9/26/2018

Second National Land Conference

October 01 05, 2018

NALAO & ALAN
TOGETHER FOR INSPIRING EXCELLENCE IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT
ADMINISTRATION AND GOVERNANCE

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POSITION PAPER ON URBAN LAND IN PREPARATION OF THE SECOND NATIONAL LAND CONFERENCE BY THE

NAMIBIAN ASSOCIATION OF LOCAL AUTHORITY OFFICIALS (NALAO) AND THE ASSOCIATION OF LOCAL

AUTHORITIES IN NAMIBIA (ALAN)

1. Introduction

The future is urban and urbanization remains by far the most pertinent transformative issue

for Africa in the 21st century. It is projected that more than half of Africas population will live

in cities by 2040. There is broad consensus that the fact that Namibia was only 28% urbanized

at independence is one of the reasons why the issue of urban land reform was not considered

in the First National Land Conference in 1991. However it was already evident in the 2011

National Census that the picture of rural urban balance was rapidly shifting as it showed that

Namibia was already 42% urbanized by 2011. Furthermore the recent United Nations World

Urbanization Prospects indicates that in 2018 Namibia is crossing a significant threshold as

over half of Namibias population now lives in an urban area.

Many believe that the lack of focus on urbanization in the early years of Namibian

independence has largely contributed to unplanned and uncoordinated growth of towns and

cities in Namibia. Thus the proliferation of informal settlements in Namibia. A recent (2017)

research report (Exploring Ways to make Namibian urban development more socially just and

inclusive) by Beat Weber and John Mendelson offers some practical and achievable solutions

to help address some of the challenges of informal settlement growth. The report correctly

argues that pragmatic and well considered strategic action by local has the best chance of

success in responding to the challenges of urbanization and informal settlement growth.

It is clear that the inaccessibility of decent, secure and affordable land is the reason why there

are so any informal settlements in Namibia and it is a contributing factor to urban poverty.

This is further compounded by the fragmentation of planning and land delivery issues

throughout government policy. However we are heartened to note that the urban land issues

are becoming more and more central to the discourse at the 2nd National Land Conference. It

is imperative that concerted action is needed in the area of land use management in urban

localities to make sure that we see a more equitable as well as environmentally and socially

sustainable use of limited urban land resources.

In many respects the above cites research is a wake-up call and we need to rise to the occasion

as urbanization brings with it increasing demands for urban land, housing, infrastructure and

service delivery. Thus there is a need for demonstrated commitment to reform policy and

legal frameworks for more inclusive cities and towns, increase the scale of public and private

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investment in infrastructure development and strengthening of institutions and systems that

deals with land delivery.

2. Contextual Overview

Coming from an apartheid colonialism background urban land use planning over the last 28
years have done very little to stem the tide of spatial segregation. Because of our history of
racial segregation and separate development the 2nd National Land Conference need to pave
the way for Namibia to address the inefficient structure of urban areas that is known for its
fragmented residential settlement patterns, underdeveloped business areas in the townships
and long travel distances between home, work, schools and sports facilities. One of the key
outcomes therefore needs to be spatial transformation in our towns and cities that should
lead to socio-spatial integration, improved access to services and social and economic
inclusion of the mass of our people.

So many years after independence we are still having prohibitive building regulations that
undermines the use of alternative and affordable building material even after the
establishment and operation of the Habitat Research Centre. Furthermore there is the burden
of insecure tenure rights (which at least is now being addressed through Flexible Land Tenure
Act which is still being implemented on a pilot basis in Windhoek, Gobabis and Oshakati for
now). In addition there is the ever increasing property tax burden and unaffordable land and
housing prices that chokes even the middle class. Even the houses that were built under the
Mass Housing Program remains prohibitive to the low income housing group for which this
program was meant for.

Land and housing remains prohibitively expensive with no end in sight for speculative pricing.
In recent years Namibias housing and land prices have been compared with the highest in
the world, including prices in Dubai. In 2014 both the New Era and The Namibian Newspapers
reported that house prices in Windhoek are second only to Dubai. In that report Namene Kalili
from the FNB Group was quoted to indicate that in 2014 house prices increase 29% year on
year to bring the FNB House Price Index to 234.7 index points. In that same reported it was
alluded that a median price of N$ 774 000 households must earn at least N$ 23 000 per month
to afford an average property. This is almost three times the average household income for
urban household in Namibia. Even for the lower segment the income requirement came to
about N$ 15 000. This implies that less than 10% of the households in the country can afford
a property in the lower price segment. At that time the FNB analysis indicated that land prices
were 23% higher and over N$ 140 000 for 410 square meters.

