Submission for Habitat Scroll of Honour: Submission 2010 Edith Mbanga of Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia

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1 Submission for Habitat Scroll of Honour: Submission 2010 Edith Mbanga of Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia 1. Background International, national and peoples organisations world wide have increasingly recognised the contributions of people s organisations as important partners in solving human settlement problems. The Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia (SDFN) is a network of community-led savings groups. Residents in informal settlements started organising savings groups in 1987 to improve their poor living conditions. Namibia Housing Action Group (NHAG) was established in 1992 to support this process. The community s own development fund (the Twahangana Fund) was established in 1996 and the savings groups came together as a national network to form SDFN in Activities carried out by NHAG/SDFN include supporting small savings groups, capacity building, problem solving and learning facilitated through the community exchanges at local, regional, national and international levels. Is a highly motivated activist A key figure in the development of this national peoples movement was Ms Edith Mbanga, described as a highly motivated activists (GLTN 2008). She has played a fundamental role in the formation and evolution of the SDFN, shortly after joining the People Square saving group following the Independence of Namibia in 1990, through to its inception in October 1998 and subsequent mobilisation and empowerment of the most marginalised and poorest of predominantly women urban based dwellers in Namibia for secure housing and development. This organisation, through her commitment and dedication is the largest member driven organisation in the country which, largely due to Ms. Mbanga s commitment, continues to embrace new challenges that function to empower disadvantaged communities and thereby improve livelihoods. Leaving school with a standard eight certificate in 1969, ten years later she obtained a course, through part time in literacy training. Since this time her leadership has grown from strength to strength in training, mobilising and facilitating the development of woman led saving groups, locally, in Namibia; elsewhere in Africa (Angola, Malawi, Swaziland and Kenya). In 1990 Ms Mbanga was employed as a domestic worker in the capital city of Windhoek. She and her seven children lived in a very insecure and over crowded situation, paying rental for a small room in a house that was already overflowing. Driven by her strong desire to improve the livelihood of herself and her children she joined a newly formed group, People Square Saving Scheme of the Saamstaan Housing Association, which she chaired for 2 years since Ms Mbanga as a member of the Saving Scheme, was one of the key players involved in developing the first ever block of land in Namibia that was sold to a group of poor people. While she was the chairperson of her group from 1993 to 1998 the group saved regularly to deposit for the land and houses and by 1997, all the members had built their own houses and subsequently the group received recognition as a Habitat Good Practice by the Government of Namibia and UN-Habitat. 1

2 Ms Mbanga has played an active part in the development of the community based saving initiatives in Namibia. She led as a Twahangana worker the new process of savings and credit since 1995 which lay the foundation for establishment of the Shack Dwellers Federation.of Namibia in During the formation of the federation she opted to stay with the Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia as a member, rather than joining the newly established NGO, Namibia Housing Action Group. She subsequently became one of the two National Facilitators. In this capacity she also serves on the National Habitat Committee Namibia and the Housing Committee of Windhoek, Her leadership and facilitation skills are acknowledged by the Shack Dwellers International (SDI) of which she is also a board member. She formed part of the Namibian delegation to Istanbul + 5 in New York, all the UN-Habitat World Urban Forums (making presentation at three of them), the 22 nd Session of the Governing Council of UN-HABITAT. The Namibian government sponsored her as well as other members of the Shack Dwellers Federation as part of the national delegation to these and other international events. With the committed active participation of Ms Mbanga in the development of SDFN from 1998, it becomes difficult to separate her activities from those of the organisation, its mission, goals, and history. The mission statement of the SDFN aims to improve the lives of poor people living in shacks, rented rooms and informal settlements through a communityr driven development process. The SDFN focuses on securing affordable land and shelter and thereby improving the living conditions of those excluded from formal housing and financial processes, using a community-driven approach and works and collaborates with local, national and international partners as well as networks. The people driven process, cemented in October 1998 with the formation of the Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia, followed after 11 years of accumulated experience with community savings groups. Through actions that include learning from each other (local and national), community group savings, land negotiations, house construction, collection of community information and the management of a poor people s fund the SDFN has received both local and national recognition for their efforts. The National Housing Policy of Namibia reviewed in 2009 and the National Physical Development Plan no. 3 both acknowledge and include the role of community based organisations in the process of housing and securing land. Communities all over Namibia have developed their capacity to drive their own development needs and pioneered alternative land and shelter development solutions. By June 2010, there were 611 savings groups in Namibia, comprising some members, 65% of whom are women. Together, through daily savings they have amassed US$983,173. A total number of households have secured land and households have constructed their own housing. 2

