Rating Namibia after 20 years of independence

Indeed, 2010 is ‘a big year for landmark birthdays in Namibia … this should also be a time to take stock of progress’, said the editor of The Namibian, Gwen Lister.  
 
The Founding President and Father of the Nation, Dr Sam Nujoma, called on the youth ‘to ensure the implementation of Vision 2030’ at the rally marking the 50th anniversary of the SWAPO Party, which he formed and ‘led with a majestic sense of purpose’ and is inextricably linked to his unwavering leadership and pragmatic character just days after the 20th anniversary of the nation’s independence which he declared ‘free for ever’.  
 
Following a very futuristic article written by P. Muteyauli under the heading ‘If I were the President!’ that appeared in the Friday 16th edition of New Era’s letters column, I wanted to find out how we fare as a country, 20 years after independence.  
 
The author wrote that ‘the time is ripe to realise that the country can do better in terms of the artificially created poverty and unemployment. What is required is a heartfelt visionary-inspired able and willing leadership’ conceded the author who proposed what he termed: ‘a cross-cutting economic development served by a highly motivated, qualified and experienced cadres with comprehensive and realistic sets of targets based on a two year rolling fiscal policy instruments in a cross-sectoral approach accountable to both the executive and the legislator that touches education, training and management, food security,  
infrastructure development, service industry, technology transfer and development, institutional governance, urban and rural planning, health, disaster risk management, social welfare, sport and culture, monitoring and evaluation, among others’.  
 
The article caught my attention in that it is intended to do an introspective constructive criticism with innovative ideas and not just simple rhetoric for political expediency. 
 
I don’t purport to be an expert analyst of the economy, so I went to dust off the recommendations by Arvil V. Adams Sr., adviser for social protection Africa Region from the World Bank, who carried out a study almost 10 years ago to assess how we have been doing so far.  
 
Let us analyse what this means, mindful of what El Commandante Fidel Castro Ruz said about the 9th Congress of the Young Communist League of Cuba, in an opinion piece that appeared in Namibia Today of Friday, April 16 that we should educate ourselves, retrain and sharpen our skills as revolutionary parties and cadres responsible for political education.  
 
“The reactionaries and the mercenaries, who yearn for consumerism (capitalism/market economy/corruption) and refuse working hard and studying, will find it more difficult to fit in public life.  
 
“There will always be in human society demagogues and opportunists who advocate easy solutions with the aim of becoming popular but those who betray ethics will have less and less possibilities of deceiving … let us guard ourselves against … those that throw down the drain the people’s principles and dreams together with the dirty water,” said Castro.  
 
Since independence in 1990, Namibia has managed to distinguish itself as a country with an enabling environment for development in general, and for knowledge-driven development (KDD) in particular. 
 
Key enablers include: peace and political stability due our policy of national reconciliation including a smooth transition of power; good governance; macroeconomic stability; reasonable economic policies; reasonable management of the economy; economic freedom; reasonable policy, legal and institutional frameworks including regular elections and settling of disputes by an independent judiciary; a fairly clear long-term vision for development; political buy-in of the centrality of education and knowledge to development; fairly developed ICTs infrastructure; and a fairly developed transport and communications system.  
 
Namibia also has reasonable prospects for accelerating growth in areas of potential comparative advantage.  
 
These include the geographical location; landscape and beauty; rich mineral resource base; fisheries; animal farming; and, potentially, oil and gas. Manufacturing and service industries – tourism, transport, ICTs, banking – also have potential. 
 
Namibia is not among the poorest of the world’s countries. An abundance of natural endowments – ranging from minerals, to its landscape, location, flora and fauna – offers great potential for growth.  
 
By value, Namibia is the world’s fifth and sixth largest producer of diamonds and uranium, respectively. A range of minerals – diamonds, uranium, copper, zinc, lead, tin, silver, tungsten – and semiprecious stones makes mining a mainstay of the economy. 
 
Short-term prospects for improved outputs in the mining sector are good and have substantially improved with the opening of the Skorpion Zinc mine and refinery, and with the lifting of the De Beers diamond quotas.  
 
There are good prospects for the Kudu gas fields which are estimated to hold 560 billion cubic meters of reserves (see the ACR for 2000/01).  
 
If the venture could successfully take off, and if plans to build two power stations could materialise, Namibia could become a major exporter of energy.  
 
Another boost to growth emerged with oil exploration along the coastline. There also exists increased output in fisheries, especially with the release of higher fishing quotas for hake and for mackerel. 
 
Fish processing and aquaculture also make substantial inputs. Given the lower dependence on rain and the weather, animal agriculture has better growth prospects, as our beef is ranked one of the best, than arable agriculture even if of late we have seen rice cultivation and other projects like Etunda irrigation and many other projects taking off the ground. 
 
In addition, the desert climate gives the Namibian grapes an edge in international markets because they ripen much earlier. Namibia was also highly ranked on the quality of roads and (21/24) on the number of tarred roads in SADC and Africa. 
 
There are excellent sub-regional highways, such as the Trans-Kalahari and the Trans-Caprivi highways complemented by the Walvis Bay Corridor connecting with the Maputo Corridor, and to further broaden business opportunities. The railway project that will link us to Angola is in at an advanced stage.  
 
