WINDHOEK – Khomas governor, Laura McLeod‐Katjirua is promising that her council will look well after infrastructure, equipment and textbooks provided by the American people through the Millennium Challenge Account Namibia (MCA‐N).
“The responsibility to look after these projects lies with the Namibian nation and our region pledges to do so. Yes, we will maintain and take care,” commits the governor at a de‐briefing session by MCA‐N Cheif Executive Officer (CEO Penny Akwenye at the Khomas Regional Council offices last week. The meeting, attended by 70 representatives from regional leadership and civil society, was the eighth regional de‐briefing visit by the MCA‐N CEO in the wake of the closure of the organisation’s five‐year development programme in September 2014. So far, Akwenye already visited Kavango East and West, Zambezi, Omaheke, Ohangwena, Omusati, Oshana and Oshikoto regions as well as the Otjozondjupa and Kunene .
Akwenye highlighted activities in the area of agriculture such as the merging of the Namibian Livestock Identification and Traceability System (NamLITS) in the Northern Communal Areas (NCAs), with the existing system south of the Veterinary Cordon Fence (Red Line), as well as tourism marketing activities for the Namibia Tourism Board (NTB) that benefit Khomas Region as most international travel begins and ends here. She also informed the governors of MCA‐N’s achievements in their regions over the past four‐and‐a‐half years of programme implementation. For the Khomas region, this means all and foremost support in the education sector, e.g. through investments in tertiary education policy reform, the provision of vocational training grants with the Namibia Training Authority (NTA) and science equipment for the University of Namibia (Unam), the upgrade and expansion of five Khomas schools to the value of N$ 34 million as well as the procurement and delivery of more than 131,000 textbooks in Science, Mathematics and English for grade 5‐12 learners to 100 Khomas schools worth N$ 9.75 million.
With regard to the monitoring and sustainability of MCA‐N projects beyond September 2014, Akwenye stressed that “this is a government programme implemented by the Ministries and entities to who we eventually hand over everything.” These are the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry, Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Ministry of Lands and Resettlement, Ministry of Education, NTA [Namibia Training Authority] and NTB [Namibia Tourism Board]. The CEO further expressed her hope that Government entities would emulate MCA‐N’s speed and transparency for future programmes.
MCA‐N is implementing development activities in the country’s education, agriculture and tourism sectors financed by the United States Government through the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) to the combined value of US$ 304.5 million (N$ 3 billion) with the aim of reducing poverty through economic growth.