We run a public outreach programme in order to explore the land and housing questions with the widest array of stakeholders possible.

The public outreach programme is conceived as an inseparable component of research efforts and aims at:

a) embed research efforts in the everyday lives of various constituencies,
b) enrich the research programme with inputs from a wider engagement with different publics, and
c) democratize the production of academic and specialized knowledge and making it useful knowledge which aims at being relevant and instrumental for ordinary inhabitants.

We will do this in close collaboration with partners and key stakeholders, as well as remain open to initiatives from interested parties. You can download our Outreach Strategy here.

Please check our Facebook page for the most recent events as well as our Publications section for the documentation of previous events.

Unless otherwise noted, most events take place at the Seminar Room, of the Department of Architecture and Spatial Planning, at NUST (see directions here). Smaller events take place at the CLPS House (see directions here).

Throughout 2016 we ran a series of monthly updates including ILMI Events and news in Namibia related to the 'Land, livelihoods and housing' theme. As from 2017, our colleagues from Development Workshop Namibia (see about DW here) started a 'Media Monitoring on Urban Development in Namibia'; you can read these here. These however ceased, but you can also visit their website to receive updates about their activities.

To keep updated on ILLH events, please follow us on social media or SIGN UP HERE for receiving occasional news on our activities. You can see the archive of our occasional updates here: 2016 January / February / March / April / May / June / July / August / September / October/ November-December (End of year) / January-February 2017 (Urban Forum)

ILLH has since restarted to issue occasional bulletins. You can read them here: 2023 February /

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ARCHIVE OF EVENTS

4-16 November 2023 Urban Technology & Collaboration in Informal Settlements: Enhancing Livelihoods and Empowering Communities. The 3 day-long symposium – organized as part of the project ‘Just transitions in vulnerable places - Digital solutions for more climate resilient informal areas in Namibia’ – aimed to explore the potential of urban technologies and collaborative approaches in informal settlements in African cities.

19-30 June, 2023 International Urban Design Workshop: urban design as crossover strategy between disciplines and practices. Facilitated by Dr Kathryn Ewing and Office for Urban Resilience (O-RU)

5 July 2022 Green Hydrogen: Towards Just Energy Futures, seminar with Dr William Monteith, Queen Mary University of London. Link to the presentation HERE, and the summary of the event HERE.

16-17 February 2022 Consultation workshops on the review of the National Housing Policy & Implementation Action Plan. After the consultation of the National Housing Policy and the Development of the National Strategy for Informal Settlement Upgrading that was held 16-17 February 2022, three more consultations took place throughout the year. Two regional and one national events were organized for further review of the National Housing Policy and development of the Implementation Action Plan (IAP) for the policy.

3 August 2021 Launch of the Namibia Journal of Social Justice's first issue on "Namibia's Housing Crisis in Perspective". This event is the culmination of an ILMI Seed Grant award to the Economic and Social Justice Trust for the development of the first edition of the journal. To learn more about this project, click here. Link to the NJSJ website here, and video of the event here.

23 June 2021 "Uncanny Windhoek: Tracing the spatial logics, aesthetics, and hauntings of an African capital" with Stephanie Roland, RMIT University, Australia. Link to the video here.

26 November 2020 "A city within a city": talk about Ongos Valley. With Celestino Antonio, Marketing and Sales Consultant; and Andrew Naunyago, Risk and Compliance Manager, Rent-to-Own Namibia. The link to the video is HERE.

30 September 2020 "Dialogues on architecture, urbanism and housing: Current situation in Southern Africa" a dialogue with young professionals in Namibia and South Africa. Participants: Natache Sylvia Iilonga (Namibia), Elao Martin (Namibia), Adwoa Agyei (South Africa), Senzo Mamba (South Africa), and Nomalanga Mahlangu (South Africa). The session will be moderated by Dr. Guillermo Delgado, Coordinator of the Integrated Land Management Institute, at the Namibia University of Science and Technology.  The event is organized by the Mexican Embassy in South Africa, with support from the University of Johannesburg and the Namibia University of Science and Technology. See concept note of the event HERE; and the video of this event HERE.

24 September 2020 "Monte Christo Project in Windhoek" a presentation by Christophe van de Vijver (Nuvella) on the ambitious project aiming to develop 50,000 units through innovative urban designs. The recording of the presentation is in our Facebook page. You can download the presentation HERE.

15 September 2020 "Locating the intersection between the basic income grant and urban livelihoods/development in Namibia: a conversation with practitioners, academics and traders." The event started with initial contributions by Phillip Lühl, Head of the Department of Architecture and Spatial Planning, NUST; Melkisedek Namupolo, Head of the Community Land Information Programme at the Namibia Housing Action Group (NHAG); Martin Namupala, Master student, NUST; and Uhuru Dempers, from the BIG Coalition. The discussion was thereafter opened up to participants joining the event via Zoom and the BIG Coalition Facebook page. The key points of the discussion can be downloaded HERE, and the video of the session can be found on the YouTube page and the Facebook page of the BIG Coalition.

