Namibia

Development cooperation between Iceland and Namibia will finish in the end of 2010. Icelandic Government has formally notified the Government of Namibia that they will not be able to honour their request for extending the General Agreement made by the two countries on development cooperation, which will expire in 2010. However, Iceland pledges to honour all commitments already made and will implement all contractual projects.

Since its commencement in 1990, the main objectives of the Namibian/Icelandic co-operation have been research in fisheries and the marine environment and training in the field of fisheries. ICEIDA’s development co-operation in the social sector in Namibia has expanded significantly through the years and several new projects have been introduced. In 2008 there were nine staff members in the ICEIDA office in Namibia, thereof three Icelandic employees and one Icelandic intern.

From Iceida´s Annual Report 2008:

Introduction

In Namibia, the year 2008 was filled with political tension. The founding of the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) in the latter part of 2007 was one reason. Since independence, the SWAPO party has held a dominant position in the nation’s parliament and appears to be threatened by the new party. There have been minor skirmishes at RDP mass meetings, when supporters of SWAPO have tried to break up the gatherings. Police action has been resolute and the police have shown admirable restraint and impartiality. Parliamentary and presidential elections are scheduled for November 2009, which explains to a degree the tension that has developed.

The international financial crisis has not affected the country to any extent and it is thought unlikely that its financial institutions will suffer. Foreign currency restrictions have played a large part in this respect. However, demand for various Namibian export goods, such as diamonds and fish, has diminished. It is clear that the country is heading towards a period of recession and increased unemployment. Unemployment is already extensive and official figures put current unemployment at a minimum of 36%. Economic growth for 2008 is expected to be around 2.7%, which is a slight reduction from the almost 5% of the previous year. Inflation increased during the year and has not been higher for many years. At the end of the year, inflation measured 10.9% on an annual basis, after having been at 12% for the preceding four months. Prices of food and other necessities have risen noticeably. The government decided to abolish VAT on various necessities, such as bread and flour, but with no discernible success.

After a period of serious drought in the latter part of 2007, the situation changed dramatically at the beginning of the following year. In the first part of 2008, rainfall exceeded all records. Conditions were not improved by the fact that flooding spread over the border between Namibia and Angola. These floods caused widespread damage to property and loss of human life. The northern regions were particularly badly affected, with the government declaring a state of emergency in several areas.

 

ICEIDA’s Development Cooperation

All ICEIDA’s projects are undertaken in collaboration with the Namibian authorities. A general agreement on forms and procedures for development cooperation between the two countries remains in force until the end of 2010 and this date undeniably put its mark on the operations in Namibia. Almost without exception, the projects are organised with a view to being completed by this date. In 2004, it was decided to reduce the number of projects in the fisheries sector and concentrate on helping those in a vulnerable position in Namibian society. Today, the main emphasis of operations in Namibia is education for the Deaf and development in the indigenous areas.

A new project manager of social projects took over in March when the previous one took over as Country Manager in Malawi. This is the third project manager in three years. Such frequent changes are rather undesirable as it always takes time for new staff to familiarise themselves with the operation.

At the beginning of the year, a Namibian project coordinator for the Sign Language project joined ICEIDA. She is a teacher at the School for Children with Hearing Impairments and Communication Difficulties in Windhoek and was seconded to the project from the Namibian Ministry of Education. In April, a local accountant was hired to work in the country office. The scope of operations has increased in recent years, which involves more strain on the accountancy. Due to the increased number of staff it became necessary to renovate the office premises of the country office. This renovation was completed in May. An intern worked at the country office during the latter half of the year. She was mainly involved in the preparation of a kindergarten project. A number of short-term consultants worked for the country office during the year, both Icelandic and Namibian.

The ICEIDA Board did not visit Namibia in 2008. However, some staff from the head office visited the country office. In March, the Director of the social desk came to familiarise herself with the social sector projects in the country and study the possibilities for new projects. ICEIDA’s financial manager arrived in May to review work procedures and to train a new member of staff. Several changes have been made to ICEIDA’s archiving system and the head archivist visited the country office to hold a workshop for the staff. At about the same time, a computer expert from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs visited to upgrade the computer system, both hardware and software.

