Category: Success stories
Fatima-Ezzarah’s Success Story – NELGA Alumni
It was the ultimate opportunity to discuss Africa’s challenges and how to address them – Fatima-Ezzarah Mohtich, NELGA Scholarship holder at IAV
I loved school as a child, and school loved me back. School allowed me to express myself, learn, make mistakes, succeed, and choose my path to excellence. I was receptive to discovering new things and very inquisitive. My parents regarded me favourably. Even though they only had a primary education and limited resources, my parents were willing to do anything to provide a better education for their three children. My grandparents gave me special treatment because I was their favourite granddaughter. My teachers encouraged me to pursue my goals, and I earned my baccalaureate degree with an honours in mathematical sciences, which led me to pursue engineering at the prestigious Hassan II Institute of Agronomy & Veterinary Medicine Rabat-Morocco.
When I enrolled in the preparatory year for agricultural studies at the institute, I lived away from my family for the first time and took my first steps towards independence. I wanted to demonstrate to those around me that a woman can perform miracles if given a chance. I qualified in the top thirty, securing my spot in the institute’s well ranked programme of study in geomatic sciences and surveying engineering. My education was multidisciplinary, combining legal, technical, and innovative aspects without excluding communication and management skills. Concurrently with my studies, I managed the training and cultural activities of the Moroccan association of surveying students. It was an opportunity to leave my comfort zone and take the initiative by developing solutions for the community through multiple projects related to real estate, precision agriculture and mobility.
The Network of Excellence on Land Governance in Africa, funded by the German Development Cooperation, awarded me a scholarship of excellence to finance my senior thesis through the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Thanks to the scholarship, I completed my final study project, which was especially helpful during the COVID-19 outbreak. Throughout this period, I acquired the necessary materials for the project, made frequent trips to the study site, took part in different seminars and met my daily housing and food needs. NELGA connected me to a global community that amplified my voice and ensured I count and matter. The Excellence in Africa (EXAF) pole of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne selected the project as the best master’s project dedicated to Digital technology for the urban environment in Africa. It was the best opportunity to discuss Africa’s challenges and how to address them, view my work through a diverse and global lens, network with professionals, and seek opportunities.
Today, I am a shareholder and manager of a surveying company in Tiflet – Morocco and a part-time PhD student at Hassan II Institute of Agronomy & Veterinary Medicine Rabat-Morocco. Through both career pathways, I support and mentor other young women. I show them that with courage and determination, the sky is the limit.
Johannes’s Sucess Story – NELGA Intern
It was such an exciting opportunity to be part of a culturally diverse organization while gaining experience in land governance in Africa – Lineekelomwene Johannes, Former Intern with NELGA Southern Africa Node at NUST
In February 2023, I completed all requirements towards my achieving a Bachelor of Business Management degree from the prestigious Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST). NUST is the leading hub for the Network of Excellence on Land Governance in Africa, an African Union network managed by the African Land Policy Centre through the support of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ).
Part of the requirements for graduation was to embark on an internship through Work-integrated Learning (WIL). This is an integral aspect of our curriculum and must be completed by all students for graduation. Lucky for me, I met Mr. Theodor Muduva, the advisor for NELGA at NUST and I was given the opportunity to gain experience as an administrative assistant intern for the network in southern Africa.
Simply put, it altered the playing field and was a game-changing experience. I was putting theory into practice and exchanging real-world experience. It was a thrill to work with people from various walks of life and learn from their experiences and perspectives. Before I joined NELGA, I had never thought of being interested in land issues, but through NELGA, I became knowledgeable about them. Mentors at the NELGA hub at NUST, especially Mr. Muduva, were extremely rewarding; and cumulatively inspired me to do my best in all my endeavours as I contributed my bit to my country’s development, region and the continent and, of course, come out with a better-than-average grade in my WIL course.
