Windhoek
The National Planning Commission (NPC) says Namibia has come to terms with the reduction in aid from development partners following the country’s classification as an upper middle income country.
“It is important to note that Namibia is not an aid dependent economy as it can perform many of the core functions of government, such as operations and maintenance or the delivery of basic public services, using governmental funds,” said NPC spokesman Fillemon Nangonya.
He said Namibia has come to terms with the fact that its developmental partners have withdrawn from the country, reduced their aid or shifted the mode of cooperation from the traditional grants to partnership in areas such as trade promotion and capacity building.
Nangonya was responding to questions by New Era following a report in this newspaper citing concerns of the Namibia Planned Parenthood Association (NAPPA) that the reduction in donor funding has had a negative impact on the organisation’s capacity to deliver reproductive health services.
“The country is managing the support we are receiving from the few development partners still around, which we are appreciative of, but this has demonstrated that the country can manage its own development – although we still need them as partners in other spheres.
“The most pleasant scenario is that Official Development Assistance (ODA) flows have not weakened our revenue collection efforts,” he said.
Most development partners are now interested in providing technical assistance in terms of skills development in order for Namibians to have the required skills to bring about development, he added. As a result, ODA contribution to gross fixed capital formation has fallen to under 5 percent in recent years, from around 20 percent in the 1990s, Nangonya explained.