3 2. Project Initiative Although we do not like to use the word poor, because people often think that poor means waiting to be helped, we have shown that this is not the case and we are able to be involved in our own work. (SDFN, Press release, 2008 on 10 th Year Celebration of SDFN). The initiatives of the SDFN focus on a process of empowering the poor by means of rituals based on money and knowledge to participate in their own development and influence policies, rather than promoting a self help project or human rights approach. Their savings and their own poor peoples fund, the Twahangana Fund, give them access to larger resources while they share practical knowledge through their exchanges and building a national data basis through the enumeration program, called Community Land Information Program (CLIP). Through these tools they convince the Local Authorities, who also participate in the learning exchanges, to accept incremental development as a pro-poor shelter strategy. The rituals used by the federation focus on being inclusive and open. At the core of SDFN is the organising of communities through daily savings, as a tool to bring the poor together. Over time, with Ms Mbanga supporting the federation facilitators, the Federation has managed to respond to the local needs of the community, by initiating and strengthening these rituals. Two of these rituals are described below. A case study on the Twahangana Fund (Lawrence, 2010) and a pamphlet (Shack Dwellers Federation of Nambia Pamphlet) are attached to give more information about other rituals. The Community Land Information Program: The enumeration program, CLIP scaled the opportunities for communities to raise their needs and play an active role in their planning up to a national level. Profiles of all informal settlements in Namibia was combined in a book and launched in March (Informal Settlement Community and Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia, 2009) The Namibian process was shared internationally as part of GLTN during WUF in both Nanjing and Rio de Janerio as a grassroots initiative of the Global Land Tool Network. Ms Mbanga made presentations about the CLIP in WUF in Nanjing and Rio de Janeiro. She also participated in the writing of Count Me In (UN-HABITAT, 2010) where the Namibian experiences are shared in Chapter 11: Enumerations for Local Planning and Development. This program in Namibia involves the informal settlement communities in the activities, not only SDFN members This process is a tool that collects detailed information about people who live in informal urban settlements within Namibia. The data is used as a means for negotiating with the different levels of local and regional government. The second phase of mapping and door to door collection of socio-economic data with the objective of linking to their land issues and town development has started in 16 urban areas. The potential for involving numerous people from the community Incremental Development to improve shelter and services Incremental Development Strategy to improve shelter and services: 3

4 The SDFN has developed an incremental approach to accessing land, adding services and infrastructure and constructing houses. At every stage this process is community-driven. In addition to its advocacy role on behalf of those in housing need, it is now playing an increasing role in the delivery of the national housing policy for low-income households. Low-income communities start their own savings groups and once they have become a member of SDFN, can take out a loan to buy a piece of land. The savings group retains the freehold ownership of the land and each member has a plot, with an agreement setting out their rights and obligations and stipulating who will inherit it. With secure title established, each household occupies its plot, initially with a shack. The building of a new house begins and an individual water and sanitation connection made when the household can afford it. Houses are constructed at the cost of one-third of conventional housing through community management, household participation in production of building materials, incremental development and accessing land with bulk infrastructure. The cement brick or block houses are 34m2 in size and include one bedroom, a kitchen, a toilet and a shower room. Plot sizes are approximately 180m2, giving space to double the size of the house when needed or affordable. (World Habitat Awards. Finalists 2008) 3. Main partners The SDFN principal partnership is with NHAG which is a Trust and registered welfare organisation, which supports the all activities of SDFN. Within Namibia, the SDFN philosophy of nurturing and forming partnerships includes local and regional authorities as well as other relevant stakeholders. The actual partnerships vary according to the context and project. External partnerships with other countries exist in a similar manner. Ms Mbanga has actively facilitated these at all levels and is a member of SDI. Only the principal partners for 2009/10 are included in the following table. Main partners Ministry Regional, Local Government, Housing and Rural Development MAWF National Planning Committee National Housing Advisory Committee National Habitat Committee Role and Level of participation Finance for house construction and core activites. Political support Loans from Build Together, Annual Donations to match SDFN savings Minister visited SDFN houses in four settlements in Windhoek Participate in Brick Making Events National Development Plan (NDP 3) National Policy Include clip in sanitation strategy and part of watsan cte Assisted in National workshop with preparation and final presentation of NDP3 Ensured inclusion of pro-poor people s housing process in White Paper on Housing Planning National Habitat Plan of Action 4

