Civil Society Actors Capacitate the Marginalized Urban Poor towards Inclusive, Participatory, and Sustainable Urban Development

The project focuses on strengthening the capacity of CSOs in Namibia. This will include broad-based informal settlement community structures, organized saving groups of the Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia (SDFN) as well as their support NGO Namibia Housing Action Group (NHAG) and the Namibia Alliance of Informal Settlement Upgrading (NAISU). The specific objective of the call is to engage CSOs in policy dialogues and improve urban governance on the implementation and monitoring of the EU and national development plans. The Actions will be achieved by interlinking the activities on various levels, which will strengthen the CSOs with information to develop and monitor the projects. This information will reflect on the conditions and needs of marginalized communities to be considered when priority agendas are created by local, national, and international agents, including partners from European countries.

The action will facilitate that communities are engaged in an accountable and structured manner. The structure will promote broader participation and move away from conventional traditional practices of engaging communities and will meet the specific objective of creating a more enabling environment for meeting the needs of the urban poor. Existing innovations in data collection and discussions during dialogue platforms will be extended to smaller neighbourhood units. The tools from implementing the interventions will enable women and the youth to participate actively and take leadership in the action, thereby meeting the specific objective of gender equality and youth inclusion. The women led SDFN further addresses this objective to increase the capacity of new women and youth leaders through practical learning and assessment of lessons learned. analysing how inclusive participation is in different areas (urban and rural)

EU Del

In responsiveness to citizens' needs and rights, the NAISU will convene stakeholders to enable a continuous flow and sharing of information between the community, government, and relevant stakeholders. This is aimed at upholding the enabling environment where the community needs and support to realize these needs are recognized in policies and implemented in practice. The EU stands ready to support and hold hands with the government of Namibia, local NGO’s and CSO, as well as other role players in efforts to provide affordable housing to Namibians in need.