* REPORT : 9

A report on a Zimbabwe-Namibia exchange.

Vic Falls exchange to Windhoek Namibia.
2- 5 February 2000

Objectives of the exchange
For the Zimbabweans this was an opportunity to expose Victoria Falls Municipal officials to a Federation process that provides affordable options for infrastructure and housing. The Victoria Falls Federation is made up of 15 groups with a total of 1500 members. Most members live in backyard shacks in the Chinotimba high-density area. Victoria Falls Federation is facing a serious housing problem with half of the TownÕs residents living in shacks. The Federation started negotiating with the Municipality for land allocation over five years ago. It was after the Federation carried out an enumeration survey that painted a very sad picture of Vic Falls that the Municipality felt compelled to act. They allocated the Federation 565 plots. The land was unserviced and the Proposal now is that the Municipality using funding from USAID will provide finance for infrastructure provision while the Federation through the Gungano fund will provide house loans. Full servicing of the plots is estimated at Z$30 000 a unit while the housing will take another Z$30 000 if the Federation decide to develop one roomed units. This will mean a family has to put up at least Z$900 per month to repay both the housing and infrastructure loans. The Federation is currently looking at ways to minimise on the cost of the development. Various options have been put forward. Now proposed options to reduced costs are

The provision of all semi-skilled and unskilled labour by the Federation, reducing the land preparation costs;

Looking at alternative infrastructure design and development.

The exchange was aimed more specifically to look at:

How the SDFN relate to formal institutions and the local authorities in the process of housing development.

What activities the Federation is engaged in.

How the Federation organises land for housing

How the Federation organises finances for housing.

Infrastructure design and installation

Housing development

What lessons are there for Zimbabwe and more specifically for the Vic Falls project?

Saturday 3/2/01: The Federation Centre: Habitat 11

Background to the SDFN
SDFN formally constituted itself into a Federation in 1998 after almost 9 years in which housing groups functioned under the umbrella of the Namibia Housing Action Group. This was necessitated by the realization that the groups were very depended on the NHAG Support Service, stifling a proper peoples process. In the two years that the Federation started, they have been significant strides taken in terms of how SDFN members relate to the NGO and other institutions as well as development within the Federation itself.

Members saving increased from 800 to 8000

Group savings over N$800 000 Saving schemes increased from 33 o 160 The SDFNÕs Windhoek land team completed a survey of all open spaces and made a proposal for allocation. The municipality agreed to give land adequate for 370 families.
The Federation and NHAG are engaged in discussions that will result in the in situ upgrading of 15 informal settlements in the Windhoek area.
The Federation has collected information on 9000 poor urban households across the country

Mapping has been completed in two Windhoek informal settlements in preparation for upgrading.

The Federation has successfully negotiated for land for 900 households.

The Federation has received funding from Government in recognition of their work

300 Houses have been completed

450 members have take loans for employment generation.

The Federation has two types of saving, daily savings, and land savings. Most groups will stipulate a maximum on the land savings in relationship to the cost of land. Members are encouraged to save at least 10% of the anticipated cost of land. Most of the groups we visited found the cost of land expensive. The municipality sell land at development cost, i.e. at the price it the cost them to develop it.

Visit to People's Square
People Square started in 1987 as one group of Saamstaan Housing Coop. At this point, the group was saving to raise money to purchase land. In 1992 they purchased a block for a total of N$33 000. The members paid a deposit of N$250 each and were given one and 1Ú2 years in which to pay the balance. The group moved onto the land as soon as they bought it. To date they have completed all 45 houses, put in the water and sewer. A number of the families have already started extending their homes, using their own resources while three families got second loans. The group has experiences some problems around the municipal sewer. Initially they expected the Municipality to come in and sort it out for them, but this often took long and they had to look for a solution amongst themselves. At present, they deal with blockages quite easily. The community also organizes their own rubbish removal communally, since the individual rubbish bins were too expensive.

Sunday 4/2/01: Armstrong Saving Scheme: Okandundu
Okandundu is one of the more recent informal settlements that have developed because of the massive influx of new inhabitants into Windhoek. Most of the residents of Okandundu come from the North of Namibia looking for work. A majority ends up informally employed. The settlement is set on a hill with 206 families. 120 of these are members of the Armstrong saving scheme. The group has saved N$2548.65 in daily savings and N$8750 for land. The group has carried out an enumeration and mapping exercise. They have produced a layout on the basis of the mapping exercise. The layout proposes that 199 families remain on the land available. The remaining seven families would have to be relocated elsewhere. The group has presented its layout proposals to the Municipality who now are in the process of operationalising an in situ upgrading strategy for 15 informal settlements in Windhoek alone. The upgrading exercise will involve the regularization of plots, provision of water, sewer, as well as roads. The group has already started to save for the land cost.

The group is however concerned about the response of non-members to the upgrading proposal. They feel it will be difficult to deal with people that are not saving; hence, they have not learned to work together. They talked about strategies on how to tackle the anticipated problem. For the moment they are agreed that those who do not want to work with other in the upgrading exercise will be moved on one side of the settlement to give room for the upgrading exercise to start. They believe that once visible progress start to show the others would then join.

