Namibia’s Development Co-operation Policy. It is essential for all external funding agencies to take note of the Namibian Government’s position that external development assistance must be guided by the national development priorities of the country. As such, aid should, among others, be geared towards institutional and human resources and capacity building, poverty reduction, employment creation and income generating projects. External assistance should promote gender development, improvement of marginalized groups, environmental sustainability, reviving and sustaining economic growth and development, particularly of rural areas and provision of essential services. In addition, external assistance should enhance the promotion of democracy, human rights, good governance, participatory development, transparency and accountability. However, external assistance should not perpetuate dependency or undermine the country's priorities, or development efforts and policies. Namibia's Development Co-operation policy is geared towards achieving the following specific objectives: • mobilise external resources in support of national development and regional development; • optimise external and internal aid resource flows; • continue maximising aid (grants) as the preferred form of external assistance given Namibia's limited capacity to service debt obligations; • optimise the allocation of foreign and local aid resources in support of the Government's overall development priorities and strategies; • ensure that development assistance for Namibia is demand-driven and is determined in accordance with Government priorities and strategies; • channel external aid inflows towards productive projects and programmes so as to enhance the country's capacity to produce more goods and services using local raw materials and skills; • ensure efficient and effective utilisation of foreign and local aid resources; • ensure that aid negotiated with donors, except grants in kind, is included in the country's financing framework and channelled through the State Revenue Fund and the national budget; • ensure that the Namibian Government has the financial resources to meet recurrent costs of projects and programmes initiated through external aid; • ensure that an appropriate and suitable institutional framework for aid coordination is in place and the efficient operation of the Inter-Agency Committee on Development Co-operation and Debt Management as a permanent committee; • participate in efforts aimed at restructuring internation...
