By Clemens H. Kashuupulwa
December 2, 2007 marks yet another significant landmark in the history of Namibia’s decentralization of functions to the regions as the day ushers in 15 years after Members of Regional Councils in all the 13 regions of the Republic of Namibia made oaths “to solemnly and sincerely promise to be faithful to the Republic of Namibia to uphold and defend the Namibia Constitution and the laws” of the country to perform their duties “diligently, honestly, fairly and to the best of their ability”.
These oaths by, and code of conduct for each Member of the Regional Councils, were also the first of their kind in Namibia to be made, and opened a new era for Namibia’s transformation into a Multi-Party Democratic Decentralization System in which 13 Regional Councils were set up as Sub-Regional Democratic Governments in accordance with Article 103 of the Namibian Constitution.
On March 21, 1990, Namibia experienced a major transformation in the spheres of politics, and social and economic change following the independence of the country after a century of human subjugation, slavery and oppression by the colonialists – the imperial fascist Germany and the Apartheid South African regime.
At independence, Namibia inherited an economy characterized by a dual economy, the political economy of oppression and labour exploitation that nourished skewed income distribution and promoted an inferior black education known as Bantu Education.
Oshana Region was one of the regions that were impoverished and underdeveloped by the previous dispensation. With the emergence of Oshana Regional Council on December 2, 1992, the Council has created functioning institutions of governance at all levels through the Government Policy of Decentralization that is designed to extend, enhance and guarantee participatory democracy to ensure and safeguard rapid sustainable development of the region.
Decentralization is also aimed at transferring real power to the regional councils and local authorities based on national ideals and values and indeed to improve the capacity of regional and local authority councillors to plan, implement, manage and monitor the delivery of goods and services for the people.
Overview of Oshana Region
The Oshana Region, the smallest of Namibia’s 13 regions in terms of size, has a population of 161 916 inhabitants living in a surface area of 8 653 km. The growth rate is 1.8% with only 31% of the population living in the urban areas, whereas the majority of 69% live in rural areas. The population density is 18.7% persons per square kilometre.
This includes Ongwediva, Oshakati and Ondangwa towns, 10 constituencies and two settlement areas that are in the process of being developed. These are Eheke and Uukwangula settlement areas. The region is partly made up of three traditional authorities, the Ondonga Traditional Authority headed by “Omukwaniilwa” Immanuel Elifas, the Oukwanyama Traditional Authority headed by “Ohamba Martha Mwadinomho Christian Nelumbu” and Chief Herman Iipumbu of Uukwambi Traditional Authority.
Oshana Region is the most urbanized political region in the four north central regions, the others being Omusati, Ohangwena and Oshikoto. It comprises fewer households relying entirely on sustainable subsistence farming and small and medium livestock farming.
“Over 40% of the households are affected by poverty, the majority of whom are female-headed households, unemployed youth and women.” The biggest challenge facing the council is thus to commit itself to reducing poverty and “come up with a data baseline indicating the most affected communities to enable regional planners” who are now on board to target those communities for social and economic improvement as a matter of priority.
Oshana Regional Council like any other regional council in Namibia is empowered by the Namibian Constitution to be the principal governing body that is entrusted with executive, legislative and administrative powers to carry out lawful resolutions and policies of such council as subjected to the Constitution and other relevant laws in the Republic of Namibia.
To carry out its mandate, “the physical, social and economic development of the region” as well as the development of the “existing and planned infrastructure such as water, electricity, communication networks and transport systems”, Oshana Regional Council has been committed to meet its vision and mission for the past 15 years.
Vision
Oshana Regional Council has envisioned “to play the key and leading role of coordinating relentless efforts towards achieving the region’s long term goals of sustainable development”.
For the past few years, efforts to coordinate with the central government, non-governmental organizations, donor agencies and all stakeholders in the development process of the region have developed the region at its current heights. It has been operating under the realm of its vision “to play the key and the leading role of coordinating relentless efforts towards achieving the region’s long term goals of sustainable development”.
Mission
The region has also been guided by “striving for social and economic development of the region, to reduce poverty through increased job opportunity, good natural resources utilization combined with better environmental management, improved access to communication and transportation and the promotion of welfare, health and education, gender equality, cultural harmonization and empowerment of women and disabled people, in a crime free environment through a democratic approach”.
