This project investigates opportunities and challenges associated with establishing a land tenure system that provides land tenure security to low-income dwellers in urban informal settlements in Namibia. It uses a combination of qualitative and analytical approaches, in which urban informal settlers, local authorities, community leaders, and other stakeholders are interviewed to obtain primary information on the processes and outcomes of land tenure security initiatives. The Flexible Land Tenure System (FLTS), a Namibian conceptual framework specifically developed to address urban land tenure insecurity, is compared with the Fit-For-Purpose Land Administration (FFPLA) concept, a globally acknowledged approach to address land tenure security in a simple, flexible and incremental manner.

The findings suggest that using the FLTS, as done in the investigated cases, makes the formalisation of informal settlements cumbersome, complex, and costly because individual processes are unreasonably complicated compared to what is required to achieve the target of tenure security for all. Should Namibia decide to use the FLTS to formalise urban informal settlements, the main focus should change from simultaneously providing a very high level of tenure security combined with full individual services and permanent housing to a few people to providing a basic level of tenure security to all urban informal settlers countrywide. Over time, and when adequate financial resources are available, the basic rights can be upgraded to a higher level of tenure security if needed.

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