5 16 local authorities Have participated in the enumeration of CLIP 102 urban and emerging have participated in the profiling urban areas Most local authorities have given communities access to land FCEAR (Spain) Support of second phase of CLIP to combine national socio economic data and development of participatory town plan and informal settlement upgrading in two towns Homeless International (UK) Visited projects in Tsumeb and Windhoek Paid monitoring visit Comic Relief through Have 5 year agreement for financial support Homeless International Comic Relief staff member visited Namibia. Miseror (Germany) Monitoring visit by staff and exchanges for SDFN members and give financial support Spanish Cooperation Financial support EU Rural Poverty Reduction Better life program addresses (holistic Programme through management, health, environment, social and National Planning economic), give financial support and sponsor Commission of Namibia visits to regional projects Lux Development Financial support, support programs in Rundu and Katima Mulilo Have project offices in both towns and full time staff Standard Bank Donations based on registration of home loans Excempt SDFN from cash deposit fees Philip Ellis and partners Donations based on registration of home loans Afrisam Cement (Namibia) Contributed to construction of houses, and core activities Urban Poor Fund Supported construction of houses in Gobabis. International through SDI Finance technical support and training. initiative SDI Learning in Southern Afircan Hub with regular exchanges amongst South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia Malawi, Swaziland Angolan Support 4. Impact SDFN has had significant pro-poor impact on the lives of low-income urban households in Namibia: The approach has been taken up on a national basis. The original housing projects are now a national housing process with over 611 saving groups and 22,000 households participating, covering the majority of the urban areas of Namibia. About 5 % of urban dwellers have been assisted with housing improvements. Community savings have reached in excess of N$7 million (US$980,000) and the Twahangana Fund continues to be able to make resources available to those with very low incomes through its Special Fund for those who are terminally ill or disabled. Communities are acting together and are able to access resources that as individuals they would not be able to. Saving groups disbursed US$5,2 million to low- income households through this fund 5

6 By June 2010, houses were constructed and households have secure tenure on community owned land. Low-income households have access to finance, knowledge and understanding of the housing processes. Women, and the most vulnerable, are empowered through active participation in SDFN which has given the opportunity to break away from top-down leadership that had traditionally made people apathetic. The Government increasingly accepts community involvement and incremental development approaches. A number of pieces of legislation and policies are a result of the community-driven processes, including the 2009 Reviewed National Housing Policy, the Namibia National Development Plans and the Flexible Land Tenure Bill, which supports community-based land management and scales up the land delivery process with government support. The City of Windhoek and other Local Authorities recognised that the NHAG/SDFN settlements are not temporary or transit and has permitted communities to buy blocks of land, carry out incremental development of the site, including putting up shacks (a practice that was previously illegal) until the household has sufficient funds to construct its formal house. 5. Sustainability 5.1 Financial Sustainability The majority of the finance for acquiring land and developing houses comes from the members savings groups and from the government s annual N$1 million contribution, channelled through the Twahangana Fund. The incremental development process allows the members to decide themselves at what point they are able to take out house loans. Some communities decide to pay off the loan for the land and develop the services before embarking on house construction. Before joining SDFN, members frequently have had to pay high rents for their accommodation in back yards and rented rooms, particularly in Windhoek. Under this programme they can construct their own good quality houses for one-third of the cost of conventional housing. This cost saving can be achieved due to a number of factors: Construction costs are lower, since communities can use their informal networks to get lower priced materials and can work with their own trained builders and plumbers. Most groups provide free labour for the construction and produce their own hollow concrete blocks on site, thereby saving transport costs. Households have flexibility as to when they develop or extend their houses, depending on their family needs and what they can afford. By using lower standards (smaller plots, reduced road sizes and affordable sanitation systems), serviced land is secured at a cost of only 60 per cent of fully developed plots in Windhoek and lower in other areas (30 per cent in Walvis Bay). Provision of services by the community is much more affordable than if the local authority carries out the work. For those whose income is very low, income generating loans and advice are provided to help households increase their income. Households are permitted to take in lodgers to increase their income, but not to sublet the property. 6

