The flexible land tenure system : the Namibian solution bringing the informal settlers under the register
Christensen, Soren Fauerholm
The present land surveying and registration system covers only part of Namibia. In many newly created towns there is frustration at the inability to survey and register land rights and ease access to credit for investment and development. In the rapidly expanding urban areas, many poor people have no official rights to the land on which they have settled, and it is difficult for the influx of poor rural people, who come to the urban areas in search of jobs, to find vacant land on which to settle. Others are uncertain about how their long-standing traditional land rights on the edges of towns will be affected by the expansion of urban boundaries and the establishment of municipalities. Such problems affect up to 100,000 families in Namibia. A major part of the solution for these families is a cheap, accessible, creditworthy and secure form of tenure. To solve such problems, it was decided to develop a parallel interchangeable property registration system for Namibia wherein the initial secure right is simple and affordable but may be upgraded according to what the residents and the government need and can afford at any given time. This paper presents the new legal framework for the so-called: Flexible Land Tenure System.
Event: FIG HABITAT ISK CASLE Expert Group Meeting on Secure Land Tenure : New Legal Frameworks and Tools
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