Uutoni calls for national policy on housing to be finalised
By Adolf Kaure.
The Minister of Urban and Rural Development, Hon Erastus Uutoni has challenged the office of the Executive Director in his ministry to finalize the National Policy on Housing during the current financial year.
The minister said this during the recent handover of 108 Mass Housing Programme homes at Swakopmund.
“Decent shelter is a basic necessity of life, and as a government of the people, we believe that it is justified for the citizens as the sovereign to expect to have a place that they call their own and to meet their dwelling and survival needs,” he said.
“I am informed that a new draft National Housing Policy with a comprehensive implementation strategy is at an advanced stage, and is envisaged to be finalised during the current financial year.”
“I am hereby directing the office of the Executive Director to see to it that this important policy instrument is duly finalised,” he said.
The National Policy on Housing is based on six principles namely partnership, quality and affordability, empowerment, pro-poor orientation, innovation as well as sustainability and integration.
According to the Minister, there needs to be a partnership between the government, the private sector and communities if the government’s aspirations of housing provision will succeed.
“Our chances for greater success in our quest to achieve our national aspirations and goals such as housing require unity of purpose and collaboration between the government at all levels, members of the community, the private sector notably the construction industry and financial institutions as well as non-governmental partners,” Uutoni said.
The development of a National Housing Information System, through a partnership between the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development and the Namibia Statistics Agency is another initiative to improve the provision of housing for all Namibians.
The National Housing Information System serves to create a centralised repository of accurate and real time data on housing needs, housing stock, land available in all parts of the country and its designated uses as well as on informal settlements in the entire country. The system has the potential to enhance planning, decision-making and housing interventions.
A cluster of houses built under the governement’s Mass Housing Programme that still need to be completed. (Photograph by Adolf Kaure)