What makes matters even more difficult is the fact that even 27 years after independence the
existing planning schemes, zonings and the cadastral system are in many ways exclusive of
the needs of low-income households and communities and seem to result in the
disempowerment and alienation of those that they intend to include and empower. In
Namibia urban land use management is associated more with inflexible and antiqued
modernist notions of planning that have resulted in urban sprawl, growing informal
settlements, unequal and environmentally unsustainable urban development.

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Consequently what we have at present is a situation where the vast majority of citizens and
communities are left out of the planning process or overlooked by the content of urban
polices. More often than not such communities are regarded as problems and consequently
denied their rights to the city. This leads a many communities and the urban poor being
condemned to subserviced, deprived and stigmatized periphery of urban areas. In the
Namibian context as in the South Africa that shares a common history because unlike most
of Africa the bulk of urban land is part of formal land circuits owned either privately, by the
state of by local authorities. Thus most land is recognized and nominally controlled by the
state as opposed to being informal and beyond the control of government or in the hands of
illegal land barons.

Consequently while it may be true that we have challenges with multiple and unequal systems
of urban land management the Namibian government ultimately has control over almost all
urban land management issues.

In order for Namibia to attain the shared vision of urban development there is a need for the
2nd National Land Conference to agree on integrated and coordinated interventions to deal
with social exclusion, environmental threats, economic inefficiencies, logistical bottlenecks,
urban insecurity and decaying infrastructure. There needs to be shared understanding across
government, civil society and other stakeholders about how best to manage urbanization in
order to create more caring, resilient and inclusive cities and towns in Namibia.

Our contention is that appropriately integrated directive planning and land use management
is a vital ingredient of the states ability to pursue redistributive goals and transformation of
city spaces. In this vein it is encouraging to note that the new Regional and Urban Planning
Act has the following key principles to progressive land use planning i.e.

" Decentralization to provide a system where planning decisions and tasks can be
taken at the lowest level and to combine responsibility for decision-making with
accountability for financial, social and environmental consequences.

" Comprehensive Long-term Spatial Planning this should combine the overall land
use policies and the more detailed land use regulations into a single spatial planning
framework that covers the total jurisdiction. Such planning should also emphasize the
political vision of integration and socio-spatial equality and should not just focus on
bureaucratic regulations

" Participation: There should be broad based participation of local communities and
stakeholders in order to create broader shared understanding for planning
regulations and it should form the basis for the wider strategy of socio-spatial
transformation.

3. Key Conclusions

We have an opportunity at the Second National Conference to respond more proactively to
achieve a unified and innovative response to the building of inclusive, resilient, safe and

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liveable towns and cities. In other words our towns and cities must become good places to
live, work, shop and play.

In doing these there must be recognition that the majority of lower income urban residents
prefer to build their homes incrementally as demonstrated by the now openly successful
model of the Shack Dwellers Federation (SDFN) in partnership with the National Housing
Action Group (NHAG). They generally add rooms or floors as resources permit without
building up too much long term indebtedness. They do this because they usually earn irregular
incomes from periodic employment and or informal jobs or small scale informal business
income. There is therefore a need to look at different kinds of solutions for various households
that relates to the different income categories in order to make more land available both for
housing and small and medium enterprise development.

However in many ways the urban poor continue to be treated like blocks of colour on a town
planning scheme map, to be lifted up here and pasted down there and not like human beings
with real needs, real families and real aspirations, living in real communities. Invariably spatial
development plans which decide what is going to happen where in a town or city, and land
use policies that determine how land is to be used are often regard as technical documents
which only technical people can understand and who preparation is purely a technical
exercise of arranging roads, zones, drainage and access with the greatest efficiency.