16 July 2020 "Online/live discussion on the proposed Spatial Development Framework for Swakopmund" Thursday, July 16th, 14-15.30h, through a blended modality accommodating both live and online discussions in light of COVID-19 regulations. See video of the session here: https://youtu.be/8P55soXU_Og, and download a summary of the key points HERE.

[Hiatus due to COVID-19 restrictions]

29 January 2020 'Climate change and sustainable futures in Africa', an event hosting contributions by Prof Rob Marchant (University of York, UK) on "The Mountains and People of Africa: Creating a Sustainable Future from the Past" (see presentation here) and Prof Sheona Shackleton (University of Cape Town, SA) on "Rural Livelihood Transformation under Climate Change: Some Perspectives" (see presentation here). You can see more about the contributors and their talks in the advertisement here.

2019 Urban Forum: a permanent platform for multi-stakeholder engagement on urbanisation in Namibia, Southern Africa and beyond. This programme will be piloted throughout 2019 as part of ILMI's public outreach programme. Visit the website for more information, updates, and ways to take part.

25 September 2019. Doing research on socio-spatial development in Namibia: Lunch lecture + Workshop with Dr Lalli Metsola (University of Helsinki, Finland). During the lecture, Dr Metsola will present advances on his research on “Residential Claims, Emergent Citizenship Regimes and Alternative Social Contracts in Southern Africa” which he is currently undertaking in Namibia. For more information about this event, see here.

19 July 2019 'Climate Change, Fast Urbanization, Green Areas, Natural Ecosystems and Biodiversity in Windhoek'. Seminar presenting two on-going MSc research projects at the University of Oxford; followed by input from Mr Kaleb Negussie, Department of Geo-Spatial Sciences and Technology, and Dr Ibo Zimmerman, Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources Sciences, NUST. For more information about this event, see here.

2018 "The New Land Question" Throughout this year, we will focus our public outreach programme into re-examining ‘the land question’ in Namibia, defining the contemporary nature of the situation, and identifying emerging questions from a contemporary, multi-disciplinary, and projective point of view. The process is geared to contribute to a ‘Land governance conference’ scheduled in April 2019, in partnership with the Department of Land and Property Sciences (DLPS), the Network of Excellence in Land Governance (NELGA) Southern Africa Node, the Integrated Land Management Institute (ILMI), and student organisations at NUST. To reach the organising committee, please write: newlandquestion@nust.na

7 September 2018 'Short course for journalists on land issues in Namibia' For more information about this event, see here.

6 September 2018 “Customary Tenure Recognition in the Mekong Region” Lecture by Dominik Wellman, Advisor to the Mekong Region Land Governance (MRLG) Project. (See more about this event here)

2 August 2018 NLQ Event 2: "The Urban Land Question" Workshop with Phillip Lühl, Department of Architecture and Spatial Planning (NUST) (see more about this event here).

19 July 2018 Presentation of ILMI Working Paper 8 "An Assessment of Housing Need in Namibia" by authors K. Asino and A. Christensen, with responses from P. Enkono, Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) (see programme here and read the report here).

18 July 2018 NLQ Event 1: "Land, Liberation and Compromise: Namibia and the challenges of forging a new consensus on land policy" Workshop with Prof Chris Alden (London School of Economics) and Prof Mzukisi Qobo (University of Johannesburg), with responses from Prof Wolfgang Werner and Mr Phillip Lühl, and a contribution from Dr Alfredo Tjiurimo Hengari (see more about this event here).

28 June 2018 "Trans-Boundary Issues in Southern Africa: setting a research agenda", with contributions from Prof Alinah Segobye (HSS) and Prof Wolfgang Werner (LPS/ILMI), session at the Regional Workshop on the Regional Land Governance Scoping Study (see report here).

04 October 2017 "Windhoek Business Atlas: Insight, Activities and Benefits", Eric Yankson. (See presentation here)

19 September 2017 '"Participatory chiefs and nepotistic democrats: Behavioral economic evidence from Ohangwena Region", by Bjoern Vollan. (See presentation here)

22 June 2017 'Urban infill housing opportunities in Windhoek , by Phillip Luhl. (See presentation here)

15 June 2017, Launch of Research Report on "Leasehold as a Vehicle for Economic Development: A Case Study of Small-Scale Farmers in Namibia's Oshikoto Region" and Policy Brief in Windhoek at the Legal Assistance Centre, by Wolfgang Werner and Charl-Thom Bayer (See news report here or here)

14 June 2017, 'Gaining control over informal settlement expansion: providing affordable land to the urban poor, by Dr Beat Weber (See presentation here)

