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

Germany and Namibia agreed to continue its development cooperation and the German government will grant financial support. On Wednesday, August 1, 2018, Obeth Kandjoze, Minister for Economic Planning, and Christian Schlaga, Ambassador of Germany signed a financial grant and a Technical Cooperation Agreement between Germany and Namibia. This agreement follows 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 Namibian dollars), 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 mntional park management.

These two agreements are complemented by a financial cooperation agreement on interest-subsidised loans, to be concluded with the German 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 one billion Euro (roughly 15 billion Namibian dollars). 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 organisations 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.

© German Embassy Windhoek