Decentralization of Functions to the Regions
Namibia has subjected herself to the Constitution’s Chapter 12 Article 102 [1] on the Policy of Decentralization that was launched on March 30, 1998. The article provides the structure of regional and local government under the Regional Councils Act 1992 [No 22 of 1992] and Local Authorities Act of 1992 [No 23 of 1992] as amended. The Acts call for the establishment of councils, qualifications and elections of councillors and to empower the regional and local councillors to form the administrative structures to run and implement the decisions of the councils.
The Act provides also powers, duties, functions, rights and obligations of councils and financial matters of the regional and local councils. Other legislation was passed in 2000 such as the Local Authorities’ Amendment Act, 2000, the Regional Councils’ Amendment Act, 2000, the Decentralization Enabling Act, 2000 and the Trust Fund for Regional Development and Equity Provisions Act 2000.
It is our expectation that by the year 2010, decentralization will lead to the realization of fully-fledged community empowerment that empower local communities and regional councils to be “fully involved in the development process, actually formulate and implement their respective development plans, while the national government work hand in hand with civil society organizations provide the enabling environment [laws, policies, finance, security] for the effective management of the council.
Good Governance
Namibia became independent on March 21, 1990 as a sovereign, secular, democratic and unitary state based on the principle of democracy, the rule of law and justice for all.
This is the basis on which good governance has been so far carried out where the fundamental rights of freedoms of all Namibians are respected. Freedom of press, assembly and speech are well exercised and respected in Namibia.
The print and electronic media are free to express their opinions without any threat and harassment of any kind.
Live talk shows on both radio and television where all people call to express their views have become sources to practise our hard-won freedom of opinion. The freedom of press also contributes to peace and stability.
By 2010, Namibia is expected to be in a position to maintain, consolidate and extend the good governance practices of a multi-party democracy with high levels of participation, rights, freedoms and legitimacy under the Constitution which continues to serve as a model for other countries in Africa.
Against this background, Oshana Regional Council’s leadership, at the level where we are now, has already laid a solid foundation on good leadership where the Council runs the region subject to universal laws and rules, and exercises its authority and power to manage resources for the wellbeing of all people without fear or favour and allows people to participate in the decision-making process of the Council.
The Council conducts its functions in a transparent manner with the regional council meeting open to the public as well as the minutes of the regional council.
Based on the democratic principles that are enshrined in the Constitution of Namibia, the Council guarantees and ensures that there is no discrimination of any kind in the provision of goods and services to the people.
The Council is also looking forward to all citizens being able to enjoy a decent living and being protected from fear, threats, injustice and gender violence. It respects the rights of people to freedom through freedom of speech and the right to vote and be voted in office.
All people are respected regardless of their ethnic origin, sex, religion, to enjoy the right to leisure and remuneration for work of equal value.
No-one is discriminated against on the basis of political affiliation. All these constitute good leadership to bring all people on board to contribute to the development of the region.
Management of Oshana Regional Council
The power to manage the affairs of the Regional Councils in Namibia is enshrined in the Constitution of Namibia Chapter 12 Article 102[1], the Regional Councils Act 1992 [No. 22 of 1992] as amended, the Decentralization Enabling Act of 2000 [Act No. 30 of 2000], and the Trust Fund for Regional Development and Equity Provisions Act 2002 [Act No. 12 of 2002]. The respective Acts provide among others, for the establishment of regional councils, their functions, source of revenue and their legislative and executive authority.
The Acts also empower the councils to initiate, implement, monitor and evaluate capital projects that aim to reduce poverty, hunger, diseases, ignorance and underdevelopment in the regions by coordinating government line ministries, functions, the staff and auxiliary functions including functions at constituency offices, settlement areas and those of local and traditional authorities in the regions.
The administrative bodies, the Management Committee and the ordinary regional council meetings that are made up of elected councillors are chaired by the Governor with the administrative component of directors and staff headed by the chief regional officers.
The elected regional councillors [politicians] are both empowered with legislative and executive authority to make decisions that are implemented by the chief regional officer and his staff.
The administrative bodies of the Council are not functioning as expected because of numerous vacant posts in the administrative structure of the Oshana Regional Council. The Council is thus extremely understaffed as Namibia is still in its infancy with the Government Policy of Decentralization of functions to the regions that aims at bringing the government closer to the people.
However, a fully-fledged structure of the Council was recently approved by the central government for implementation after budgetary support. This will create other additional employment in the region.
