The practice of forced eviction is a global phenomenon. Between 1995 and 2005, a survey covering only ten countries, showed that over ten million people were forcibly evicted. These people were left homeless and subject to deeper poverty, discrimination and social exclusion. A number of such evictions involve entire communities of tens or even hundreds of thousands of people. Such communities are invariably evicted against their will and in most cases without any compensation or alternative housing.

Four years ago, I was part of a research team looking at access to land and basic services in informal settlements.

We conducted field interviews in Mukuru slums in Eastlands. We were amazed at the levels of development in the area. People were constructing permanent structures despite the fact that they were under the impression that informal settlements are characterised by temporary structures.

Four years later, there are ongoing discussions to address the plight of informal settlements. A fundamental starting point is to address issues of tenure security.

Formal land administration systems in developing countries have failed to cope with the wide range of land rights that have evolved under non-formal land tenure arrangements. Urban informal settlements in particular pose a challenge to existing land administration infrastructure in these countries. The tenure types, land rights and spatial units found in such settlements are inconsistent with the provisions of existing land law. Conventional land administration approaches can not work in these 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.

This document is a report on the session that focused on the role of universities in participatory informal settlement upgrading at the workshop titled "Bottom-up city Wide planning in Gobabis", which took place on 11-13 May 2017, in Gobabis. The event was convened by the Namibia Housing Action Group (NHAG) and the Shack Dwellers Federation, with support from Shack Dwellers International (SDI).

Namibia is compelled to observe and to undertake efforts to realise the right to adequate housing, since it has ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 1994.

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 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).

The webinar Land Rights for Slum Dwellers in the East Indian State Odisha: Making technology work for the urban poor took place on 14 February, 2018. 

The webinar discussed anecdotes of the land rights policy in the state, application of innovative technology, processes and partnerships in the project execution and best practices followed in gaining rights for slum dwellers. 

This report provides a brief summary of the webinar dialogue and the main points that emerged.

El Asentamiento Ka`atygue, se encuentra localizado a 30 km del distrito de Santa Rosa del Lima, en el Departamento de Misiones ubicado en la Región Oriental del país, distante a unos 248 km de Asunción, Capital de Paraguay.

O acampamento de “Sem Terra” ( Assentameno Alegre), do Pov. Alto Bonito, município de Riachão, Maranhão – Brasil, foi criado em 08 de junho de 2003 por trabalhadores rurais sem terra com o objetivo de conquistar uma área para o sustento. Após alguns meses decidiram acampar as margens da Rodovia Federal - BR 230, entre os povoados Alto Bonito e o Povoado Posto Fiscal.

A Serrinha, trata-se de uma área de terra da União Federal, grilada e denominada Fazenda Serrinha, na Gleba Garimpo. A área foi ocupada em 15 de maio de 2012, por 34 famílias sem-terra da região de Araguaína/TO e Barra do Ouro/TO. A Serrinha está situada na Gleba Serrinha, no município de Barra do Ouro, distante 12 km do centro urbano e aproximadamente há 130 km de Araguaína.