Our position is that while it might be true that some of the aspects of spatial planning have a
technical dimension to it, the developmental plans and land use policies are highly political
and should be treated as such. That is why one of our key conclusions is that land use and
management plans should not be engraved in stone but that every aspect should be
negotiable. If we can find ways to allow poor communities to be part of the planning that
affects their lives and settlement, our Namibian towns can grow in ways that dont cause
displacement, misery and impoverishment for large portions of the urban population. This
approach was demonstrated in the Gobabis Planning Studios in partnership with the Shack
Dwellers Federation of Namibia (SDFN), National Housing Action Group and the Namibia
University of Science and Technology (NUST) and is also being tested in Karibib currently with
huge success.

It is our contention that it is possible to develope and implement land management policies
that could serve our citizens better and unlock the social, cultural and economic potentials of
our towns and cities. The unfortunate reality remains that if one would take a stroll or take a
drive around most of our towns in Namibia it appears that we have enough land speaking
from a physical point of view. This seems to underscore the notion that many believe and that
we also subscribe to that the scarcity of urban land has more to do with ill considered policies
and legislative frameworks than from natural physical limitations.

Some of the challenges are compounded by placing strict limits on the height, type and use
of buildings that could have put on a lot in a vain effort to discourage both density and further
in migration to our towns and cities. Some conversions of land from rural to urban uses are
sometimes restricted with good reasons but at the same time speculators both public and
private are allowed to sit on vacant parcels of land indefinitely even though such land could
be put to good use. It is situations like these that strengthen the argument that it is our

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policies and regulations that contribute to a large extend to shortages of affordable land and
results in exorbitant land and housing prices in urban areas.

One of the key concerns that has caused tensions in the past and needs to be handled with
the sensitivity it deserves is the issue of the interface between traditional leaders and local
authority councilors. Especially when town boundaries are expanded or when new local
authorities are established in areas adjacent to or that includes traditional authority areas.

Linked to this issue is the whole issue of ancestral land in urban areas as well as what the real
value of compensation should be. So often communities are incensed when they see that the
same land for which they have been compensated a smaller amount is rezoned and sold at
three to five times what they have been compensated. Thus compensation needs to consider
those factors.

It is not our intention to address all the comprehensive issues around urban land management
through this position paper but to address key policy drivers and strategies that could
transform the urban landscape and improve the lives of our citizens for the better. This
include amongst others taking a renewed perspective on issues like land regulation, property
taxation and private public partnerships, then also to look at some tools that have been used
with some level of success in other contexts and mobilizing the political will and urgency to
push forward urban land reform in our lifetime.

4. RECOMMENDATIONS

4.1 The Need for a National Urbanization Policy and National Spatial Development

Framework

The continued rapid pace of urbanization in Namibia in the context of the diversity of
urban settlement types and the apartheid colonial legacy suggest that Namibia need to
urgently articulate a clear understanding of our national urban system and how it fits with
the overall spatial and land use dynamics in the country. Such an understanding can only
be clearly articulated in a national urbanization policy.

Typically a policy of this kind would clearly articulate the governments understanding
definition and understanding of the shape of the national spatial system including the
network of cities, towns and rural settlements and their respective functions. Such a
national spatial policy framework will also articulate the drivers of urbanization and
inform how rural urban migration dynamics are understood and managed.

4.2 Improved Regulation can increase access to land

Regulations related to zoning, need and desirability and other town planning and
administrative procedures play a key role in determining the pace and direction of how
our towns and cities grow and develop. Some of the zoning and land use regulations aims
to prevent what is considered as incompatible uses like housing and industry being
developed close to each other without considering the social, economic or environmental
consequences.

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As a consequence by separating commercial and residential areas far from each other it
increases the transport costs and time and the poor are more adversely affected because
they tend to be at the fringes of the town. In addition the planning and building standards
are so high that it becomes an extra barrier for low income groups seeking affordable land
and housing. The existing property markets and land continues to undermine access to
urban opportunities and reinforces highly inefficient urban sprawl.

4.3 Business Process Review and Re-engineering to improve procedures for development
application.

One of the most constraining factors in terms of land delivery in Namibia is administrative
procedures and steps to get access to a piece of land. Even business people and the well-
off of complain about the duration of time it takes to get access to land for both business
and residential purposes, the situation is even worse for the poor. The administrative
process is cumbersome, time consuming and expensive and to rub salt into the wound
there is also no certainty of a positive outcome. This is one of the reasons that forces many
people even some in the middle and high income to develope and modify property
without official approval.

