1.1 This report focuses on challenges for improved service delivery in poor urban areas in Namibia.
Two towns, Outapi and Ondangwa, located in the populous north, are used as case councils.
The objective of the study is to identify viable approaches to the delivery of housing, water,
electricity, and sanitation – the inadequacy of which all currently have detrimental effects on
the poor. The study examines the issue of service delivery as seen from both the councils and
the informal settlement population. The relationship between local governments and citizens,
and the ability of civil society to act as development agent is an important part of the study.
1.2 The research has been conducted by a multidisciplinary research team from Chr. Michelsen
Institute (CMI), Norway, and the Social Sciences Division (SSD), University of Namibia. The
analysis is based on a variety of sources of data collected during fieldwork in 2004, including
official, research and media reports, policy documents, a comprehensive citizen survey, and
interviews with a wide range of stakeholders, including council staff, elected councillors and
citizens in the two case councils, representatives from NGOs and CBOs, staff and councillors in
the Oshana and Omusati regions, and staff at the Ministry of Regional and Local Government
and Housing (MRLGH) in Windhoek.