the urban areas.
What is an Informal Settlement:
The international description of slums are mostly used to describe informal settlements. The UN-Habitat (State of the Cities 2007/2008)
define it on a household level as a group of individuals living under the same roof in an urban area who lack one or more of the following:
1. Durable housing of a permanent nature that protects against extreme climate conditions.
2. Sufficient living space which means not more than three people sharing the same room.
3. Easy access to safe water in sufficient amounts at an affordable price.
4. Access to adequate sanitation in the form of a private or public toilet shared by a reasonable number of people.
5. Security of tenure that prevents forced evictions.
6. The importance of defining what an informal settlement is because for government does not stipulate in their national documents
what an informal settlement is, although some local authorities have definitions and categories for them in their legislation.
7. The informal sector in Namibia is important because according to the latest Namibia Labour Force Survey, 2/3 of those who are considered
to be employed find themselves within the informal sector (NSA, 2016).
The Scale of Informal Settlement
Formation in Namibia
Informal settlement formation is mainly a post-independence phenomenon, especially in the urban centres outside of the communal
areas. A few towns like Otjiwarongo and Okahandja (on a private farm) tolerated the formation of informal settlements, but by and large
urban movements were controlled and the right to land and construction of their own houses in these urban areas was limited to white
households.
This informal settlement picture changed after independence and sometimes came about through single quarters upgrading projects,
where households were relocated. About 70% of urban dwellers are living in informal settlements or structures and recent informal
settlement and back yard profiles (by Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia and informal settlement communities) indicate that 228,423
shacks in 308 informal settlement. The majority of the inhabitants form part of the 89% of the population that cannot afford commercial
market related land and shelter solutions.
Policies and Strategies regarding Informal
Settlements
There is not a specific strategy targeting informal settlements
on the national level, but the National Housing Policy (2009)
recognised it as a key challenge to create an enabling environment
for settlement upgrading by communities under the Peoples
Housing Process:
for a sustainable development approach, which would
institutionalize the involvement of low-income communities in
planning and land management for both informal settlement
upgrading and new block developments (community land tenure and
institutionalizing the registration of the participating households),
ensuring the availability of affordable land for shelter development
with bulk infrastructure, recognizing the practice of incremental
installation of individual services and construction of houses within
the framework of appropriate standards, facilitating development
Fact Sheet 6/2018
INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS
Integrated Land Management Institute
funding in the form of soft loans for shelter development and
grants to local and regional authorities for the installation of bulk
infrastructure and ensuring affordability with special service and
revenue tariff structures.
Furthermore a commitment is made in the policy that
The Government, in partnership with other role players, is
committed to upgrade 75% of the informal settlements to formal
townships by the year 2030. The attainment of this goal requires
the mobilization of public, private and community resources and
energy within the context of public, private and people partnership.
Financing and implementation plans at a national level did not
reach the required scale: A component of the Build Together
Program facilitates finances for upgrading services in informal
settlements. This used to be very small and only provide finance
for improving basic communal services.
Legally the Flexible Land Tenure Act of 2012 targets the security
of tenure for informal settlement communities and low-income
groups. The regulations have been approved and pilot projects in
Windhoek, Oshakati and Gobabis are under way.
What was Implemented? Local Authority Initiatives
On local authority level various initiatives are being implemented. The City of Windhoek has a Development and Upgrading Strategy
(1999). The city implemented registration of households, identifying and relocating households in dangerous areas, and re-block and install
services in informal settlements. The security of tenure for these inhabitants have not been achieved, although leasehold agreements for
some shack dwellers are in place. Otjiwarongo Municipality also started to settle households in planned areas. Support form Denmark (Ibis)
and Luxembourg (Lux Development) assisted Oshakati (OSHIP, by Ibis), Rundu and Katima Mulilo (Lux Development) to implement town-
scale upgrading work.