The financial crisis in Iceland has affected the operations in Namibia. Several tasks, which should have been carried out in October and November, were postponed. For a time, there were difficulties transferring funds from Iceland to the country office, nonetheless ICEIDA managed to fulfill its obligations.

 

Support to the Education Sector

ICEIDA’s main education project in Namibia is called Signs Speak as Loud as Words. The main aim of this project is to improve the education of Namibia’s Deaf community and to increase understanding of its issues. At the beginning of the year, the country’s Ministry of Education supplied the country office with a project coordinator whose main task is to prepare the establishment of a Communication Centre for Deaf Studies in Namibia.

Twice during the year, a Sign Language teacher came to Namibia to hold courses for Deaf Sign Language teachers. The courses took place in the north of the country where the majority of the Deaf community lives. An Icelandic Sign Language interpreter also visited the country on two occasions to hold interpretation workshops. Sign Language interpreters are few in Namibia and it is necessary to increase their number to ensure the progress of the project.

At the beginning of the year came the welcome news that two Deaf students had passed their 10th grade exams. To put this into perspective, only a third of all students who take the 10th grade exams in Namibia pass them. The Ministry of Education requested assistance from ICEIDA to support these Deaf students in further studies. The students studied in a mainstream school and had access to the necessary interpretation. At the end of the year, they had passed their 11th grade exams, thereby becoming pioneers in the education of the Deaf in Namibia. On grounds of this, they became role models for younger Deaf children who now see a real opportunity for continuing their education. This part of the project will be continued in 2009 as four Deaf students in addition will start their 11th grade at the beginning of the year.

In October, staff from the country office, accompanied by consultants, went to Rundu, a town in the northeast of Namibia. The purpose of the trip was to support the education of the Deaf in the area. Sign Language courses were organised and two Sign Language interpreters received training. Representatives from ICEIDA toured the region to acquaint themselves with the circumstances of the Deaf. In addition, collaboration with the town’s vocational training centre, COSDEC, was launched, which will now, for the first time, give Deaf people access to vocational training. During the year, the idea to offer Sign Language as minor option in teachers’ training was discussed with the Windhoek College of Education. The College welcomed the idea and from the beginning of 2009 this option will be available. The teacher trainees seem very interested in this elective. Over the next two years, ICEIDA will provide funding equivalent to the position of one lecturer.

Around the middle of the year, preparations got underway for adult education for the Deaf in collaboration with the Ministry of Education. A large proportion of the Deaf community is unable to use Sign Language, which naturally presents these people with many difficulties. Without Sign Language the Deaf have no way of participating in Namibian society. To begin with, the adult education courses will be concerned with teaching Sign Language, followed by other subjects such as reading, writing and arithmetic.

A film crew came to Namibia in February in order to make a documentary on the state of the Deaf community in the country. The main theme of the film, titled Sign of Hope, is the story of a young Deaf woman, who works as a volunteer and teaches in a small kindergarten in the north of Namibia. The film will be screened on Icelandic television and offered free of charge for screening on Namibian television.

Since 2006, it has been the aim to strongly support Early Childhood Development (ECD) in Namibia, and, in particular, vulnerable areas and groups in society. The Deputy Prime Minister of Namibia has purposefully applied to ICEIDA to support pre-school education of the San people, without a doubt the group burdened with the heaviest struggle for their livelihood of all in Namibia. In mid-year, ICEIDA and the Namibian authorities signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Integrated Early Childhood Development. Namibian experts in ECD were hired to prepare the project. This was intended as ICEIDA’s largest project in Namibia up to the end of 2010. The main aim was twofold: on the one hand to make concerted efforts in the education of educarers in kindergartens and on the other to improve conditions in kindergartens in rural areas, where particular emphasis was to be placed on minorities’ issues, including the San and Himba people. Preparatory meetings with stakeholders were held in four regions, and the major part of ICEIDA’s work in the latter half of the year was related to this project. It emerged that there was significant need for support in this field in Namibia and clear that there was strong correlation between kindergarten attendance and success at later stages of education, which justified the scope of the project. Towards the end of the year, a Project Document was ready, but the financial collapse in Iceland caused the project to be abandoned. This is unfortunate, as expectations had been raised amongst the people in the regions, who thought that this field would finally receive its deserved support.

