Strategies in Namibia to support community participation in Informal Settlement Upgrading. Lessons on collaboration and scale were learned in Otjiwarongo where the Private Sector supported the community to prevent massive relocations.

Following the enumerations in Otjiwarongo (, the blog of 11 August 2020) which is one of the 16 Namibian towns currently where informal settlement inhabitants are participating in initiatives to upgrade their settlement, one important contribution from the private sector showed the way how they can support such initiatives. The town planner assisted the community to generate a layout that enables the majority of the community to stay in their shacks.  Eye Risiko (Own Risk) informal settlement of more than 1,600 households was identified for upgrading in the town of Otjiwarongo. The said informal settlement however is located on a planned extension by the municipality. The appointed Town Planner had already prepared a layout of the extension and nearby extensions in the town.  When the layouts were prepared there were very few structures compared to the current situation. 

After enumeration was completed and the socio-economic information analyzed, the municipality and NHAG/SDFN approached the town planner and propose amendments on the layout where Eie Risiko was located, in order for all numbered households to benefit. 

The town planner agreed and the layout which initially constituted of 400 plots was redone to accommodate 1,021 plots.  Both council and community agreed to the layout as it responded to the needs of the community as per the socio-economic data collected.  

The usual procedure in upgrading, once data is collected, make use of planning studios with Town Planning students from the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) to collect concepts and ideas from the community and plan the area through the participation of the community who provide inputs whereas NHAG/SDFN together with the students and local authority provides technical support. Due to the pandemic of COVID-19, this was however not possible at the time as students were not allowed to travel therefore this would set the process off. Fortunately, the town planner had already prepared a layout of the area, which was subsequently amended, considering the inputs and development priority needs of the community. 

The community can now re-blocked and the households now collecting money to survey the land, following the example of Karibib where more than 700 households have paid for the measuring of their land from their own collections. They have already installed their water pipes.