During my internship, a highlight of my time was participating in a planning and review meeting for NELGA with delegates from across Africa speaking as one voice. It was a tremendous pleasure for me to interact with NUST faculty, NELGA partner universities, African Land Policy Centre, GIZ as the implementing partner and many others. I was learning about land governance outside of my original academic interest; however, I could see the business management intersections and alignment with land and how this impacts the continent. It was a thrilling experience.
I am incredibly grateful for the invaluable insight into the workings of the business world that I gained due to my time spent in NELGA in these early professional years. Being a part of the NELGA team was an incredible opportunity to gain significant experience and intellectual resources to guide my future career goals.
NELGA is Delighted to Unveil its New Website
NELGA is pleased to announce the launch of its new website, www.nelga.uneca.org, which boasts an enhanced user experience and cutting-edge functionality. NELGA has wholly revamped its old website into a new, fully functional, responsive, and dynamic website with expanded functionality and accessibility, resulting in a more comprehensive and dynamic user experience.
The new platform is designed with the support of the German Development Cooperation and has the user in mind, boasting a sleek, contemporary appearance and intuitive navigation. With a focus on providing valuable information and resources, the website provides NELGA members and land stakeholders with a wealth of knowledge about the network’s activities, opportunities, research, engagement, and networking spaces.
In addition, the website’s functionality has been enhanced with a responsive design that optimises the user experience across all devices, improved search capabilities, and a streamlined subscription process that ensures visitors are always informed of the latest NELGA news.
Jennifer Aghaji, NELGA’s Communication Specialist, said, “Our objective was to design a visually appealing and user-friendly platform. We believe the new website achieves both goals. We have integrated various platforms into a single website and incorporated a knowledge management repository for land-related subject areas.”
The new website will enhance communication and accessibility with Africa’s land stakeholders and the general public.
NELGA Researchers in Southern Africa Master the Art of Scientific Writing
Scientific writing is important in the development of academia and academic institutions. It is a challenge for postgraduate students and lecturers (supervisors) to write scientific papers, especially for publication in high impact scientific journals. Academics and postgraduate students have found it difficult to develop their scientific writing skills to meet the publication requirements of high impact journals. Lecturers who supervise postgraduate candidates face the daunting task of transferring quality scientific writing skills to the students since writing at postgraduate level is complex. Therefore, strengthening the capacity of lecturers to transfer scientific writing skills effectively improves graduation rates and academic publications.
In an attempt to a Scientific Writers’ workshop was held back in October 2022 at Chaminuka Lodge and Nature Reserves in Lusaka, Zambia. The objectives of the workshop are as follows; i) Improve the quality of scientific writing skills. ii) Assist early researchers working on scientific papers to produce publishable papers. iii) Increase research collaboration among NELGA member Universities and iv) Strengthen research supervision and mentorship skills of academic staff supervising postgraduate students.
The Workshop was a collaboration among Namibian University of Science and Technology (NUST), Network for Land Governance in Africa (NELGA), University of Zambia, and sponsored by GIZ. The University of Zambia hosted the workshop, facilitated by four consultants: Professor Chigbu (Namibia), Professor Chakwizira (South Africa), Dr Pamela Duran Diaz (Germany), and Dr Chavunduka (Zimbabwe). The consultants led each of the sessions that focused on a specific aspect of scientific writing. The areas covered included: H-index and Social Impact factors in scientific academic publication; Strategies of scientific writing skills; Comparing different styles of scientific writing; Conducting effective literature review; Writing scientific articles; Publishing articles in high-ranking journals; Strategies of scientific writing skills; Comparing different styles of scientific writing; Tips on PhD Discourse.
Ten (10) PhD students and one (1) Masters Student registered at various universities also presented summaries of their research papers. Supervisors gave feedback to the students and identified areas of improvement. The main outputs of the workshop included the identification of the members of team to spearhead the development of a scientific writer’/supervisors’ manual. Secondly, the submission of abstracts from each of the participants as a contribution as a chapter a book that will be edited and published.
Jimmy’s Success Story- NELGA Alumni
“Attending the NELGA course on the Political Economy of Land Governance in Africa has shaped my career” – Jimmy Ochom, a land rights advocate, shared his experience in the NELGA program.
