Rudolf Gaiseb
With the drought relief programme having come to an end on 30 June 2025, Prime Minister Elijah Ngurare has reaffirmed the ongoing integration of disaster risk reduction initiatives at all levels across the country.
Ngurare said his office will embark on various targeted resilience-building programmes in collaboration with all line ministries and development partners to enhance food production through drilling of boreholes, the construction of earth dams, and livelihood diversification.
“In view of the above-normal rainfall received across the country, it is evident this year’s harvest was favourable and able to sustain households until the next harvesting season. The condition of grazing has also significantly improved and can sustain the livestock to the next harvesting season,” he told the National Assembly yesterday.
Ngurare also said more than 1.4 million people were assisted with food across the country, accounting for 384 954 households.
Of that number, 28 123 households were in peri-urban areas, while 1 835 houses had malnutrition cases.
These households received food commodities, including unsifted maize meal, cans of fish, soy mince, beans, meat (1.5 kg), and cooking oil.
Additionally, a total of 86 elephants were allocated by the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism to complement the drought relief programme.
The PM further shared that out of the 86, elephants, 71 of them were sustainably culled in the Kavango West, Kavango East, Zambezi, Ohangwena, Oshana, Oshikoto, Erongo, and Otjozondjupa regions.
“The culling yielded approximately 142 000 kilogrammes of meat, which was distributed in 1.5 kg packs per household to drought-affected communities,” he said.
Furthermore, in strides to digitalise and catch up with technological industrialisation the drought relief food was distributed through the in-house developed system, known as the Commodity and Beneficiaries Management Information System.
The tool Ngurare said, enables real-time data collection of beneficiaries, enhances accountability, and promotes greater efficiency and timely delivery of relief assistance to affected communities.
“This transformative initiative is designed to automate the registration of beneficiaries and distribution of food through voucher cards at contracted SMEs in the regions,” he added.
Photo: Heather Erdmann