German Government continues its support to Namibia’s sustainable development efforts

On Wednesday, 1 August 2018, Hon. Obeth Kandjoze, Minister for Economic Planning and Director General of NPC, and His Excellency Christian Schlaga, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany signed a Financial Grant and a Technical Cooperation Agreement between Germany and Namibia following the 2017 Governmental Negotiations on Development Cooperation between Germany and Namibia.

These two agreements cover programmes to the value of 73.5 million Euro (roughly 1.1 billion NAD), financing among others projects on Bush Control and Biomass Utilisation, Promotion of Vocational Education and Training, Promotion of Business Advisory and Transformational Services, Support to Management of Public Enterprises, Integrated Wildlife Protection Management and Integrated National Park Management.

These two agreements are complemented by a Financial Cooperation Agreement on interest-subsidized loans, to be concluded with the Ministry of Finance.

German-Namibian development cooperation is a central component of the special relations between Namibia and Germany. Since Namibia's independence in 1990, Germany has supported the Namibian Government in its policy of national reconciliation and in dealing with the legacy of apartheid. The main goal of German-Namibian cooperation is to dismantle the social and economic disparities which resulted from Namibia's history.

German development cooperation in Namibia the largest in Africa

To date, German development cooperation with Namibia - governmental and non-governmental programmes taken together - amounts to more than 1 billion Euros (roughly 15 billion NAD). In per-capita terms, Namibia is thus the largest recipient of German development cooperation in Africa.

 At the last round of negotiations, Namibia and Germany have agreed on three focal areas of the partnership, namely:

• Natural Resources Management
• Sustainable Economic Development
• Transport/Logistics

Within the priority areas, the emphasis is on key issues for tomorrow's world, such as a modern financial sector, natural resource management as a basis for tourism and agriculture, modern vocational training, logistics and, last but not least, energy efficiency and renewable energies.

In addition to bilateral government cooperation, there are a large number of programmes run by non-governmental players such as churches, political foundations, NGOs or private initiatives. The German government regards the contributions of these organizations as an important complement to governmental development cooperation and supports them financially.

Namibian-German development cooperation is based on agreements between the two governments These agreements are concluded at government negotiations that take place roughly every two years. In the scope of these negotiations, strategies for the future are developed together. The next round of negotiations on development cooperation is foreseen for 2019.