Three significant actions have influenced me in my career.
As a child who grew up in Ntinda, Uganda, my career path was first influenced by my secondary school, Busoga College, which taught me to live independently and think outside the box for innovative solutions to the country’s problems. This is solely attributed to the school culture and enabling environment it provides.
The second influence was my father, the late David Onyoin Okalebo. He believed that education was the key to my success. By the time he died, he was the CEO of the Teso Private Sector Foundation. He took his time to teach me how NGOs operate. From that background, when I realised NGOs could support my human rights interests, I ensured that for every internship and clerkship, it was from organisations that supported my areas of interest.
The third influence was my passion for land rights. My first job as a Legal Officer at the Uganda Land Alliance shaped my career; the organisation advocated for the realisation of land rights for the vulnerable. I loved what I did. I saw the impact of my work through access to land justice in beneficiaries’ lives. This passion led me to explore opportunities to foster land rights, including attaining a Master’s in Laws (LLM-Laws).
These three influences impacted my knowledge and opened doors for me, including being selected for the 2018 NELGA short Course on the Political Economy of Land Governance in Africa organised by the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies. This was a turning point in my career as a land rights expert. The course enabled me to understand several things that drive land governance. I learned the intersection between land rights, climate change, food systems, agriculture, legal empowerment, and politics and how these influence the growth of countries’ economies. I have used and grown this knowledge, and I have taken younger lawyers whom I am also empowering and steering their careers toward land governance. Attending the NELGA course on the Political Economy of Land Governance in Africa has shaped my career. It has exposed me to all regional, national, and global platforms where I have been able to champion the fight for land rights in my country and globally. I could appreciate the intersection between law, legal empowerment, land rights, food security, climate justice, and agriculture and how these challenges need to be understood to support the growth of economies. The course gave me a grasp on the analysis of land policies, food systems policies, agriculture policies, legal empowerment policies, etc.
The training has influenced my work. I do advocacy and influencing, especially in government, and my learnings have made me more confident in the land space.
The training boosted my confidence that I remain on the right path on land rights. Many people always associate lawyers with private and corporate spaces with little to no support for community rights for something as simple as simplifying legal interpretations for the community. I currently provide legal interpretation for laws associated with communal land rights and equip citizens with knowledge about land laws and policies, to stand up for any injustices, especially for women, youth and the vulnerable.
Celina’s Success Story – NELGA Scholar
Celina Kafute Awala, a Lecturer and a single mother of four, pursuing a Doctorate of Spatial Science with a sponsorship from DAAD at NUST shares her experiences with NELGA and the DAAD program.
I was born on 01 June 1981 and raised in the small village of Onamanape in the then Ombalantu district, in northern Namibia closer to Namibia-Angola borders. My father was a seasonal worker in Walvis Bay and my mother was a housewife and subsistence farmer. My parents did not have any formal education, however, my mother through the Roman Catholic church, learnt how to read the bible and eventually started preaching and taught other people catechisms for baptism which led them to be given national documents. I am the lastborn of seven from my mother and my father, however, my father was a polygamist, so we were 16 altogether from our two mothers. Growing up, our house was a happy place and I pretty happy childhood.
My early education was pretty memorable. I attended my primary education at Onembaba Combined School. Even though the school was far from home and there was no clock in our house, my mother would wake me up at dawn to get to school and arrive most times before my teachers. I loved school. It was a place where I met my friends, played a lot and shared meals. After school, I looked after our goats, again another place for interaction and play. I attended secondary school at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic High School, outside Windhoek, the capital city. This was a life-changing experience, from village to boarding school, especially with English and Afrikaans that were mostly used for communication in the hostel and at school. However, I eventually caught up. This is where I learnt about responsibility, being on my own, and survival.
Upon completing high school in 2000, I applied for electrical engineering at the then Polytechnic of Namibia (now Namibia University of Science and Technology, NUST), however, I failed the mathematics entry test. On the last day of registration, without much information on the options, as I browsed through the prospectus, I stumbled on Land Management, specifically Land Measuring, and I thought it was practical like engineering and so I registered.