The number of steps and the time and cost required to register or transfer land and obtain
permission for development deter large numbers of people of all income groups from
completing the process. It can take anything from two and a half to four years in Namibia
to take a piece of land through the whole regulatory processes of NAMPAB and the
Townships Board.

We recommend that in addition to the now passed Regional and Urban Planning Act the
government set up a task force to do an audit of standards, regulations approval
procedures and staffing practices for urban land management. The purpose of such a
process and capacity audit would be to review the existing regulations, standards and
administrative processes with the view towards eliminating those regulations and
processes that are unnecessary , outdated, unsuitable, inappropriate, obstructionist and
that throw up barriers to access land for those who need it most.

As part of the audit such a task force should identify regulations and standards that
protect the public interest, especially those that relates to health, safety and the
environment and also suggest appropriate revisions to planning and building standards,
regulations and administrative procedures relating to the processes of registering land or
applications for development with the purpose of identifying and eliminating unnecessary
rules and regulations that restricts access to more affordable land and adequate housing.
Incentives for staff working in the government and private sector offices and agencies
charged with land and housing delivery should also be considered in the same review.

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4.4 Explore Better Land and Property Taxation Options

One of the most effective options for regulating land markets can be through land and
property taxation regimes. Besides that fact that land and property tax is a good source
of revenue such taxes can also be collected on the basis that part of the increases in real
estate value could be captured and reinvested for the benefit of the community through
social investment. In the same vein progressive tax policies can guide development to
areas where it is most needed and generate revenue for a wide range of public needs.
Needles to say that this will require the political will to pass the necessary legislation and
then to develope the institutional capacity to implement the legislative imperatives. If
either of these factors is lacking this issue of progressive property land taxes would
obviously be a non-starter in terms of being an effective incentive for development.

Currently the value in property taxation can be calculated on either the annual (rental)
value on the capital (market/sales) value or on the actual estimated annual rent, and the
latter part being on the value of the property that has recently been sold. This implies that
the rental value reflects the value of the property in its current use, while the capital value
includes a bigger element of the markets expectations on its future use. With current rate
of urbanisation in some of the major urban centres like Oshakati, Walvis Bay and
Windhoek it might make sense to use the capital value system in order to link the tax
burden closer to urban growth.

Some of the options for a progressive tax regime might include:

" Site Value Taxation also known as land value taxation which is based on charging
the landholder a portion of the assessed site only vale of the unimproved land.
This is slightly different from the normal property tax which includes the value of
buildings and improvements on the land.

" Vacant Land Tax this is a direct tax applied to undeveloped idle property as a
means to boost supply; bring down construction cost and promote development.
If managed well it can actually discourage speculation and encourage more rapid
and dense developments of urban areas. This is most likely to get stiff opposition
from vested interest holding on to vacant land in the hope of maximising future
profits. However this kind of practices only serve narrow interests because by
withholding land from supply process will inevitable increase and the rest of the
community end up paying the price for it eventually.

" Betterment Levy this is also known as the benefit sharing or land value capture
tax and is a sort of a slight variant of the land value tax in which increases in private
land values created by new public investment are partially or fully captured to pay
for that investment or other public projects. These values can also be captured not
only through taxes but also through fees, exactions or other fiscal means.

" Split rate Property Taxations this is a type of two tiered real estate tax which
takes the value of a piece of property and splits it into two parts: the value of the
land and the value of the improvements to the land. It reduces the tax on the
improvements to the land and increases the tax on the land. This can be helpful

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especially to encourage historic renovation, building rehabilitation and the
development of vacant in existing neighbourhoods. In this type of taxation land is
taxed at a higher level than buildings to provide an incentive for owners to
maintain and improve their properties

4.5 Private Public Partnerships

Public-private partnerships can be broadly defined as relationships and commitments
among public and private institutions and can also include non-profit civil society and
community groups to cooperate. In Namibia there is a growing recognition that housing
and land issues are simply to enormous to solve with the energies, creativity and
productive efficiency of the private sector. However it should also be noted that when
bottlenecks occur the problems becomes too complex the private sector alone cannot
solve it that is why this strategy should go hand in hand with regulatory and tax reform.
We believe that the private sector would respond well to changes in the regulatory
environment particularly through the Regional and Urban Planning Bill as well as the
Private Public Partnership Act and those public private partnerships can play an important
role in improving access to land in our country.

