Informal settlement residents advocating for upgrading

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Announcing preliminary results from 33,272 household surveys

 The preliminary informal settlements socioeconomic survey results were presented by the Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia (SDFN) at the Community Land Information Programme (CLIP) review on 25 September 2014 at the Habitat Research and Development Centre in Windhoek.  The data presented was collected by informal settlement residents in collaboration with their Local and Regional Authorities in 116 informal settlements in 64 urban areas in Namibia through the CLIP.

The first profiling of informal settlements was completed in 2008 when communities profiled 235 informal settlements (with an estimated population of 500,000) with the support of the SDFN and the Namibia Housing Action Group (NHAG).  The second phase of CLIP, which is the door-to-door socioeconomic enumeration of households and settlement mapping, to date covered a total 33,276 households with a total 213,459 occupants in both informal settlements and backyard structures.  52% of the heads of households are female.  Communities are using the data to determine and discuss their priority development needs in their respective settlements.  At 32%, housing was prioritised as the first development need of the largest portion of households, followed by security of tenure (25%), water (14%) and toilets (12%).

The data was collected by community members in informal settlements through the CLIP, funded by the Spanish Cooperation Office and assisted by the Alliance for Solidarity, a Spanish NGO . Alliance for Solidarity Funding for the programme came to an end in September 2014, following four years of supporting informal settlement communities in collecting information on their living conditions and development priorities to be shared with their authorities.  The Ministry of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development (MRLGHRD), a key partner in the programme, pledged continued support during the keynote address by Jona Kasheeta on behalf of the Minister of MRLGHRD.  















Read  page  6 Property ownership a far-away dream
Article in the Namibian on Enumeration data collected by the Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia
















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