Namibia has an estimated population of 2.1 million people (UNFPA 2007). Although it is a sparsely populated country of small towns and cities, a rising number of people now live in the cities and with an annual urban growth rate that is more than double the annual population growth rate, urban centres in Namibia are continuing to grow.
As a result of high poverty and income inequality levels, poor families living in Namibia’s urban and peri-urban areas often find it extremely difficult to access land, secure tenure, adequate housing, basic infrastructure and credit with which to invest in improving their living conditions.
Homeless International’s partner in Namibia is the Namibia Housing Action Group (NHAG) with whom Homeless International has been working with since the late 1990s. NHAG is a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) formed in 1992 to assist low-income housing groups. In 1998, NHAG became the support NGO for the Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia (SDFN), a network of savings groups comprising poor communities. Residents in informal settlements in Namibia have been organising savings groups since 1987, but it was not until 1998 that the savings groups came together as a nationwide network to form SDFN.
The Alliance of NHAG and SDFN have worked together over the years to help poor households improve their living conditions and gain access to basic infrastructure, including sanitation and housing. There are now over 22,000 member households in about 570 savings groups in all 13 regions of the country. Significant achievements of the Alliance to date include:
- Around 3,500 households have gained access to land and secure tenure through land negotiations and settlement developments with local authorities.
- Over 1,680 houses have been built and accessed by members of poor communities.
- More households are accessing support through their savings groups, and accessing small business, house and service loans. More than 1,632 households have been provided income-generation loans.
- Loans from the Twahangana Fund (the Federation’s loan fund) made accessible to Federation families have already benefited more than 1,200 households.
- Working relationships developed with local/national government (evidenced by government’s annual commitment to support the Twahangana Fund and other Federation activities). The Namibian Government has contributed over N$6 million (£385,600) to the Twahangana Fund of the Federation to support affordable housing for the poor.
- More than 800 households have gained access to water and sanitation through support loans.
- Through the SDFN/NHAG alliance, poor communities are playing crucial roles in providing pro-poor perspectives into several housing and urban land related policies in Namibia. For example the alliance is involved in consultations for the National Housing Policy and National Action Plan as part of Namibia’s National Development Plan.