Today, Oshana Regional Council in its management activities is being challenged to become more efficient and effective in service delivery, planning, budgetary, accountability and administration within the realm of the Government Policy of Decentralization whose objectives are to strengthen democracy, accountability and participation of people and civil societies in the decision-making processes of the Council to ensure sustainable development in the region.
In this regard, the Council is guided by the 5-Year National Development Plan [2007-2010], the 5-Year Regional Development Plan [2001-2006] that is to be revised to 2007-2010 and Vision 2030.
The Council has a Regional Development Coordinating Committee [RDCC] chaired by the chief regional officer that serves as the technical arm of the Council to translate the needs and aspirations of the people into concrete project proposals before being approved by the Council.
It is composed of heads of line ministries and other civil societies who are operating in the region. The secretaries of the Constituency Development Committees (CDCs) are also members of the RDCC, as the representatives of the constituency representing the grassroots.
Key Performances Areas
The Oshana Regional Council’s main objective, according to its Regional Development Plan 2001-2006, is focusing on three important sectors – the economic, social and infrastructure sectors for the realization of its vision “to play the key and leading role of coordinating relentless efforts towards achieving the region’s long-term goals of sustainable development”.
In the economic sector, the Council has been striving for “sustainable utilization of natural resources to improve food security and livelihoods by promoting sustainable land management practices, tourism, agriculture, forestry, trade and industrial development in consultation with the relevant ministries for the successful implementation of national development programmes and projects in the region”.
In the social sector, “it is striving to have in place a well educated, healthy and motivated population with strong families and community institutions which have capacity to address a wide range of social problems such as crime, violence against women and children, HIV/AIDS”.
While in the infrastructural sector, the Council is also striving “to have an enabling environment where all people have access to safe water, transport, energy and communication as well as a planned urban, settlement and growth centre”.
In order to translate this mission into pragmatic terms, the Council has identified four key performance areas (KPAs) “to have an efficient and effective decentralized regional government system in place that is capable of delivering goods and services to the people in the region and indeed to form a basis for the effective implementation of the decision of the Council”.
These are focusing on national standards, policies and legislation, service delivery standards and regional government capacity building
At national standards the Council has been focusing on “good governance, decentralization awareness creation, performance monitoring and legislatory compliance” as well as settlement areas, and town and regional planning and development while the Council at policies and legislation looks “for good governance, decentralized financial management and settlement and regional planning development” to make sure that things are going in line with the harmonization policy and legislation at regional level.
On service delivery the Council focuses “on development services, legal support and information to stakeholders, and on settlements and regional planning development activities” while regional government capacity building focuses on decentralization, human resources management and institution development as well as providing basic services infrastructure such as water, electricity, sewerage and waste management.
Strength and Weakness of Oshana Regional Council
Oshana Regional Council as its strength is empowered by the Regional Council Act 1992 No. 22 of 1992 as amended, the Decentralization Enabling Act of 2000, the Trust Fund for Regional Development and Equity Provisions Act of 2000, the Regional Development Plan 2001/2002-2005/2006, the [National Development Plan (NDP 2) as being reviewed, Government Vision 2030 and its strategic Regional Plan 2006/2010, as well as administrative staff to achieve its mission – “to play the key and leading role of coordinating relentlessly efforts towards achieving sustainable development in the region”.
Contrarily, the Council has also been facing financial challenges in the development process of the region, harmonization of government policies and legislation on the functions that are to be decentralized to the region, regional government capacity building for the Council to run the affairs of the region effectively, training of politicians and staff to manage the Council on a professional basis, good governance and to render better services to the needy residents, training capacity of politicians, directors and the staff on policy formulation, budget formulations, project formulations, strategic plans and the implementation of development projects, budgetary, strategic plans and the policies’ formulation of the Council
The Way Forward
Oshana Regional Council is mandated to play a key and leading role in coordinating the achievement of the region’s short, medium and long term goals and vision.
It has thus to ensure the effective and efficient implementation of a decentralization system through the provision of sound management, coordination, consultation, training and research needs so as to facilitate the realization of the Government’s Vision 2030.
The Council has thus to set up and maintain an enabling regulatory policies and legal environment for good governance, development and better service delivery as well as to carry on with the training of politicians and staff to improve delivery capacity and client service awareness, enhance and guarantee public participation in dreams that influence their lives and the empowerment of women and disabled people to ensure an effective decentralization of build-together programmes and the provision of basic services in the region.
– Clemens H. Kashuupulwa is the Governor of Oshana Region