Nairobi, 30 July 2018-- A delegation from Namibia’s National Council Standing Committee on Habitat Monday visited UN-Habitat headquarters in Nairobi.

The visit, that builds on a previous meeting between the two institutions, is expected to enhance collaboration between UN-Habitat and Namibia and will specifically focus on improving the capacity of the Committee to effectively debate issues related to sustainable urban development.

The delegation comprising of Members of Parliament, Clerks of the Parliament and representative of the Ministry of Housing was received by the Mme. Maimunah Mohd Sharif, Executive Director of UN-Habitat who advised that Namibia could develop, with technical support from UN-Habitat, an integrated holistic national urban policy or plan that addresses the challenges of urbanization that the country is currently grappling with.

“The national plan is then aligned to the country’s fiscal plan and thereafter a programme is developed to operationalize the plan. UN-Habitat has the requisite tools and capacity to provide this kind of support”, the Executive Director added.

The Head of the Namibian Delegation Mr. Sipapela Cletius Sipapela stated that the Ministry in charge of urbanization was in the process of organizing Namibia’s National Conference on Sustainable Urbanization and that a National Urban Policy should be prepared before the Conference. “Slums are a huge challenge in Namibia…we also need to discuss town planning hence  a roadmap is necessary ahead of the national symposium” added Honourable Sipapela who is also the Chairperson of the National Council Standing Committee on Habitat.

The Policy would be a basis for discussions at the national conference that will also be attended by mayors and other stakeholders in Namibia.  The Delegation is expected to meet with UN-Habitat’s Branches between 30th July and 3rd August to learn about the agency’s normative work across Africa and globally. Meetings have also been organized between the Delegation and Government of Kenya’s National Habitat Committee, the Senate and the Council of Governors of Kenya.