Education, Arts and Culture minister Anna Nghipondoka emphasised the growing potential of Namibia’s arts, culture and heritage industry. She was speaking at the launch of the Namibia Arts, Culture and Heritage (NACH) Policy for 2025/26 – 2029/30.
The policy, which was approved by Parliament in 2017, is a key driver of economic growth, social cohesion and national development.
Nghipondoka highlighted the critical role the policy will play in strengthening Namibia’s creative industries, nurturing national identity and positioning arts, culture and heritage as integral to the country’s sustainable development.
She noted that the creative industries’ sector is fast-growing globally, contributing greatly to the contemporary global economy. The cultural and creative industries’ concentration on creativity, skills and talent as main resources have been recognised as having great potential to positively impact employment in the contemporary world, particularly amongst the youth, who make up the largest share of the Namibian population.
“The NACH Policy represents a significant step in promoting our diverse culture and heritage, fostering unity and creating opportunities in the arts’ sector. Cultural heritage has, in recent years, become an essential component in Namibia’s efforts to create employment, reduce poverty, promote nation-building and respect cultural diversity,” she continued.
The minister reflected on the historical context, where culture was often pushed to the margins of national development agendas. However, with the launch of this new policy, culture, arts and heritage are now set to take centre-stage in shaping the country’s economic and social future.
“I took time to go through and analyse the policy, and it has immense potential for people who are into tourism,” she enthused.
Furthermore, the policy is widely expected to facilitate infrastructural development and enhance capacity-building to improve documentation, management, safeguarding, protection and promotion of arts, culture and heritage for commercialisation purposes. The policy further endeavours to facilitate and accelerate efforts of incorporating arts, culture and heritage into the national education mainstream, and promote research activities in the subject matter for the benefit of future generations.
“The cultural and creative industries have over the past few years emerged as alternative sources of employment in Namibia, and significant means to assert the people’s national identity. They have contributed progressively to attracting tourist inflows and in building the country’s image,” she said.
Moreover, the promotion and development of the arts and culture industries can enhance their capacity to create new jobs, generate income and increase flows of foreign currency, if it is based on a relevant, comprehensive and functional policy and legislative framework. It is the intention of this policy to achieve this and to give direction regarding the role the corporate sector, non-governmental organisations and international partners should play.
The government has enhanced this by increasing the support to national arts, culture and heritage institutions such as the National Heritage Council, the National Arts Council of Namibia, Museums Association of Namibia, the National Arts Gallery of Namibia, the National Theatre of Namibia, College of the Arts and the National Libraries and Archives to ensure that the arts, culture and heritage sector becomes one of the most important engines of development.
Photo: Heather Erdmann