I enjoyed land measuring, which was my introduction to land surveying. After one year, I got a National Certificate and then continued to a Diploma in Land Management 2003, and a BTech Land Management, specialisation Land Information Systems in 2006, subsequently. After finishing my undergraduate studies, I worked at Geo Business Solutions cc as a junior GIS consultant responsible for cadastral data capturing and updates. In February 2007, I started a new position at the National Planning Commission (Central Bureau of Statistics) as a GIS Data Analyst responsible for spatial data analysis, geodatabase management, Metadata creation and supervision.
I do enjoy school and building my knowledge in land information space especially as the information environment keeps evolving. In 2008, I applied and was awarded an Erasmus Mundus Lot 10 scholarship to further my studies at the Faculty of Geoinformation and Earth Observation Sciences (ITC), University of Twente, in the Netherlands where I graduated with a Master of Science in Governance and Spatial Information Management in March 2010. I worked in other private firms but in December 2010, I got a job at the Directorate of Survey and Mapping in the then Ministry of Land Reform as a Cartographer responsible for cartographic products quality control, georeferencing, mapping, and supervision. This was a game-changer as I was in the government space contributing to the decisions on land information systems. During my work at the directorate of Survey and Mapping, I was involved in the Coastal Sensitivity Mapping and Electoral Mapping projects. Both projects were important for their use of geographical information systems in managing resources and decision-making processes.
However, the pull to be a teacher was strong and in July 2014 I started work as a lecturer of land administration at NUST responsible for courses such as land policies and institutions, land tenure management, Governance and Spatial information Management and later coordination of Work Integrated Learning. I found teaching interesting as I can relate my work experience to my lessons. I also needed to be an expert in my field. I decided to apply for a PhD to help meet that dream, for my students, my colleagues, and most especially for me. I am currently pursuing a Doctorate of Spatial Science with NUST with sponsorship from DAAD under the NELGA program. The scholarship experience is overwhelming, always meeting and interacting with people from different backgrounds and exchanging knowledge. Through this scholarship, I got an opportunity to attend a summer school in Frankfurt, Germany in 2018, after which I was taken up as an assistant tutor from 2019 to date. My research interests are public sector geoinformation management, land tenure management and governance.
At the beginning of my scholarship, I had little knowledge of research, I struggled a lot in conceptualising ideas, however, due to many events organised under the DAAD/NELGA scholarship programme, my understanding of many general land administration concepts has improved.
It has not been easy combining my academic aspirations and my being a mum of four beautiful children. However, I enjoy the challenges that comes with providing for them and meeting my academic needs. I count myself blessed and cherish all the experiences and opportunities.
After the completion of my study, I would like to start a programme to train young Namibians in research methodologies as we lack local capacity in this area. It is believed that decision-makers do not read journal articles but the information I get, I try to pass on in my classes and in the form of opinion pieces in the local newspapers as it can reach the local community in different capacities. I also want to see the improvement, implementation and use of spatial data in decision making at the lower levels of public administration.
Exclusion in planning perpetrates poverty in informal settlements
We should recognise that people in informal settlements have the same right to share the city with the same dignity and equality as other residents. Without the active participation of informal settlement residents in upgrading projects, any upgrading plans proposed are destined to flop. Post the pandemic, we (Namibian planning practitioners, donors and private sector) should look towards the inclusion of people in informal settlements communities in planning and upgrading of the informal settlements.
Some people are of the opinion that speaking about problems or challenges will not bring about change. There is some truth to that line of thought. However, understanding the problem and origins can be of great assistance in identifying solutions that are desired by those affected. While some parts of the world are discussing smart cities, Namibian towns are challenged with providing secure land rights to most of the urban poor. Fortunately, the urban land reform debate finally came to the forefront on the national development agenda, after the focus has been on rural areas for the past 20 years. The focus on urban land reform could influence the emergence of innovative solutions; however, there is a risk of excluding communities affected from actively participating.