31 May 2017 'Land, livelihoods and housing' Programme: update and outlook, by Guillermo Delgado. (See presentation here)

24 May 2017 Mexico City Housing by HGR Arquitectos. (See presentation here)

27-28 February 2017 URBAN FORUM See event's website: http://urbanforum.nust.na

17 October 2016 Planned layouts v. 'planning for slums': the case of Rehoboth Ext. 5 & 6 by Louis Esterhuizen. A talk illustrating the benefits of a planned layout for informal settlement development. (See documentation of the event here)

13 October 2016 Space, place and belonging: Informal trading in and around Congolenses market, Luanda, Angola by Martin Mendelsohn. (See photos of the event here)

29 August 2016. Issues in agrarian reform and food sovereignty in Zimbabwe. Speakers: Jos Martens, Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, South Africa; Clinton Swartbooi, Deputy Minister of Land Reform; and Prof. Wolfgang Werner, Department of Land and Property Sciences. (See photos of the event here)

24 August [Presentation] & 30 August [Debriefing] 2016. The leisure economy of Katutura: a research exploration by Tiresh Govender (UrbanWorks, Johannesburg) and Andrew Charman (Sustainable Livelihoods Foundation, Cape Town). For samples of the previous work of the presenters, see here.

18 August 2016. Lunch talk: Participatory socio-spatial developments in Gobabis. Braam Harris, Department of Architecture and Spatial Planning. (See notes here)

9 August 2016. Lunch talk: Land Delivery to the Urban Poor. Case study of Lux Development Project Nam/343: Realities, opportunities, possibilities, synergies. Joe Lewis, Department of Geospatial Sciences and Technology. (See report here)

4 August 2016. NUST as lead institution in land governance in Southern Africa. Lunch talk by C.T.H. Bayer, HoD Department of Land and Property Sciences. (See presentation here, and meeting notes here)

28 July 2016. The case for adequate housing for teachers in Windhoek. Lunch talk by Guillermo Delgado and Phillip Lühl. (See report here)

23 June 2016 Dr. Isis Nunez Ferreira workshop on Co-Design and Urban Informality (Photos here)

26 May 2016 The new DASP building - The Design Process. Lecture by Kerry McNamara Architects, in collaboration with the Namibia Architecture Student Association.

23-24 March 2016 Dr. Henrik Ernstson on Global South Urbanisms

23 March 18.30 Film Screening: 1 Table 2 Elephants (Trailer here)

24 March 12.30 Lecture: Global South Urbanisms (Photos here)

3-4 March 2016 Prof. Stig Enemark on Land Administration and Problem-Based Learning

3 March 12.30 Brown bag meeting: On Problem-Based Learning

4 March 9.30h Professional lecture: Land Administration in Support of the Global Agenda

28 January 2016 Research Workshop: Communal Land Matters

8.30 – 9.00 Welcoming remarks & Introduction

“Land livelihoods and housing”, Charl-Thom Bayer, Namibia University of Science and Technology

Olivier Graefe, University of Fribourg, Switzerland

9.00 - 10.30 Presentations

“Mapping decadal land cover changes in northern Namibia using the Landsat satellite archive (1975-2015)”, Vladimir Wingate, Physical Geography and Environmental Change, University of Basel, Switzerland

“Use of Soil Indigenous Knowledge in Western Ohangwena Region”, Brice Prudat, University of Basel, Switzerland

“Traditional Authorities in Namibia’s land governance. Positions and strategies between legal and practical transformations”, Laura Weidmann, University of Fribourg, Switzerland

“Social differentiation in access to land and security of tenure in northern Namibia”, Romie Nghitevelekwa, University of Freiburg, Germany

“Tenure security and meaning of land: Youth participation and perceptions on customary land ownership and registration in the selected regions of Namibia”, Dr. Kletus Likuwa, Multidisciplinary Research Centre, University of Namibia

“Secured, but still poor: A comparative analysis of the formalisation of communal land in Namibia”, Elke Matthaei, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa

13.00-14.00 Lunch Break

14.00-15.00 Presentations

“The cost of housing and affordability: an assessment”, Charl-Thom Bayer, Namibia University of Science and Technology.

“Group rights on communal and: Okonyoka revisited”, Wolfgang Werner & Mutjinde Katjiua, Namibia University of Science and Technology.

15.00-15.30 Discussion

15.30 Concluding remarks

Olivier Graefe, University of Fribourg, Switzerland.

Wolfgang Werner, Namibia University of Science and Technology.

Photos of the event here.

 

29 October 2015 Brown bag meeting: The Flexible Land Tenure Bill, an update, comments by Ase Christensen, Department of Land and Property Sciences. View the report of the session here.

 

15 October 2015 Brown bag meeting: The proposed Urban and Regional Planning Bill, comments by Pieter Genis, Department of Architecture and Spatial Planning. View the report of the session here.

 

27 July 2015 Event: Land, livelihoods and housing Programme 2015-7 launch and presentation of the ILMI Working Paper No.1 "25 Years of Land Reform" by Wolfgang Werner.