For the public sector the main issue is primarily to protect the wider public interest and in
particular those of the vulnerable groups. The public sector also sets the legal, policy and
institutional rules under which all actors can operate on equal terms. Generally for the
privet sector the primary interest is to maximise returns on investment while minimising
cost and risks. For the NGOs, community based groups and the civil society sector the
main concerns are social and economic justice.

For public private partnerships t work there is a need to bridge the gap of institutional
culture and long held prejudices between the public and private sector. More often than
not the private sector views the public sector as incompetent, inflexible and corrupt while
many public officials consider private developers as greedy and only interested in short
term financial gains.

In the context of both the Procurement Act and the Public Private Partnership Act one
could consider some of the following methods.

" Request for Proposals (RFPs) - this is an invitation to suitably qualified developers
to submit proposals for a specific site. It would normally specify mandatory
requirements as well as a number of additional optional elements. Developers
who meet all the mandatory requirements as well as most of the optional
elements will be the winning proposal. This approach provides an opportunity to
identify risks and benefits upfront. The process can be made transparent to
facilitate good governance.

" Another possible instrument could be the Site Development Briefs. These are
clear policy statements by local authorities with the support of the line Ministry
and planning oversight bodies like NAMPAB which specifies the minimum social,
financial and environmental requirements which need to be included to obtain

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planning approval. Such briefs need to be clear in terms of risks, costs, potential
profit margins etc. Public benefits and non-profitable elements like public
amenities should be balanced with more profitable aspects to avoid scaring off
private sector developers. There is also a need to involve key stakeholders
especially community in setting the terms for this kind of development.

As a nation we need to be strategic in the way that we manage our urban land assets. This
would mean updating the existing land information systems to get a better inventory and
assessment of what we have exactly.

4.6 Interface between Local Authorities and Traditional Leaders

The current legislative framework is not helpful in terms of guiding intergovernmental
coordination and collaboration at the local level. This is a source of conflict and
misunderstanding between local authority councilors and traditional authorities especial
when town boundaries are extended for development in areas adjacent to or including the
areas where traditional authorities have jurisdiction.

We recommend that that there is a need to find joint ways to coordinate and have platforms
where traditional authorities and local authorities as well as the regional and central
government can find amicable solutions in this cases. This will deal with ongoing imminent
tensions and provide a win-win solutions where traditional authorities and their communities
can be meaningfully involved in the urbanization process in their localities and have an
opportunity to negotiate for meaningful benefits and infrastructure to serve their
communities.

4.7 Ancestral Land Issues In Urban Areas

There is a need for up to date research for a shared understanding on the actual situation as
far as ancestral land issues in urban areas. This is also with the understanding that there has
been forced removals in urban areas during apartheid colonialism. Coupled with that is
historical issues like the original ownership of urban areas like Windhoek under Jan Jonker
Afrikaner. There could possibly other towns and villages that where originally under local
communities and could be the subject of ancestral claims.

There is also need for comparative review of how ancestral land claims where dealt with in
other countries in Southern Africa and internationally for best practices and success stories.
However eventually Namibia needs to find is unique solutions these burning issues.

4.8 Compensation for Town Boundary Expansion

This is one of the emerging areas of concern as urbanization is increasing and the demand for
more and more land to expand town boundaries are needed for residential and business
purposes. Communities have realized that the same land for which they have been given a
paltry compensation is being sold within s ort while at prices that are at times ten times what
they have been paid in compensation. This has brought about a lot of acrimony and even

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recently communities refusing to move out an area of land for which compensation has
already been paid.

There is an urgent need to review the current Compensation Policy and practice so that there
is consistency, predictability, transparency and a sense of fair play so that communities do
not see and experience the whole compensation as another for land dispassion. This would
imply considering issues like the like term commercial, productive and cultural value of land
when making decisions and policies on compensation for land.

