Cathrine Marenga
There is no doubt that land delivery is a national priority in Namibia. With the rapid urbanisation experienced in the country, high demand is placed on land resources and services in urban areas. There is a backlog in the supply of serviced land, as well as limited institutional and technical capacity in the local authorities, among others, which has played a major role in the delayed delivery of affordable land.
The high demand for land is a problem for local authorities who struggle to provide affordable land and basic services, especially in informal areas. Each local authority is supposed to manage this crisis within their jurisdictions. Unfortunately, not many can do it. Professionals, such as land administrators, town planners, engineers and surveyors are needed in the process but often in local authorities. These experts are not internally available. This results in external outsourcing and the appointment of consultants for these professional services. The process of procuring the services of these consultants is usually lengthy, which leads to delays in the delivery of land and housing.
There are two challenges linked to the lack of in-house professional capacities of land professionals in local authorities, namely, limited capacity and no capacity. It is not always the case that local authorities are short-staffed and need to increase capacity. There is a need to have qualified personnel working on land matters in municipal authorities. Employing land professionals to undertake land delivery roles in local authorities means investing in the quality of human capacity. This contrasts with the prevalent focus on quantity. For instance, there are situations where graduates from other fields are employed and tasked with property management duties in local authorities, whereas graduates in land and property studies do not have jobs. The Namibia University of Science and Technology (Nust) produces about 100 land administration, property studies and spatial sciences graduates yearly. Yet surprisingly, many graduates in land administration, property studies, and geomatics – to mention a few – either do not have jobs or are working in jobs outside the land sector. How is it that most of these graduates, who are well-equipped with relevant skills and knowledge to occupy land and spatial sciences-related work areas, remain jobless? Perhaps it is because of the reliance on consultants by municipal authorities for their work. The municipalities could easily avoid the exorbitant costs of consultants (who, by the way, are not always land experts) for their land delivery functions.
To develop the institutional capacity ‘of municipalities, the municipal authorities must invest in the employment of graduates in the land and spatial sciences fields. Currently, universities, such as Nust, have agreements with some government authorities, especially local authorities, to grant internship opportunities to students to acquire practical skills to sharpen their theoretical knowledge.
Such agreements were made to prepare and equip students with the relevant practical skills to be employable by local authorities after graduation. Where these agreements do not exist, they can still be developed and signed to ensure that land and spatial students always have an opportunity to gain practical knowledge through internships in the offices of local authorities.
These partnership agreements between universities and government authorities should be extended to provide formal employment at the local authorities after they graduate. There are two main ways this can be done.
First, local authorities who lack professionals in their workforce should practically commit to employing land professionals. Second, in the absence of funds, it could be done by setting up bursaries funded by the local authorities (or co-funded with universities and other government agencies) with conditions of offering a job to the students at that specific local authority upon completion of their studies. This would allow local authorities to invest in these students during their internship, knowing that they are future professionals to be employed to boost their in-house professional land delivery capacity. It is true that Namibia is going through some tough economic times. However, the delivery of services to Namibians should remain a priority in the affairs of local authorities. To successfully implement land policies and address the issues of land delivery, local authorities should prioritise employing and investing in their institutional capacities to fast-track land delivery and save it from the cumbersome, slow and ineffective processes of today.
*Cathrine Marenga is a research assistant in the Department of Land and Spatial Sciences at Nust and the Youth Initiative for Land in Africa (YILAA) Namibia Focal Point. The views expressed in this article are entirely hers. This article is written in honour of the late Vanilly Mbeha, my previous academic and work colleague, who shared similar views to this article.