7 1,652 small income generation loans of N$500 N$1,500 (US$75 - US$225) have been provided to members to assist in start up or strengthening small businesses and informal trading. Loans are repayable within one year and collateral, if any, is decided by the savings group and not regularised by the Fund itself. To encourage these small businesses, SDFN has built and operated a market for 40 small businesses. Local plumbers and builders are also benefiting from the additional construction work. Initial funding for the programme came from northern partners (Norwegian Embassy, Deswos in Germany, FCEAR and Intermon from Spain) and the Ministry of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development (Build Together Programme). In 2007, the Fund secured its first private sector funding (Holcim Cement). The bulk of the funding (71%) is from Namibian resources, including the 31% of member repayments. Ongoing institutional maintenance, technical support and capacity building currently cost approximately N$150 (US$22) per member per year. This is funded through local and northern partners, at a cost of N$3 million (US$450,000) per year and there is an on-going commitment to this payment. All SFDN members have recently agreed to pay a small annual contribution of N$10 (US$1.5) to the Fund, thereby enabling it to access funds in the future from the International Urban Fund that Shack Dwellers International (SDI) has established. It is anticipated that 200,000 members will do this, thereby generating US$300,000 per annum. 5.2 Social Sustainability The project makes housing more affordable and increasingly accessible to the very poor, semi-literate, women and the elderly, enabling them to improve their financial position and social standing. Women play a major role in the programme, and have gained confidence in their own abilities and capacity. Communities come together to form savings groups and work closely with one another as they purchase and develop their land. A major aspect of the project has been to build the capacity of low-income communities to manage their finances in a transparent and accountable way. Sharing their experience with other communities has helped to build a strong national network of savings groups and avoids dependency on service organisations. Training and capacity building are carried out through community exchange and cover a variety of areas, including brick-making, book-keeping, leadership and coordinating and organising a savings group. The exchanges are hosted by the communities themselves and discussions in small groups facilitate direct interaction and learning, allowing participants needs to be directly addressed. Community-to-community learning is combined with the principal of facilitating activities through local ownership that uses non-hierarchical governance structures. This is the cornerstone of empowerment and sustainability in enabling the poor to achieve secure tenure, improved shelter and better access to water and sanitation. SDFN is run by volunteers from the membership, involving as many people as possible. The project has built nine community resource centres which it operates. 7