5. POSSIBLE NEW WAYS OF WORKING ON LAND ISSUES

In addition to the above policy levers some practical strategies and lessons from other
experiences can be helpful to address urban land issues in innovative ways. Some of these
strategies are:

5.1 Community Land Trusts (CLT)

A CLT is a private non-profit corporations created to acquire and hold land for the benefits of
a community. This resembles the way that the Shack Dwellers Federation works currently by
acquiring a block of land at an affordable rate from the local authority SDFN is able to
eliminate or greatly reduce the cost of land for individual households and in this way CLTs are
able to meet the needs of residents that are least served by the existing markets. Under this
approach the land is owned by the CLT. In the case of SDFN members work together in
servicing the land and help each other to build the houses and thus keep the costs low.

5.2 Guided Land Development This refers to the process which local authorities prepare for
anticipated expansion. Guided land development is a technique for guiding the process of
converting privately owned land on the urban periphery from rural to urban use to ensure
that development occurs less haphazardly and informally. The benefit of GLD to local
authorities is generally less expensive than outright land acquisition. By planning ahead local
authorities can guide expansion and deter settlement in certain areas that are
environmentally too sensitive while those areas that are suitable for human settlement can
be prepared in advance.

5.3 Land Pooling

Urban land pooling or readjustment is used for managing and financing the subdivision of
selected urban fringe areas for their urban development. In LP projects a group of separate
land parcels are consolidated for their unified design, servicing and subdivision into a layout
of roads, utility service lines, open spaces and building plots. The sale of some of the plots is
ten used to recover project costs and the now smaller but higher value lots are distributed
back to the land owners in exchange for their rural land. Land owners can benefit from this
approach by sharing in the land value gains from urbanization while local authorities can
ensure efficient urbanization of land at reduced cost because the project site and
infrastructure rights of way do not have to be purchased or compulsorily acquired. The cost
of the infrastructure and subdivision can be financed with a short term or medium term loans
which may be repaid through the sale of the new building plots.

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5.4 Transfer of Development Rights (TDR)

Usually development is regarded as part and parcel of a physical piece of land. However the
right to develop land can be separated can be separated from the land itself. This separation
and transfer of development rights can provide local authorities with an innovative way to
meet certain social and economic goals and channel development to specific locations in the
process. This mechanism involves purchasing development rights from areas where
development is to be discouraged and using them to develop land in another location.

5.5 Land Sharing

Land sharing is an agreement between the unauthorized occupants of a piece of land and a
land owner. It involves the occupants moving off the high value portion of land in return for
being allowed to either rent or buy a part of the land below its market value. This leads to a
win-win situation here the landowner is able to regain control of the site for development
purpose to realise higher commercial returns without having to evict the occupants. In return
the residents can be re-housed in better quality housing wit services, gain legitimate tenure
and are able to live close to their established livelihoods.

9. FINAL THOUGHTS

There is a saying that the journey of thousand miles start with the first step, in the same way
the journey to provide access to urban land for the majority of our people is a daunting
journey that will require a number of steps like updated regulatory and legislative framework,
land taxation and public private partnerships including civil society actors as well as
experimenting with less conventional but innovative strategies will need to be explored.
Another African proverb posits that if you want to go fast - go alone but if you want to go far
- go together. The reality is that we are all Namibians and we share a common interest to
see the welfare of every Namibian improved. There is no reason for public officials and those
in the civil society and organised local government sector to work at cross purposes. At the
end of the day we will have to work together to navigate a delicate path between powerful
vested political and economic interest and the broader concerns of social development and
environmental sustainability.

We share a common goal. Our uncompromising aims is to make land and hosing choices
available to every level of income, provide responsive basic services to all our residents and
to reduce the need for future slums and informal settlements. The anticipated outcomes if
we are successful will lead to a broadened tax base, increased revenues for our towns and
cities and improved economic prospects for all Namibians the rich, middle class and poor
alike.

We have an opportunity during the current administration to be remembered for bold
experimentation, knowledge sharing, public private collaboration and bottom up community
driven approaches to address the urban land issues. We hope that one day when we look
back at the current consultative processes as well as the envisage Second Land Conference
we will be able to proudly say that we have engaged candidly and patriotically, energy,
creativity and bold ideas from this process. We are called for a time such as this!!