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Nawa 15 |
Feb 28 2003 |
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BENEFITS DISTRIBUTED!
 The news traveled fast. The Torra Conservancy was distributing benefits in the form of cash!! The Torra Conservancy Management Committee had kept their word! In early January 2003, each conservancy member over 18 years old was given N$ 630 or about US$ 73. The amount is equal to about half of average annual incomes in Torra Conservancy households. The committee purposefully chose January to distribute the funds, because school fees are collected in January, and it is the time parents buy new school uniforms and shoes for their children. Some members used their windfall to pay last year`s bill to the local water committee fund, which is used for the repair of equipment and infrastructure to protect water holes from the elephants. Since the rebound of elephants under the guardianship of local game guards and community members, elephants destroying water holes is not an uncommon experience. But it is one the community can now both handle and tolerate. The reason? Elephants bring tourists into the area and that means more money for the conservancy. |
Pictured is a young man with his two small brothers who are now in school, in part because of the cash contribution. He said he will definitely be signing up as a conservancy member when he turns 18 in April.
The funds distributed by the Management Committee were not the first time the community had benefited from the Conservancy`s operations. In the previous year, the Conservancy had been able to present the equivalent of US$ 2,000 to the local school. The committee also uses funds generated from Torra`s joint ventures with the private sector to pay all the costs associated with running the Conservancy. It plans in the future to invest in a new campsite and an upscale lodge. Torra Conservancy is pleased about their past and anticipate a great future.
Torra Conservancy is one of the 15 registered conservancies of the national Community Based Natural Resource Management Program. USAID supports the CBNRM movement through the World Wildlife Fund and the Namibia Nature Foundation. Five additional conservancies will be gazetted soon. Almost 30 other communities are in the process of establishing conservancies. |
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HATS OFF TO CAA VOLUNTEERS AND OUR "OVC" CHILDREN
 One of the most tragic impacts of HIV / AIDS is the number of orphans it leaves in its wake. Namibia, a country of only 1.8 million people, has almost 100,000 orphaned children, with the numbers expected to grow significantly over the years ahead. Most of these children join the families of aunts and uncles or live with grandparents, often constituting a strain on already stretched family resources. Catholic AIDS Action (CAA) is one of the non-governmental organizations working hard to help make the lives of Namibia`s orphans and vulnerable children (OVC), and their caretakers, better. Serving both Catholics and non-Catholics, CAA helps keep OVC in school and provides much needed psycho-social support.
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Late last year, CAA sponsored its first overnight camp experience for OVC. Since then, CAA and its partner, Philippi Trust (the local affiliate of an international faith based organization), have replicated the camp experience for several other groups of children. Each camp has lasted three days and involved approximately 60 children. Games, new songs, dramas, stories and making new friends are all part of the camp experience. Many of the activities are designed to teach children about themselves and to strengthen important life-skills, such as dealing with loss and grief, improving communications skills, and understanding children`s rights and responsibilities. A heavy emphasis is placed on experiential learning.
The camps are part of a larger effort to deepen the understanding of psycho social support issues, to promote youth clubs, and to train older children and volunteers to provide support to younger OVC. They are an outgrowth of CAA`s after-school program at the Bernhard Nordkamp Centre in Katutura. Known as the Children`s Learning and Support Programme (CLASP), the program provides homework support, counseling, therapeutic games and fun activities. Financial support for CLASP and the camps is provided by several donors, including BP Namibia, Model Pick and Pay, Bristol Myers, and USAID. USAID`s funding comes from the Education for Development and Democracy Initiative. |
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P/DAS BELLAMY VISITS KUNENE
 During his recent brief tour to Namibia, State Department`s Mark Bellamy visited the north-west Kunene region to get a first hand view of the impact of the USAID supported National community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) Program and efforts in communal areas to regenerate wildlife, to economically empower the historically disadvantaged, to contribute to grassroots democracy, and to advance the status of women.
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 Bellamy, along with Ambassador McGuire and USAID Director, Diana Swain, visited two conservancies, Torra and Uibasen, both receiving benefits from joint ventures with private sector safari and lodge operators. Both lodges provide five-star accommodation, and hire a total of 80 people from the surrounding villages.
This was Bellamy`s first trip to Namibia as the Principal Deputy Assistant for the State Department for Africa Affairs. He was impressed with the work being done by USAID/WWF in the CBNRM movement in Namibia Because of the benefits that have come with tourism, conservancy members now have a stake in protecting wildlife and, as a result, wildlife numbers have rebounded significantly, and further revenues are being generated from live game sales to other conservancies. The P/DAS later spent the night at the conservancy upscale tent camp, which employs almost 20 community members, two of whom are in senior management positions.
Mr. Bellamy then visited the Uibasen Conservancy which, in a joint venture with Country Lodges, has a 112 bed lodge that employs over 60 community members. Conservancy members at Uibasen are still in the process of agreeing on a benefits distribution plan. Among the ideas on the table are buying a commercial farm, investing in a sister conservancy, or buying livestock for community members.
Both Torra and Uibasen demonstrated what the conservancies have done for the empowerment of women, with local women filling key management positions in the Torra Conservancy`s joint venture tent camp and women filling five of nine positions on the Uibasen management committee. |
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ENHANCING RURAL ICT ACCESS
USAID/Namibia, the Regional Center for Southern Africa, and the Namibian Communications Commission (NCC) held a Rural Access/Universal Service Fund workshop from February 10-12, 2003 at the Windhoek Country Club. The workshop brought together Government, Information & Communications Technologies (ICT) industry providers, the private sector and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).
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Rural access to ICT is a topic that is of increasing importance to countries in a region in which access to computers, telecommunications and Internet access is limited. High cost, the absence of telecommunications lines and electricity in rural areas, rural poverty and limited demand for service, literacy and language barriers, and limited access to computers and/or equipment capable of accessing the internet currently constrain access to ICT.
The purpose of this workshop was to assist policy-makers to understand the opportunities and challenges presented by rural access of ICT in Namibia. The purpose is also to assist in the development of strategies for overcoming those barriers in a policy environment that supports open entry and innovative approaches to rural access. A growing body of experience suggests how best to create a regulatory and policy environment that supports rural access and the development of sustainable tele-centers and community-access centers. The event was timely, because Namibia is in the process of developing a strategy for rural access, establishing an independent sector regulator, and finalizing communications legislation.
Workshop participants now have consistent knowledge of the technical and organizational aspects of rural access, and of the development and implementation of universal service funds. One key outcome of the workshop was the establishment of an ICT Coalition by the participants to continue discussions around achieving rural access. The Coalition hopes to maintain a single voice before government policy makers and inform policy decisions. With the anticipated upcoming passage of the Communications Bill, this is an important step in ensuring proper planning, coordination and implementation occur in rural areas of Namibia.
The workshop represented the first time that policy makers, government officials, NGOs, institutions of higher learning, and private sector operators and service providers in an open forum. It was funded as part of USAID`s ICT strategy. The strategy highlights areas of possible synergy in USAID`s areas of interest (e-commerce, e-governance, education, conservancy management, and HIV/AIDS) and touches three dimensions: policy, access and learning systems. |
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