Namibia Nature Foundation
...Committed to conservation

Community-based developments in the Kavango Region


On the occasion of the Launch of four new Communal Area Conservancies and a Community Campsite


23rd February 2006

Hon Minister of Environment & Tourism, Rev Willem Konjore
Hon Members of Parliament
Hon Acting Governor, Hon Councilors
Hon Traditional Leaders and Hompa
OKACOM and OBSC members
Basin Forum members
Conservancy chairpersons, committees and members
Representatives of line ministries and NGOs
Okavango basin guests from Angola and Botswana
Distinguished Guests
Members of the media
Ladies and Gentlemen

First - congratulations to you on the registration and gazettment of your first four conservancies. This is a great day for you in particular, but also for all involved in promoting and supporting sustainable rural development in the Kavango.

At the outset, I wish to draw your attention, Honourable Minister and Distinguished Guests, to three key differences in the development approach used in the Kavango that sets it aside from similar work in other areas:

  1. The Kavango is part of the Okavango Basin. The development approach is thus to view, manage and market the Kavango as part of a larger entity, to derive the benefits from transboundary cooperation and to share experiences and lessons across the whole basin.
  2. The developments in Kavango are based on a team approach. There is close planning, strong collaboration and good support from the Regional Council, the Traditional Authorities, line ministries, NGOs and communities in all activities in support of sustainable rural development and social upliftment. This has resulted in a unity of purpose and remarkably fast and effective progress in the Kavango.
  3. An integrated and holistic approach to resource management and development is being implemented. This means that the support agencies (government extension staff and NGOs) are working together to support the management and development priorities and opportunities of the respective communities and conservancies based on what is most appropriate in each area, not based on the sector-specific mandates of their organisations. This results in the creation of a supportive, efficient and synergistic development approach rather than competition between support organisations.

When I cast my mind back to the start of this process some five years ago, despite the difficult security situation at that time, I realise that we started from day one with the right approach. An inclusive collaboration of Governor, Councilors, Traditional Leaders, line ministry representatives and NGO came together to plan, agree and initiate the project. The first concrete steps were to (a) consolidate existing information, and (b) to carry out a socio-ecological survey, involving the villages and households of the region.

In terms of information, A Preliminary Profile of the Kavango Region of Namibia summarised all the available information from past surveys and studies, and drew on aerial photos and satellite images to make the information as up-to-date as possible in cost effective ways. This preliminary profile led to the production of two remarkable books, Sand and Water: A Profile of the Kavango Region, and Okavango River: The flow of a lifeline, the latter in English and Portuguese, and covering the entire Okavango basin. This publication has as a companion product, a CD with a huge database of all available information on the Okavango basin. In these few years, the Okavango has gone from a river and region with little available information to one of the best documented river basins in Africa and the world, and the information is readily accessible.

The results of the socio-ecological survey provided information on socio-economic and natural resource pressures and opportunities, and on where the people of the basin wished to see the project provide support. The overriding concerns were around issues of resource rights and tenure, economic empowerment and development, improved natural resource management, diversification of livelihoods, institutional strengthening, skills and capacity-building and poverty reduction. The developments that followed were all based on these results from the survey.

The Okavango River is the single most important feature in the Kavango. It is one of Namibia's few perennial systems, it is the focus of human settlement, the most biologically diverse part of the region and country, a wildlife haven, a tourism attraction and a strategic asset. That is why OKACOM, the Permanent Okavango River Basin Commission was established by the three basin states, to advise the respective governments on its management and development. Yet this Commission cannot be effective if it works at the international level without a strong link to the people living in the basin. As a result, a Kavango Basin Forum was established, to represent the residents of the basin. Each of the five traditional authority's regions nominated two representatives to serve on the Forum. The Forum members liaise not only with OKACOM, but also with other Forum members from Angola and Botswana, thereby creating both horizontal and vertical communications networks.

The most important issues in the basin are those concerning the improvement of people's livelihoods and quality of life. If people are not in a position to look after themselves properly, they will not be in a position to look after their resources and to manage these resources sustainably. Conservancies are nothing more than local institutions in which communities organise themselves to manage resources wisely for their socio-economic benefit, and thereby to promote local development, reduce poverty and improve their quality of life.

To help them achieve their goals, the four registered conservancies have all undertaken Visioning & Planning exercises, using an integrated, multi-disciplinary and multi-sector approach that involved the Regional Council, Traditional Authorities, line ministries and the Namibia Nature Foundation in a collaborative approach. The products of this work are:

All of the above are captured into one poster per conservancy, in English and local language. The methodology to achieve the above has been streamlined to be highly cost and time efficient, inclusive and to facilitate a "rolling planning" approach.

All the conservancies have developed land-use zonation plans, with the support of the Ministry of Land & Resettlement, and these exercises have been implemented as a combination of "training" and "product".

The implementation of the work plans has been designed to draw in the extension staff of the various Ministries for the relevant sectors. The ERP/NNF staff members are thus more facilitators than implementers, with line ministries providing much of the extension and development support. This approach is working extremely well, partly because of the close relationship in the Kavango between Regional Council, line ministries and the NNF/ERP (Every River has its People project).

The following highlights some of the achievements over the past few years:

A. Tourism:

B. Craft:

C. Wildlife:

D. Agriculture:

E. Forestry:

F. Fisheries:

G. Crocodiles:

These successes have taken place because of the way that everyone in the Kavango has worked, and continues to work - together, making this region one of the most dynamic for rural development in Namibia.

There are some challenges ahead. I will highlight what are for me the three most important issues at this stage in the development of the Kavango Region:

  1. The region is in urgent need of a practical land-use plan. There are different options for how each piece of land could be used. We need to ensure that we are making the correct land-use decisions to get the maximum long-term benefit from all the land in the region.
  2. We have now developed and tested a methodology for delivering community-based development to the region. It works extremely well, and all the key partners are actively involved. We now need to roll this out to more areas, quickly and efficiently.
  3. The private sector, particularly the tourism lodges in the Kavango, need to come to the party. There are some lodges that are setting a superb example, with scholarship funds for local children, raising funds for local schools and church groups, etc. However, there are many others that are not contributing adequately and have not yet entered into meaningful benefit-sharing schemes with the communities and conservancies from who's land they are operating.

In conclusion, I congratulate you all on your achievements to date, and wish you all success in the future. We from the Namibia Nature Foundation and the "Every River has it's People" project, will do all we can to support your efforts.

Thank you.

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