Piloting The Computer-Based Flexible Land Tenure System (Cb-Flts) Using The Social Tenure Domain Model Tool In Namibia - M1-32Fod-000160

Namibia is undergoing a rapid and major transition from a rural-based society to increasingly based in urban areas, with 45% of the population now urbanised. This transition is most visible in rapid urban expansion, especially in informal settlements that accommodate poor families in shacks on the edges of towns. Namibia’s urban areas now have some 140,000 informal houses, a number likely to double over the coming ten years if this trend is not addressed urgently.

Similarly, land distribution has been very much unequal and has been the policy of the government to bring equity in land ownership, through land redistribution and tenure reform. The government has over the years initiated comprehensive land reform programmes to address some of the challenges related to inequitable access to and ownership of land. During the period of 1991 - 1998, the government mandated the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement to champion the land reform process  to "manage, administer and ensure equitable access to Namibia’s land resources". This culminated in the approval of the National Land Policy of 1998 which further lay the foundation for land ownership and reform. It was also during this period that the Flexible Land Tenure System (FLTS) was conceived as an alternative land tenure system catering for low-income groups. The FLTS was developed parallel to, and interchangeable with the existing formal land administration system. It was designed to be Fit-For-Purpose, affordable, more secure and upgradeable to meet the government needs.