Nonetheless, some progress was made in regard to pre-school matters. ICEIDA supported the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare (MGECW) in the completion and printing of the government’s Integrated Early Childhood Development Policy. ICEIDA supported organisational meetings on the training of and courses for educarers, as well as financing the development of course material in this field. ICEIDA also financed the training of around thirty course trainers working for the MGECW. These trainers were intended to play a key role in the training of hundreds of educarers in kindergartens in the rural areas. Various types of training and educational material were prepared and printed as part of the project preparation. This will be very useful to the MGECW. The preparation of teaching material for children in the two San languages received special support. Furthermore, comprehensive resource boxes were prepared, which will be distributed to almost 700 kindergartens in the four regions, as educational materials are in very short supply in almost every kindergarten in the rural areas.

 

Support to the Social Sector

The construction of wells continued in the Himba region in the north-western part of Namibia. Ten wells were constructed and pumps installed. The training of water point committees started in the latter part of the year. Sixteen wells have now been constructed out of the 33 which are to be completed by the end of 2010. Heavy rainfall in the first half of the year caused some delays in the construction. The rise in oil prices led to higher costs in regard to the project than had been anticipated. ICEIDA’s Board decided, however, to keep the project on schedule and to take on the extra cost rather than cut down on the number of wells that year. Staff from the country office has examined some of the completed wells. There is no doubt that these new wells are of enormous benefit to the people in the region. In particular, this reduces the workload on women and girls who are responsible for collecting water. In many instances, the distance to wells has been decreased by many kilometres. It can also be mentioned that as a result of the new wells, schools have reopened at two locations, as access to water is the prerequisite for this.

In connection with the drilling for water, ICEIDA supports the Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation (IRDNC), which is an NGO that works towards improving grazing control in the vicinity of waterholes and wells. Better grazing control leads to less soil erosion than would otherwise be the case and it is, therefore, important to apply a comprehensive approach to water issues and overgrazing. The project manager of the UNU - Land Restoration Training Programme, which is based in Iceland, visited Namibia towards the end of the year and examined, amongst other things, the operations of the IRDNC.

Co-operation with the Himba people originally started through support to four mobile kindergartens. This support came to an end in 2008. Expanding this support and increasing the number of kindergartens in the region has often been discussed. The plan was to adopt this as a part of a much larger kindergarten project but, as has been mentioned, the project had to be abandoned. Consequently, the support for kindergartens for the Himba has ceased for the time being. Some leaders in the Himba community believe that ICEIDA has gone back on its word.

ICEIDA has supported the running of community centres in Namibia for a number of years. This support will come to an end in 2010. However, an agreement has been reached with the Namibia Community Skills Development Foundation (COSDEF), a fund under the auspices of the Namibian authorities, to take over the running of the centres in Swakopmund and Lüderitz. COSDEF runs vocational training centres in many parts of the country. COSDEF’s chief target group are young people who have dropped out of school. The matter was concluded in Swakopmund, but there have been delays in handing over the Lüderitz centre, for the most part due to delays by the Karas Regional Council, which owns the property. COSDEF will finally take over the Lüderitz centre in the early part of 2009. Construction of a community centre in Okahandja, some 70 km north of Windhoek, commenced in 2007. ICEIDA provided financial support for the construction, although the implementation was entirely in the hands of a domestic organisation, which oversees the operation. The centre was formally opened on 29 August 2008.

For the second year running, support was given to the Namibia Women Summit. Around three hundred women from all over the country assembled for a week in August to discuss issues relating to entrepreneurship and women in business. The object was to learn from one another, form relations which could be of use in business, and to give each other encouragement. The conference exceeded all hopes and the organisation and execution were exemplary.

