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Known for being a trendsetter in higher education and applied research internationally, the Namibian University of Science and Technology (NUST) aims to become the leading university in Africa. The Department of Land and Property Sciences (DLPS) offers relevant degrees at undergraduate and post-graduate level including master and doctorate degrees. The Department of Land and Property Sciences (DLPS) at NUST together with the Integrated Land Management Institute (ILMI) are playing a leading role in research and outreach in the field of land governance and administration.
The purpose of NELGA (Network of Excellence for Land Governance in Africa) is to enhance the role of selected African Universities and academic institutions in support of land policy development, implementation and monitoring. NUST was selected as a NELGA node for Southern Africa, because of its proven leadership and track record in academic education, training and research on land governance. To date NUST as a regional NELGA node has granted 6 scholarships (4 masters and 2 PhD’s) on land governance via the DAAD scholarship. The node is in the processes of identifying partner institutions for full implementation of the NELGA activities. One of the key work packages is to establish a regional node for NELGA Southern Africa.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 65Communal land
Communal land is one of the land tenure systems in Namibia, the other being freehold land tenure system. At independence in 1990,Namibia resolved to retain communal land on the basis that majority of the population derived their livelihoods from communal land.Notwithstanding the increasing urban population in the country since independence, the majority of the Namibian population still lives in the communal areas, and many of the urban-based population continue to have close relations in rural areas.
Informal settlements
Namibia is moving towards an urbanised country. This is illustrated by the fact that at independence Namibia was only 28% urbanized by 2011 urbanization has already grown to 42% and current projections are that by 2020 urbanization would by 66% and more than 70% by 2030. As the urban population is growing the need for serviced land and housing is also growing. As Namibia has failed to respond through appropriate strategies to facilitate this change in the human geography of the country it resulted in the growth of poorly serviced informal settlements.
Urban land delivery
There has been rapid growth in urban populations in Namibia (Pendleton et al, 2014). This growth is amongst predominantly amongst less educated, poorer migrants from rural areas in search of opportunities in urban areas. From the data available the estimated shortfall of either titled land or houses appears to be above 150 000 and increasing at about 11 000 per year (Weber, 2017). This trend of urbanisation is occurring not only in Namibia but across the world, particularly now in developing countries.
Ancestral land
Ancestral land refers to ‘land of ancestors’. That is the land occupied by ones’ forebearers for generations and left something behind of value for current and future generations. There are usually contestations as to which ancestors the land
belongs because of the history of internal migration and of displacements by stronger nations (tribes).