Disclaimer:
Please be aware that the content herein has not been peer reviewed. It consists of personal reflections, insights, and learnings of the contributor(s). It may not be exhaustive, nor does it aim to be authoritative knowledge.
Title
Please provide a name for your action learning plan.
Complex Connections: Learning from individuals experiencing homelessness in Namibia through film ethnography
Challenge statement
Challenge type: If you are working on multiple challenges, please indicate if this is your "big bet" or "exploratory" challenge.
Please note: we ask you to only submit a maximum of 3 challenges - 1x Big Bet, 2x Exploratory. Each challenge must be submitted individually.
EXPLORATORY
Challenge statement: What is your challenge? (Please answer in specific terms: "Our challenge is that...”.)
Our challenge is that there is not much accurate data on people experiencing homelessness. The challenges faced by homeless individuals in Namibia are severe, and while there are efforts to improve conditions, much work on all levels remains to be done to address the complexity of homelessness.
Background: What is the history of your challenge? What is causing or driving it? Who is involved? How does the current situation look like? What undesired effects does it produce?
Homelessness in Namibia is a significant issue, with a complex set of contributing factors. There are several interdependent issues that are linked to this challenge:
Economic Inequality - Namibia is one of the world’s most unequal countries, with a high unemployment rate of 33.4% and about 20% of the population living in shacks or informal settlements. Shacks lack basic amenities like potable water, electricity, and toilets. This situation increases the risk of diseases and shack fires.
Youth Homelessness: Young people in Namibia face homelessness due to a lack of affordable housing, support services, and programmes that facilitate independent living.
Housing Crisis - A vast majority of Namibians, over 90%, cannot afford a housing loan, making home ownership extremely difficult. The housing prices have been rising, further excluding low-income households.
Government Initiatives - Efforts to address the housing crisis include the Namibia Shack Dweller’s Federation, which works to secure land and build low-cost houses for community members. The government and private sector have also been involved in initiatives to improve the situation.
Quantitative evidence: What (official) data sources do you have on this challenge that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge? You can add text, a link, or a picture.
Official data from the Ministry of Gender Equality Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare indicates that there were 8060 beneficiaries who received the conditional basic income grant in 2023, while a total of 357036 orphans and vulnerable children received the OVC grant. Downloads - MGEPESW - GRN Portal (gov.na). These figures do not necessarily give a holistic picture of the problem given that many experiencing homelessness may not necessarily be registered on the database.
Qualitative evidence: What weak signals have you recently spotted that characterizes its urgency? Please provide qualitative information that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge. You can add text, a link, or a picture.
The 2020 statistics from UNICEF Namibia estimates over approximately over 1000 children between the ages of 10 and 16 who live on the street. Since this statistics is yet to be verified, by 2025, almost half of them of them would have reached the age of 18. With the youth unemployment crisis in Namibia, this segment of the population urgently needs assistance and possible interventions to be integrated and become productive and proud members of Namibian society.
Value proposition: What added value or unique value proposition is your Accelerator Lab bringing to solving this challenge? Why is it your Lab that needs to work on this challenge and not other actors within UNDP, other stakeholders in the country respectively? Why is it worth investing resources to this challenge?
The Lab wishes to serve as a connector and knowledge broker between government, civil society and other organizations working in this space. The Lab is collaborating with 2 Civil Society Organizations who have made some inroads on using film ethnography as a tool to raise awareness about the growing problem.
https://youtu.be/AwN0MlcAN5c
Short “tweet” summary: We would like to tweet what you are working on, can you summarize your challenge in a maximum of 280 characters?
Complex Connections: How Namibia is learning from individuals experiencing homelessness through film ethnography
Partners
Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.
Please state the name of the partner:
OYO and Real DC / possibly UNICEF as well as the Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Gender,
What sector does our partner belong to?
Civil Society
Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.
We are using film ethnography to explore insight and new perspectives of how to address the growing challenge of homelessness in Namibia
Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?
Yes
Learning questions
Learning question: What is your learning question for this challenge? What do you need to know or understand to work on your challenge statement?
How might we use film ethnography and collaborate with CSOs and other organisaations working with people experiencing homelessness to design better solutions in Namibia and support the current government interventions?
To what stage(s) in the learning cycle does your learning question relate?
Explore, Test
Usage of methods: Relating to your choice above, how will you use your methods & tools for this learning question? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
In collaboration with OYO and Real DC, We will showcase the film "Lukas" across Namibia and use it as a prompt to stimulate difficult conversations about this very pressing problem and challenge. We are hoping that this will generate sufficient traction to raise awareness across Namibia.
Existing data gaps: Relating to your choice above, what existing gaps in data or information do these new sources of data addressing? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
Understanding the perspectives of the regular citizen but also involve the people experiencing homelessness in the design of possible solutions, linking them to new funding partners and opening up the space for new insights and perspectives.
Closing
Early leads to grow: Think about the possible grow phase for this challenge - who might benefit from your work on this challenge or who might be the champions in your country that you should inform or collaborate with early on to help you grow this challenge?
The Homeless , Government, Private Sector, Development Sector
END OF ACTION LEARNING PLAN: Thank you! The form saves automatically and your submission has been recorded. You may now exit this window.
1No poverty
10Reduced innequalities
16Peace, justice and strong institutions
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