The Victoria Falls Town Municipal officials shared their experience on a similar issue. The engineer talked about a proposal Council had made to relocate all shack dwellers that are not part of the Federation to a holding camp. There was no consultation with the people concerned and the Municipality used over Z$3 million to develop the land, providing water and communal toilets. When the people were informed of this impending move they rioted and now these plans have had to be shelved. The Zimbabwean Federation emphasized the need to use daily savings as an opportunity for people, especially women, who normally found it very difficult to make their opinions known in large meetings. They urged the Namibians not to get tired or impatient with people who refuse to join the Federation but to continue providing information to such people also using house-to-house visit.

United People and People Force
These two groups are in the process of building their houses with People Force having started last year even though they got the land four year ago. The delays were caused by the failure of the group to organize properly. They currently use communal water taps. People Force tried to organize the construction of a communal toilet block and one temporary one was put up with the assistance of NHAG. However, the group did not take responsibility in cleaning it and a majority of families currently use the nearby bushes. The Zimbabwean Municipal officials felt that the Windhoek Municipality should do more to enforce the provision of sanitation before families settle on land. It was later understood that the agreement when land is made available to the Federation is that temporary toilets have to be provided. However, some groups do not see this as a priority but prefer to use their energy in constructing the houses. Also the local authority will not allow French drains because they fear contamination of the ground water supply. The groups are currently digging trenches to provide individual water and sanitation to each house.

On one house a biogas plant had been set up and this was using the effluent from a septic tank to produce gas which is used to heat water as well as for cooking. The Zimbabweans were very impressed and felt this was something they could also try and investigate to see how they might be able to use it. The system operates on septic tanks and on small plots such as those at United People and it might not be feasible to have everyone on. The University constructed this unit as a pilot. It was understood that this was very costly and require proper construction supervision. It was therefore unlikely that this could be carried out at a larger scale.

Ipelegeng Bomma
This is a group of 48 people who were moved out of the single quarters in Katutura when Government started upgrading the hostels. Most of them had been renting space in the quarters where up to 5 families lived in one room. The municipality offered them an option to lease land. They however negotiated for an option to buy the land instead. They were allocated 24 plots of 300 square meters each. The total cost of the land will be N$90 000. Two families will share a plot. The group is currently negotiating with the municipality to use two open spaces that run parallel to the plots as access. The municipality had to draw up a protracted lease contract for this land for each family to pay an extra 80 cents for rent.

Habitat 2
The group started in 1998 with 120 members. They occupied their land in January 2000 and started building during May the same year. To date they have saved N$30 000 and have already built 42 houses. They are each paying N$7000 for land and they collectively pay the water account. Those that are building are doing so with N$14 000 loans from the Twahangana Fund.

Monday 5/02/01: Windhoek Municipality
The municipality is currently working on a development and upgrading strategy for informal settlements in Windhoek. The strategy is intended to bring about sustainable land delivery to cope with the influx as well as providing a range of development options to WindhoekÕs urban poor. The strategy also outlines roles and responsibilities of various actors in land delivery. The municipality and indeed the Ministry of Local Government recognize the critical role poor urban household play in housing provision.

The Municipality recognizes there has to be a change in its role and the SDFN has provided the municipality with various lessons from which they can draw future and concrete strategies around housing the poor:

The municipality's role as facilitator rather than implementer

The Federation doing their own designs and the municipality just checking to ensure compliance for both housing and infrastructure

Bringing in bulk services where the Federation can then connect. (The SDFN has developed four blocks for 300 households using this strategy)

Engaging organized groups in dialogue on future strategies around issues that affect them

Forming partnerships with NGO and peopleÕs organizations in finding lasting solutions to the housing problem in Windhoek (NHAG the Federation and Windhoek Municipality are currently working on a joint proposal for funding of infrastructure for informal settlements)

Finding solutions that minimize relocation of people in informal settlements upgrading.

Providing a range of service options for communities so that people can choose what is affordable to them.

Providing finance through the Built Together loans to poor families.

Ministry of Local Government
The Ministry is committed to working with organized groups, as it is easier for them. Groups such as SDFN have ensured that decisions on how families house themselves are done at the appropriate level. They have found that dealing with organized groups ensures equal partnerships that foster responsibility on both parties. Thus, the repayment rate of the Built Together loans is higher for groups such as those of SDFN as they ensure collection.

Introduction to the Mayor of Windhoek and a Regional Councillor
The Mayor of Windhoek, Mr Shikongo and a Regional Councillor, Mr Ithete met with the Zimbabweans on Monday evening during a social evening. The presence of these politicians was appreciated and demonstrated the recognition of the work of the Federation.