8 As a pro-poor people s movement, SDFN aims to be as inclusive as possible and has therefore established a special Social Fund to support older persons and those who are terminally ill or disabled. As part of their inclusive approach, NHAG/SDFN does not have a minimum income requirement qualification for people to participate or for minimum amounts to be saved. Emphasis is on small regular savings and taking income generation loans to help increase the economic potential of the poorest households. The very poor are encouraged to build only one room and add to it later. 6. Transferability and upscaling Working together as people is not always easy, but with the continuous support of each other, we are able to address our problems. (Press release, 2008). From small initiatives many of the experiences of the SDFN groups have succeeded in transferring their knowledge, experiences and of replicating activities to other groups within the same local authority and region. This also occurs at a national and international level. SDFN has grown over a period of twenty years and has continually refined its activities in the light of experience. Starting with one small project in 1992, 3,200 households to date have secure tenure and 1,350 households have constructed brick houses and installed services. Knowledge is shared through community-to-community exchanges. The exchange participants include community members, government and local authority officials and politicians. Officials are mostly at management level, meaning that awareness and ideas are raised and discussed amongst policymakers as well as practitioners. Following exchange visits, 27 Namibian local authorities have made blocks of land available for savings groups to purchase. The same process is applicable to the CLIP whereby communities share learning during exchanges. International community exchanges are a fundamental part of the programme and are facilitated through the SDI network. Visits are to more than one town and city, and delegates have a chance to meet with national and local government, research institutes and local communities. The Bulawayo Town Council made land available to Zimbabwean saving groups following one such exchange and Malawian authorities have applied the approach to their Slum Upgrading Program. Land was allocated to savings groups and subsequently, 250 houses were built within a three month period following the exchange. 7. Innovation Community-driven land and shelter provision is initiated, adapted and changed to include the very poor and have now extended throughout Namibia. 8

9 The process predominantly driven by women. Conventional planning and design standards and approaches are challenged and amended to make housing more pro-poor. New partnerships are developed between commercial institutions and the local communities. Communities and their local authorities are learning from each other and increasingly working together to address housing problems faced by low income communities. Communities in informal settlements are learning to manage their own data collection through a national community land information programme (CLIP). This also forms a tool for negotiations of the community needs. 8. Recognition of the initiative Ms Mbanga and the SDFN are recognised in the following articles: UNHABITAT (2010) Count me in: Surveying for tenure security and urban land management. UNHABITAT GLTN Nairobi. Lawrance, H. (2010) Ownership and Empowerment Through Community Funds: A Case study of the Twahangana Fund, NHAG, Windhoek. (attached) SDI (2010) video on Community Land Information Program Community Land Information Program (2009) : also: and alliance.org/ca/node/433 and 09/Clip_Report_Namibia.html - SDFN pamphlet (n/d) Improving the lives of poor people in Namibia attached Republic of Namibia, (2009) Namibia; National Housing Policy, Reviewed July Windhoek. Muller, A.M. (2008) Housing for the very Poor Communities: Development of a Partnership over 21 Years in Namibian Digest of Namibian Architecture, Windhoek. Rahman P (2008) Namibia Housing Action Group and Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia. Observation of Parween Rahman, Selavip April 2008 Muller, A.M. and Mitlin, D (2007) Securing inclusion: strategies for community empowerment and state redistribution pages , in Environment and Urbanisation, vol 19, no 22, October 2007, E. Mbanga GLTN: 9

10 World Habitat Award (2007): finalists/project-details.cfm?lang=00&theprojectid=984c39d4-15c5-f4c0-9902eba4c82f07c7 (attached) D Cruz, C. and Satterthwaite, D (2006) The Role of urban grassroots Organisation and their National federations in Reducing Poverty and achieving the MDGs in Global Urban Development Magazine, vol2, 1, March Cruz%20&%20Satterthwaite.htm Legal Assistance Centre (2005) A Place We Want to Call Our Own: A study on land tenure policy and securing housing rights in Namibia Windhoek, UN HABITAT (2005) Land Tenure, Housing Rights and Gender National and Urban Framework: Namibia. Law, Land Tenure and Gender Review Series: Southern Africa. Nairobi Mitlin, D. and Muller, A (2004) Windhoek, Namibia: Towards Progressive Urban Land Policies in Southern Africa vol26, no 2, International Development Planning Review, Liverpool University Press Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia and Namibia Housing Action Group (all years) Annual Reports. Further General references: %20032%20%20Namibia.pdf octid=ct e_shack_dwellers_housing_lobby_group.pdf 1. Land issues: A report on Savings and Credit: A Community Fund s Seminar 0Report.pdf 10