Involving the Communities: From CLIP to
Upgrading
1. Greenwell C: The Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia collected
informal settlement information and has been doing mapping
since 1999. In 2004 the City of Windhoek agreed for the Greenwell
Matongo C community to plan and upgrade their community
following a settlement enumeration. A comprehensive
agreement was signed and the community managed with the
support of Namibia Housing Action Group to plan their area and
install bulk infrastructure. When allocation procedures started
the City of Windhoek got involved. Although the re-blocking
was done, blocks of land were registered and savings continued.
However, the outstanding water bill appeared to prevent the
sales agreements with the community.
2. The lack of data regarding informal settlements was a main
challenge to the government. Therefore, in 2006 the Shack
Dwellers Federation of Namibia with Namibia Housing Action
Group agreed with the then Ministry of Regional, Local
Government and Housing to do a national profile of informal
settlements. The outcome of these profiles were combined and
then it was found that there were already estimate that there
were 134,800 households living in 235 informal settlements.
3. In 2012 Gobabis Municipality agreed to do a bottom up upgrading,
following a city wide enumeration and a feedback session in
Freedom Square in Gobabis. The area was mapped and a planning
studio conducted with NUST. The layout was prepared, a 1,000
household re-blocking was done, the community installed their
water lines and is currently installing their sewer lines. From the
previous lessons learned, this upgrading is taking a partnership
approach.
4. This has lead to a collaboration between stakeholders to work
on a strategy that can be scaled up that contain the following:
Focusing on basic services and security of tenure for the majority
of the urban dwellers through:
" Strengthen and Scale Up Community Land Information
Program (CLIP) and other land related information systems
" Participatory Planning for Informal Settlement Upgrading
and green field site development through Inclusive Citywide
Planning .
" Supporting community initiatives for installing services
" Secure tenure for households in informal settlements
" Building capacity to scale up delivery
" Learning by doing and feed into a national strategy and plan to
ensure secure tenure and basic services for all: Fast Track land
Availability (Learning from Informal Land Developers)
Learning is through practice and implementation and involve all
the stakeholders in the process
For further information:
Choices in Freedom Square: Bottom up Planning in Gobabis
https://youtu.be/l1Xy_LSq7Js
Planning Studios
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VajgCsABKWI
Document
http://sdfn.weebly.com/uploads/2/0/9/0/20903024/freedom_
square_report_clip2.pdf
Community driven sanitation video (greenfields)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEFuAiqsPaI
References:
NSA. (2016). The Namibia Labour Force Survey 2016 Report.
Windhoek: Namibia Statistics Agency. Retrieved from https://cms.
my.na/assets/documents/Labour_Force_Survey_-_20161.pdf
Republic of Namibia. Ministry of Regional and Local Government,
Housing and Rural Development. 2009. Namibia National Housing
Policy. Windhoek. MRLGHRD.
SDFN. (2009). Community Land Information Program (CLIP).
Shackdwellers Federation of Namibia & Namibia Housing Action
Group. Retrieved from http://www.sdinet.org/media/upload/
countries/documents/NAMclip_.pdf
UN-Habitat. State of the World Cities 2007/2008. Retrieved from :
http://mirror.unhabitat.org/documents/media_centre/sowcr2006/
SOWCR%205.pdf
Contact
For more information about the topic of this fact sheet, please
contact: Dr Anna Muller - nhag@iway.na
Acknowledgment
This fact sheet was developed by Dr Anna Muller, Namibia Housing
Action Group (NHAG). She can be contacted at nhag@iway.na
This fact sheet was produced on the occasion of the Short Course
for Journalists on Land Matters held on 7 September 2018. Other
fact sheets that were developed for this course focus on ancestral
land, urban land, housing, land reform, and communal land. They
can be downloaded at: http://ilmi.nust.na/
This event was possible through a partnership between the Editors
Forum of Namibia (EFN), the German Cooperation Agency (GIZ), the
Integrated Land Management Institute (ILMI), and the Namibia
Media Trust (NMT).