The research and development centre that was established to promote the use of local, indigenous building materials and design in Namibia, is reportedly failing to deliver the goods. There are no new innovative research projects being carried at the Habitat Research and Development Centre (HRDC) in Katutura.

Dr Andreas Wienecke, the Director of the HRDC, was reluctant to discuss what has been achieved and the future challenges of the centre. “There is nothing happening here. I am even looking for job,” he told Informanté this week.
He said the centre has effectively become part of the bureaucracy of government, adding that the Ministry of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development was about to take over the centre.
Part of the mission of the HRDC is to engage multi-disciplinary teams in basic research, the adaptation of existing knowledge and applied research to achieve a holistic approach to problem solving in the field of housing and its related issues.
Its mission was to become a “centre of excellence in housing research and development by applying new methods and ideas of science and technology for the sustainable development of the Namibia housing sector.”
Reliable sources close to the centre told Informanté that the Ministry feels the centre cannot sustain itself and government wants to take it over and it Cabinet will apparently approve this soon.  The centre – build with locally sources materials itself, was established in 2004 as national research institution and receives a budget from Government, through the Ministry of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development.
The HRDC currently has only five staff members. “How can we sustain ourselves if we don’t have workers?” one staff member asked, while other staff members shied away from discussing the future of the centre.
The Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Erastus Negonga, says the HRDC has been part and parcel of the Ministry, although there has been a question as to whether it should be independently-run or be a housing research centre within the Ministry. “What happened is that the latter became obvious. It is now just a housing research centre for the Ministry,” said Negonga.
After its establishment, the HRDC has been involved in activities such as renewable energy, alternative sanitation, such as biogas and dry sanitation and has been advocating and promoting alternative housing and building materials, urban settlement and designs.