As in the past, ICEIDA supported various small organisations. This includes support to an organisation providing midday meals for poor schoolchildren. Support is also given to homes, which take in children made orphans by AIDS. The faculty of law at the University of Namibia, which offers legal aid to the poor, has received support. ICEIDA’s support has been focused on providing such legal aid to people living outside the capital. Support for these small projects has been reduced over the past few years as they demand considerable effort and the ICEIDA Board has decided to prioritise larger projects wherever possible. 

 

Support to the Fisheries Sector

Over the past few years, ICEIDA’s support to the fisheries sector has decreased significantly. This is a substantial change from the times when emphasis was placed on fisheries. In 2008, the Benguela Current Commission received support for the first time. The Commission is a cooperation project of three countries, Angola, South Africa and Namibia. The purpose is to develop an ecosystem approach to control the waters of these three countries.  ICEIDA’s support, which is for the period 2008-2011, focuses on the building up of human resources and the training of researchers. The UN Development Programme (UNDP) is also involved.

During the latter half of the year, the country office worked on the installation of hand-held computers for the Namibian Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources. These computers will be used for the registration of catches landed in Namibia. This project is a continuation of the statistics project, which has been running for a few years. Formal use of the computers will start in May 2009, which marks a new fishing season for the most important species.

An expert in quality control of fisheries products visited Namibia at the beginning of the year. The Namibian Ministry of Trade and Industry, which has overall supervision of quality control and standardisation matters in the country, has asked for assistance from Iceland in this area. The result of the visit was that further preparation by the Namibian authorities is needed before ICEIDA can become involved.

 

Gender Mainstreaming

In accordance with ICEIDA’s Gender Equality Policy, gender equality forms a part of ICEIDA’s projects in Namibia to the extent possible. Generally, gender equality is underdeveloped in Namibia. It is clear that, despite the fact that the position of women is protected by law and their legal position fairly strong, certain cultural elements weaken women’s position within the society. It is, therefore, reasonable to address equality issues in development projects here as elsewhere. An example of this is the well-drilling project of the Himba people. In this tribe, it is customary for the women and girls to see to water collecting. One of the aims of the project is to ease their circumstances by facilitating the access to water. The benefits are twofold. Firstly, the workload on women and girls is reduced and, secondly, they have more time to engage in other activities. In addition, women participate in the steering committees for the wells and take part in courses in connection with committee work. Furthermore, women within the Himba community have for a long time urged ICEIDA to support adult education. It had been decided to act upon this, but due to the circumstances in Iceland it is clear that this can not be realised.

The genders have generally participated equally in ICEIDA’s Sign Language project. The participation of a Deaf female adviser from Iceland has changed the ideas of the hearing, as well as the Deaf, significantly in regard to the possibilities of Deaf women. Mention should be made that of six Deaf students in secondary schools five are female. It is certain that these girls will be powerful role models for other Deaf girls in regard to education.

For many years, ICEIDA has supported community centres and kindergartens. Women are, for the most part, the prime motivators in these centres. ICEIDA’s support reinforces their independence and self-image. Support in regard to legal aid for the poor is of great benefit to women, as they use this service a great deal. In particular, they seek assistance in divorce and custody cases.

As in other places, it has been more difficult for women than men in business to promote themselves and establish networks. In the past two years, conferences have been held for women entrepreneurs, supported by ICEIDA. Nearly three hundred women attended each conference. As was stated above, the purpose is to learn from other women, form connections useful to the business, as well as give each other encouragement.

It is clear that the intended kindergarten project would have been a great asset in the education of those who work on early childhood development. A great majority of these are women. The kindergarten project would also have improved employment opportunities for women, as the aim was to increase significantly the number of children attending kindergartens. During the preparation stage, the ICEIDA Gender Equality Policy was always emphasised. There was considerable interest amongst the stakeholders in increasing the participation of men in kindergarten activities as male participation is generally considered important in relation to gender equality.