Namibia is experiencing a rapid urbanisation rate, with a large influx of migrants flocking to urban areas for better living conditions and opportunities.
Since independence, the urban population has increased threefold, and it has been predicted that 75% of the population will live in cities by 2050. With the continuous growth of urban areas, informal settlements have emerged over the years due to a lack of affordability of land and housing, weak governance and several other interrelated factors.
These informal settlements bloom on unplanned areas, which has put pressure on local authorities in Namibia to sustainably plan for these areas. With the President of Namibia having declared informal settlements a humanitarian crisis, several local authorities across Namibia have invested over the past years in upgrading approaches for the informal settlements within their jurisdictions. These approaches include the enumeration of the socio-economic assessment of the informal settlement and participatory planning and layout designs which are done through local authority partnerships with private organisations and NGOs such as the Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia (SDFN) and the Namibia Housing Action Group (NHAG). This process, however, can be cumbersome and expensive for local authorities, which employ temporary staff or private organisations to collect the socio-economic data for them. The majority of local authorities do not have the financial means to employ a full-time planner, which results in them heavily relying on the private sector when dealing with the town planning processes.
Population and Housing Census
With the 2022 Population and Housing Census underway, it provides for the enumeration and collection of accurate and up-to-date socio-economic data for the whole country. The census data provides information on the size, distribution, social/economic characteristics and household incomes of the population in the country, amongst many other datasets. The census data covers everyone, and provides information to even the smallest geographic areas and smaller population groups in Namibia. The 2022 census will be the 4th census conducted this year, and will be the first spatially enabled and digital census enumeration in Namibia. The data collected is collected every 10 years, which means local and regional governments have an opportunity to capitalise on this window of opportunity to utilise census data to plan for current and future urban areas in Namibia. This opportunity comes every 10 years, so local authorities will have up-to-date information to plan for and with their communities within their jurisdiction. Data will be easily accessible once the census has been concluded. This information will help local authorities save on time and money, and will provide a baseline for any possible programmes and projects in line with the upgrading of urban areas by local authorities.
The way forward
Census data can be used to help with decision-making within local authorities concerning the urban planning of an area. Planners can use census data to understand the social, economic and demographic conditions in their communities. The data collected should not be used in isolation, but should be compared with the data already collected by local authorities through NGOs such as SDFN, NHAG and private organisations. This will strengthen the planning process and contribute to a comprehensive data infrastructure for the local authority. The census of housing allows for local authorities to assess changes in the quality of housing and related facilities, and to plan for the future housing needs of their communities. This is especially crucial for the dwellers residing in informal settlements. This not only includes the housing needs, but all the different infrastructure and services required in a community such as roads, schools, hospitals, etc. Local authorities should prioritise their urban planning and informal settlement upgrading process during this period when data is openly accessible for use before data becomes outdated and money is used to recollect data. This will only result in a slower and more expensive process for local authorities.