419 Informal Settlements Later, Namibia Needs to Rethink How Our Towns Manage Land

Namibia is urbanising faster than many people realise.

Countrywide, informal settlements continue to expand as more people move to towns in search of work and better opportunities.

Yet the infrastructure required to support this growth is struggling to keep up with the pace of development.

A recent national baseline report on informal settlements provides a sobering picture.

The assessment identified 419 informal settlements across Namibia’s 57 local authorities, with Windhoek alone accounting for more than one-third of them.

Behind these numbers lies a deeper structural challenge for urban governance in Namibia.

The report reveals that more than 60% of informal settlements have not yet been surveyed.

This means they cannot be formally registered and residents cannot obtain secure tenure.

Without proper surveying and township registration, it becomes difficult for municipalities to plan infrastructure, to install services or to integrate these communities into formal urban systems.

In many of the settlements, residents rely on communal taps or lack basic sanitation facilities altogether.

These conditions underline the scale of the housing and land management challenges that face Namibia’s towns countrywide.

MUNICIPALITIES ARE ‘CENTRAL ACTORS’

What is often overlooked, however, is that the majority of these informal settlements – 98.3% – are located on land owned by local authorities themselves.

This means municipalities are not merely observers of informal urban growth. They are central actors in managing how urban land is allocated, serviced and developed.

During recent workshops held under the Namibia Housing Information System initiative, local authorities, planners and policymakers gathered to discuss how land and housing data can better support improved urban planning.

The baseline report produced through this process represents an important step forward.

For the first time, Namibia now has a national dataset that maps the scale and characteristics of informal settlements across the country.

But data alone will not solve the problem.

Urban development requires coordinated land management systems.

Surveying, township establishment, infrastructure planning and tenure security must function as part of an integrated process.

When these systems become fragmented or slow, informal settlements continue to expand without the services and infrastructure residents need.

FLEXIBLE TENURE

One example highlighted in the report is the slow implementation of the Flexible Land Tenure Act.

Introduced to provide affordable and incremental forms of land rights, the act was intended to help bridge the gap between informal occupation and full ownership.

Yet more than a decade after it was introduced, only a small number of settlements have been registered under the system.

This gap between policy intentions and implementation reflects a broader institutional challenge.

Land management in Namibia involves multiple institutions responsible for surveying, planning, registration and service delivery.

When coordination between these institutions is weak, it slows down progress toward formalisation.

RELIABLE SYSTEMS

Another issue is the need for reliable land information systems.

The baseline report itself was developed partly because the government previously lacked comprehensive data on informal settlements.

Accurate land and housing statistics are essential for planning infrastructure investments and allocating resources effectively.

The Namibia Housing Information System now offers a powerful tool for addressing this challenge.

If consistently maintained and used by our local authorities, it can support better monitoring of settlement growth, improved planning and more informed policy decisions.

At the same time, municipalities must continue to invest in the technical capacity required to manage urban land.

Surveying informal settlements, preparing layout plans, and installing bulk services require both financial resources and skilled professionals.

FROM INSIGHT TO ACTION

Urbanisation will not slow down across Namibia. Towns will continue to attract people seeking employment, education and opportunity.

The real question is whether urban growth will be managed in a structured way or continue expanding through informal processes that strain municipal resources.

The new baseline report provides Namibia with something extremely valuable: a clear picture of the challenge.

The next step is converting that information into action.

If Namibia wants to build towns that are inclusive, resilient and economically productive, land management needs to become a central part of the national development conversation.

The future of our towns will depend on it.

• Jacques Strauss is a land administration practitioner and municipal property officer specialising in land management, property taxation and urban governance in Namibia.

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