There is a bridge connecting Zambia with Namibia via a Trans Caprivi Highway. In addition to easy access to the sea, the beautiful and varied landscape, diverse cultures, and rich wildlife translate into substantial potential for community-based tourism and ecotourism. 
 
The recently inaugurated cement factory and the desalination plant add value to our economy.  
 
Despite an enabling environment and good growth prospects, income inequalities are among the highest in the world, with a Gini coefficient of 0.63.  
 
The prevalence of HIV/AIDS is one of the highest in sub-Sahara Africa. Between 2001 and 2021, the number of orphans is expected to rise but thanks to our government, mother-to-child transmission is now declining and many people are on ARV treatment.  
 
The national average unemployment rate is above 34 percent or 20 percent, using the broad or strict measures, respectively and not 51 percent as alleged even if unemployment is highest among the unskilled and youth.  
 
There is a huge disparity between the rural areas and the urban centres, hence the flocking to urban centres yet the local authorities are sitting on ticking time bombs and gold mines at the same time, developing and servicing only the rich suburbs but I should haste to add that N$257 million is proposed in the current budget to accelerate the provision of proper sanitation infrastructures in rural areas, small towns, villages and informal settlements over the MTEF.  
 
The ‘willing seller, willing buyer’ policy has been circumvented by those who have land and there is a huge need for land, hence the recent ‘land grabbing’ saga probably instigated for political expediency by someone pressing the panic buttons and playing on the emotions of the landless.  
 
To better respond to these challenges, the government undertook to dramatically reform the national development strategy encapsulated in a long-term vision for national development – Vision 2030. 
 
A key aspiration of Vision 2030 with its implementing tools of NDP I, II &III, is to rapidly transform Namibia into a high-income, and a more equitable, Knowledge Economy (KE).  
 
Given the enabling environment, rich natural resource base, and reasonable capital, lack of appropriate knowledge and technology has been identified as key impediments to moving to higher value-added productivity. 
 
To this end, Namibia’s efforts to join other KEs would also entail a rapid development of a knowledge society (educated, skilled, ICT savvy), capable of supporting the development of knowledge-based industries, and the creation of new technologies.  
 
Against this background, the government invited the World Bank to undertake a comprehensive assessment of the adequacy of the education and training system to support the attainment of national development goals, especially the intended transition to a KE.  
 
A knowledge and innovation system is conceived as a system comprising firms, science and research centres, universities, think-tanks, consultants, and other organisations that can: access global knowledge; assimilate it; adapt it to local needs; create new knowledge; dismantle obsolete knowledge and activities and start up new ones; appropriately package knowledge for diverse usage; provide targeted advocacy for the use of knowledge; and apply knowledge for development.  
 
The success of a KE rests on the strength of the following key pillars: Economic incentives and an institutional regime that encourages knowledge creation and the efficient and effective use of knowledge for development; knowledge and innovation system; education and human capital; dynamic ICTs infrastructure that can facilitate effective communication, as well as easy access, dissemination and processing of information and knowledge.  
 
The study noted that dependence on natural resources is not necessarily less progressive than manufacturing, nor is it incompatible with knowledge-based economies (KBEs). 
 
The challenge is: (a) to reinvest proceeds from finite natural resources into the development of infinite new endowments that have regenerative capacities, e.g., human capital, knowledge, better institutions, and public infrastructure; (b) to transform natural resource-based primary product industries into knowledge-intensive, natural resource-based high-tech industries; and (c) to optimally build on all forms of natural advantage – minerals, location, beauty, culture, climate – that bear promise of creating competitive advantage. 
 
Income inequalities between rich and poor countries are due less to differences in traditional factors of production – labour, land and capital – and more to differences in human capital and knowledge. 
 
The study recommended that efforts to strengthen the system should focus on the following three priorities: (a) improve the effectiveness or quality of the education and training system, (the ETSIP programme will cater for that) (b) improve the efficiency of the system (NIPAM will do the job), (c) eliminate inequalities (the budget caters for that) and others.  
 
True, the country can do better and more in all the aforementioned critical areas, hence my support to the idea of fully subsidising tertiary education and adopting a comprehensive social security system that caters for all.  
 
I also strongly support a mixed economy with strong interventions by the state in partnership with private enterprises, considering the recent world financial crisis that showed the fissure and faux pas of the much vaunted capitalist system, hence also the need to strengthen the ruling party which is the only experienced and tested centre-left, revolutionary, pan-Africanist and mass party in the country, for continued peace and stability.  
 
‘If I were the president’ I would have tasked a special governmental think-tank or task force from the executive and party structures to monitor and evaluate the implementation of policies and would probably appoint a technocrat such as Dr Abraham Iyambo to spearhead such a think-tank.  
 
All in all, the country is doing well. The structures, the policies and implementing tools are there – what is needed is implementation and clear sets of targets by a dynamic, mixed team of experienced and energetic young technocrats.  
 
As the Deputy Minister of ICT, Honorable Simaata said, “Good intentions will not help, only delivery, nothing less, nothing more.”

Credit: www.newera.com.na