Lessons Learnt

Cornelius Sibanda (Vic Falls Saving Scheme)
Relation between the Federation and Municipality exists because of the fact that the Federation works very hard to get land raise money and build by themselves. The Municipality is willing to learn and assist so that development will be achieved. The Namibians have done great work and this has resulted in the Municipality and Government becoming willing to provide resources and work with them. The Namibians could perhaps push for a more active partnership with the Municipality around specific project as the Victoria Falls Federation, Dialogue, and Victoria Falls Municipality have done. The Municipal officials seemed interested in this. Maybe as a follow up when our work is underway, we should also invite the Windhoek Municipality, NHAG, and the Federation to visit us.

Elizabeth Ngwenya (Vic Falls Saving Scheme)
We learnt a lot. Despite the fact that a very positive relationship exists between the Municipality and the Federation, it was obvious the Municipality does not give prominence to the Federation and their ability to enhancedevelopment. Municipality there seem to view the Federation as a project rather than as a process. The Namibian Federation is fortunate to be able to get loans from their government. More support could be given to the Federation in the servicing of land to reduce the cost of land for the poor.
The Victoria Falls Federation can learn a lot from how the Namibians have developed their houses:

Building affordable homes

That it is possible for the Federation to provide services to the land
That the Federation process should not just concentrate on building house. The Namibians were establishing health teams within the group. However there seemed to be little emphasis on income generation and employment creation. The Namibians could earn from Victoria Falls Federation where in each of the 15 groups people are doing project to enhance their incomes

Alick Sibindi (Vic Falls Municipality)
The municipality looked too colonial and he wondered how easy it was for poor people to relate to the colonial dispensation. The two groups, poor, and municipality are very much far removed from each other.

Impressed by the way the local authority avails loans for building houses through the Built Togetherprogram.
Quick response to the release of land to the needy.
Major services that lead to the settlements like roads are of high standards. .
Allowing people to build houses without toilets.
Pricing Land price at development value. Municipality should subsidize the poor.
Beth (Dialogue on Shelter, Zimbabwe)
Beth observed that the SDFN had made giant strides. They were fortunate to have a very supportive Government and Local Authority. This was shown by the various policies put in place to enable the poor to house themselves in urban areas. Zimbabwe was a long way of. For example at local level, the municipality had a housing and upgrading strategy for the urban poor. While consultation and collaboration could be better, the door is open. If one were to compare this with the Victoria Falls scenario it was clear that the Windhoek Municipality is using the different projectsthe Federation is involved in to come up with a wider strategy. The Zimbabweans could take up this lesson. There is a danger in looking at this development as a one of and the three organisations needed to be committed to using the Vic Falls project as a learning ground.

Beth also felt that the Zimbabweans could draw lessons from how the SDFN developed housing in small manageable phases. The groups lived together for some time enabling some form of cohesion to take place before development of housing started. This would mean when people started building they already knew each other.

The Federation's role in the provision of services also provided lessons. The municipality provided the bulk services while the Federation did the on site connections. This had enabled the Federation to develop the necessary skills and a sense of ownership of the process. Thus, the Federation was organisationally prepared to deal with any subsequent maintenance issues. The proposed methodology for the Vic Falls project will still prove costly if the FederationÕs role is just limited to the provision of semi skilled and unskilled labour.

The Federation thus could provide services at a level they can afford. The development priority was thus left to the individual community to decide.

Beth however felt that the SDFN has placed too much emphasis on the provision of housing to the exclusion of other programmes. Thus even though over 450 loans for income generation have been made out, none of the groups visited talked about these. There was probably as much need to make this work visible, as there was to continue building houses.

Glen Sibanda (Vic Falls Municipality)
Glen felt that there was need to understand more on the problems of the poor. He felt the MunicipalityÕs technical team should help with infrastructure designs in order to reduce costs. It would also then be easier for the Municipality to take over services once these were installed. He felt that while upgrading informal settlements was commendable, crisis planning after the shacks are already there could be avoided by forward planning. Toilets should be built before people settle. The Federation should put in communal facilities. For example, in the Victoria Falls project the Council had provided material for the toilets and the Federation had built the toilets.

Anna Muller (NHAG)
She felt the exchange had gone well. She however, felt there is need to continue pressing for an agreed partnership with the Municipality so that Federation issues are constantly discussed and solutions found. Now issues have been dealt with on an ad hoc basis. This kind of partnership had to be thought of properly as it was important that it be created on the FederationÕs own terms. This is especially more important in view of the work soon to start in the upgrading of the 15 informal settlements in Windhoek. Changes in personnel dealing with the Federation issues within the municipality have also meant having to create new relationships all the time. The Victoria Falls Federation had found that having Mr. Sibindi involved with the Federation from the start had helped in ensuring that there is continuity.

Edith Mbanga (SDFN)
Felt that the Federation and municipality should work hand in hand some of the work that municipality gives to consultants the Federation can actually do. For example despite the FederationÕs proven record in survey the Municipality still went ahead and hired consultants to do similar work in seven other settlements as part of their Feasibility study. Despite gains made, there was no consultation with the Federation by the consultants as part of this study. The Federation would like to see a more meaningful relationship evolving, one where they ceased to be beneficiaries of Municipal policies but rather participants in the formulation.