Guided by the Land, Livelihoods and Housing framework, the programme will undertake research and public outreach activities based on four aspects, general themes, and specific projects. Based on our previous and on-going projects, we have also drafted a "Land, livelihoods and housing" Research Agenda with questions for further research, education and outreach activities. 

All our research is made publicly-available. For a list of open-access academic resources, see here.

See also resources available at NUST Library, in particular those related ot Land and Property Science (see here) and Architecture and Spatial Planning (see here).

Please visit our Publications page for publicly-available material produced by ILMI.

PROJECTS

2023

The cost effectiveness of alternative options to address housing need in Karibib. The research project aims to unpack the costs of land servicing for housing in different projects in Karibib. This is to understand the efficiency of investments in housing, the usefulness of subsidies, and the most appropriate approaches to address the need of the lowest income groups. Researchers: Guillermo Delgado, Anna Muller, Braam Harris, Tapiwa Maruza, and Diana Mitlin; with students from the Architecture, Construction, and Accounting at the Namibia University of Science and Technology.

2022

The Urban Question in Namibia: a Bibliography. This urban blibliography is a thorough effort to trace the available references in this field. In partnership with NUST Libraries, an online database with many of these references is currently being developed. Researcher: Elsemi Olwage, Mesiana Shatyohamba.

2020

Housing Development and Land Markets in Peri-Urban Areas and Implications for Future Planning: Case Studies in Northern Namibia. The research is aiming for a conclusive policy brief on informal land markets in Namibia, plus a fact sheet that informs on the different land transactions, market participants, challenges, and opportunities for institutions involved in land governance.

Situating Public Housing in Namibia’s Urban Agenda. This research proposes an interdisciplinary inquiry into state led housing provision by analysing the inner city government apartments built during the colonial era as a point of entry into how the state can facilitate the provision of adequate housing and how cities can begin creating counter apartheid space making steps to ensure compact developments and addressing spatial injustices.

Incremental Adequate Housing – a Prototype for Urban Innovation in Windhoek. This Project aims at building the first prototype of a prototype of an Incremental Adequate House.

Assessment of underutilized public land for infill housing opportunities in Windhoek. A systematic assessment of underutilized public land in Windhoek is outstanding, this proposal seeks to fill that gap as a first step in developing a concrete policy proposal for the realization of urban-infill housing on currently under-utilized publicly-owned land in Windhoek.

Namibian Journal of Social Justice: Inaugural issue on “land and housing”. This project will support the inaugural edition of the Namibian Journal of Social Justice around the theme of land and housing. The journal will combine high quality academic articles with photo essays, opinion pieces and grassroots accounts of relevant events.

Changing landscapes, changing societies: Use of UAV Photogrammetry for the detection and monitoring of gully erosion and its derived impact in infrastructure, housing and livelihoods in Kunene Region, Namibia. The project will study human adaptations and resilience to the gully dynamics and environmental effects, like changes in farming practices or micro-migrations, and the inventory of threatened houses and infrastructures. 

2019

Community-led v. contractor-led housing approaches. The project aims at investigating the impact of community-led housing approaches in relation to other mechanisms of housing delivery in Namibia. The first pilot was conducted in Tsumeb and the report is currently being circulated among stakeholders to evaluate the possibility of a nationwide study.

2018

Scaling up security of tenure and housing opportunities through a partnership approach. A concept note for co-production between organised communities, local and regional authorities, central government, and universities. See the draft concept note here [Updated February 2019]. The project has resulted in the establishment of the National Alliance for Informal Settlement Upgrading.

2017

Revision of the Mass Housing Development Programme (MHDP) Blueprint and the development of an implementation strategy for the programme. ILMI was appointed by the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development (MURD) to revise the mass housing blueprint as well as to develop an implementation strategy for the programme. The team conducting the project consisted of land administrators, town planners, architects, land surveyors, economists, social scientists, engineers, as well as a community organisers.

2015-16

Campus Transformation. The project's aim is to asses and re-imaginie the development of the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) campus in Windhoek.

The case for adequate housing for teachers in Windhoek. The project aims at exploring the possibility of adequate housing for teachers in Windhoek. This initiative started as a colleaboration with the Teachers Union of Namibia, and is continued through the collaborative efforst of a teachers' collective composed of members of various unions, schools, and neighbourhoods.