The problems faced by the poor and low income who make up 40% of the urban population living in informal settlements are relevant for discussion, mainly as the poor are also important residents of the city as they contribute to vital services of the urban economy. In Namibia, like many developing countries, the poor are found at the periphery of cities, living in uncomfortable conditions with no tenure security and high anxiety caused by possibilities of eviction. Despite their challenging living environment, there is persistent exclusion of the poor in planning for upgrading. When local authorities plan, the informal settlement residents are seldom part of the discussion.
The Urban and Regional Planning Act, 5 of 2018, passed by parliament, is yet to be implemented. The Act has some promising sections for informal settlement upgrading and key among these is the provision for participation and access to land. The Act clearly states that “spatial planning must be aimed at redressing past imbalances in respect of access to land ownership and land allocation. Plus it promotes access to relevant information for the public. However, public participation methods are left to the onus of the relevant minister. This would undoubtedly create bureaucratic challenges that may perpetuate exclusion of informal settlement residents from participating in the upgrading of their communities.
It is vital for leaders in policy implementation to understand that the exclusion of residents in decisionmaking increases insecurity and prevents residents from seeking justice and legal remedy when those in positions of influence violate their rights. Rapid expansion of informal settlements and lack of service delivery in these areas is indicative of poor or no participation of residents affected in the development processes affecting their communities.
There are solutions galore from various case studies on how we can improve informal settlements at scale and at a faster pace, yet implementation becomes a challenge. The introduction and revision of planning laws to reflect the needs of the people is a step to improving land delivery and citizen participation in planning. What remains, as a bottleneck for active participation of residents in informal settlements, is a lack of political will and buy-in from planning specialists.
Lack of participatory planning delays the successful implementation of informal settlement upgrading projects. This creates a blockage to solutions that are sustainable and may lead to high social cost during implementation. The norm in planning is consultants are at the foreground during design, while residents are only consulted during the phase of construction or removal of shacks for roads and services. This may be due to how informal settlement residents are perceived; some planning practitioners see informal settlement residents as land invaders and not as people with the same rights to the city as those in formal areas. The exclusion of residents in the planning for their own settlements perpetuates discrimination and enforces powerlessness faced by the poor.
Participatory planning is not a stress-free process that takes a few months – it is a process that requires incessant community engagement, trust, and relationship building. In this process, it is vital that the possibility of development fatigue and expectation management is tackled by planning teams with residents. Moreover, it is important that those in planning and community members can find a compromise to form partnerships that be a catalyst for sustainable solutions at a low cost.During normal operations, the right to assemble and demonstrate has given residents an opportunity to have their voices heard. However, this should not be the norm. For a population of 2.5 million, understanding the issues of residents at town level should not be a challenge. One major impediment to implementing scalable solutions for informal settlements is the limited availability of dedicated professionals in local authorities dealing with informal settlements. Rather, as important as the role of community development officers are, they are “jack-of-all-trades’’, which can lead to overload. It is important for implementation of upgrading for local authorities to establish dedicated departments on informal settlements upgrading.
Every local authority embarking on the upgrading of informal settlements ought to consider the inhabitants as primary partners, who can share their local knowledge that could affect the speed and cost of projects. For successful project implementation, the residents of informal settlements need to have access to relevant information on how the public process for budgeting, planning and decisions concerning housing provision are made within the government. The time for using facilitators that understand the importance of participation and have patience for communities is now more vital than before. Participatory upgrading is not an easy process at the start; it requires patience, good communication skills and knowledge of the local context.
To empower communities, it is vital that information sharing, and participation is encouraged. This should not only happen during elections, but throughout the whole process of urban policy development. People in informal settlements may be poor due to their economic status; however, many do have a wealth of ideas on how they can improve their communities. Every town planning office should find means to harness this wealth, and participatory planning is the starting point.
Ms. Menare Royal Mabakeng is a junior lecturer in the Land and Property Sciences Department at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST), with a main research interest in fit for purpose land administration. She writes in her personal capacity.