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MDGF Joint Programme "Sustainable Cultural Tourism in Namibia"
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The MDG-F Culture and Development Joint Programme, funded by the Government of Spain, is a nationally owned programme that seeks to promote pro-poor public policies, strengthen national and local capacities and involve and benefit local communities. This programme is supported by 4 United Nations Participating Organisations (UNESCO as lead agency, ILO, UNEP and UN-HABITAT) and other partners such as civil society and the private sector. This is an initiative of the Government of Namibia which is implemented under the leadership of the Ministry of Youth National Service Sports & Culture.
The MDG-F Joint programme on “Sustainable Cultural Tourism in Namibia”, aims to draw on cultural tourism development as a vehicle for poverty reduction, particularly among women, disadvantaged and vulnerable groups. The programme activities have been designed in line with the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) objective 2, which states that “By 2010, livelihoods and food security among most vulnerable groups are improved in highly affected locations”. The Joint Programme further seeks to support the Government of the Republic of Namibia (GRN) in achieving its developmental goals as elucidated in the Vision 2030 and the National Development Plan (NDP3). The global objective of the fund is to help the Namibian government to accelerate the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In this regard, the Joint Programme help achieve the MDGs 1, 3, 6 and 7 by focusing on (i) poverty reduction, (ii) gender mainstreaming, (iii) mainstreaming of HIV/AIDS issues linked to the cultural tourism sites and (iv) ensuring the sustainability of environmental/cultural assets, a core-element for poverty reduction, especially for those depending on cultural/natural resources. The programme thus strongly advocates the improvement of livelihoods/food security and empowerment of rural communities through the promotion of Cultural Tourism in Namibia.
Additionally, the programme emphasizes national ownership and participation of local communities, with particular emphasis on indigenous peoples, in cultural heritage tourism activities based on 3 outcome areas: creating a knowledge base; evaluating and creating awareness about legislation related to cultural heritage; and finally, developing pilots using knowledge base and streamlined policies and legislation to improve livelihoods.
Namibia can offer much more than what is currently sought after by mainstream visitors/tourists.Heritage sites, arts and crafts, and traditional ways of life add a broad and rich variety of interests to the entertainment most visitors are expecting when coming to Namibia. Moreover, such assets are, by their very nature, enshrined in the people’s lives and livelihoods, thus linking any spill over from tourism to their immediate welfare and social change. In line with this, the government of Namibia together with the participating UN agencies have identified 5 intervention areas (11 pilot sites) across 9 regions, namely:
1. Cultural Villages (Kapande Cultural Village – Kavango region, Opuwo Cultural Village – Kunene region, Tsumkwe Cultural Village – Otjozondjupa region);
2. Cultural Trails (Katima Cultural Trail – Caprivi region, Cultural Trail linking Oshikuku, Elim, Tsandi, Okahao and Omugulugwombashe – Omusati region);
3. Cultural Centres and Interpretive Centres (King Nehale Cultural Centre – Oshikoto region, Khorixas Cultural Centre – Kunene region, Ozombu Zovindimba National Site and Interpretive Centre – Omaheke region, OmugulugwombasheInterpretive Centre – Omusati region);
4. Cultural Industry (Dune Tannery Duineveld – Hardap region;
5. And a Geopark (Gondwanaland Geopark - Erongo, Kunene and Otjozondjupa regions).
Special phase in the programme development and implementation
Territorial Diagnosis and Institutional Mapping of Cultural Tourism Pilot Projects in Namibia (see the documents under the featured Pilot sites dedicated pages in the righthand side menu)
The objective of the Territorial Diagnosis and Institutional Mapping (TDIM) exercise is to collate and analyze the geographical, economic and socio-cultural features of each pilot site in order to provide a contextual and scientific knowledge of each site and its “inner identities”. It also provides the building blocks on which an integrated development plan of each pilot site can be made following the so-called Local Economic Development (LED) approach.
The main aim of LED is to stimulate economic activity and to create decent jobs. It is a locally owned, participatory-driven development process which encourages partnership arrangements between local private and public stakeholders, and enables the joint design and implementation of a common development strategy that makes use of local resources and competitive advantages.
The integration of these objectives will enable the overall Programme to develop the potential for these cultural tourism pilot projects to become a catalyst for poverty reduction and livelihood-support in Namibia
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Start Your Cultural Business (SYCB) Training of Trainers Programme
The Training is funded from the MDG-F Culture and Tourism Development Joint Programme with the objective to acquire facilitation skills and training methodologies to apply during the training of community members. To be able to prepare and conduct training for potential entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs in the cultural sector independently and effectively. And monitor and evaluate the training for potential entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs.
The training took place from 06 to 11 June 2011 at Greiter’s Centre, attended by 15 selected participants from community members at the different Pilot Sites. Overall the training was successful with a total evaluation score of 2.7 which is good and appended to the report. More |
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Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) Training of Trainers seminar
This training is funded from the MDG-F Culture and Tourism Development Joint Programme, with the objective to introduce the Generate Your Business Idea (GYBI) and Improve Your Business (IYB) training packages to the trainers who were earlier trained in Start Your Artistic Business programme. This would complete the set of the Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) programme, ensuring that trainers can now be considered for the Training of Master Trainers seminar if they qualify for that stage.
The training took place from 10 to 16 June 2012 in Otjiwarongo with 12 selected participants; from the participants that were trained in the SYCB. The training went on reasonably well in terms of achieving the set objectives. More |
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Leadership and Governance Training:
Governance training aims to build instutional capacity and establish lasting improvements for the Cultural Sites. The main objectives of the Governance Training was to enable participants to gain theoretical and practical understanding of governance and related concepts; upgrade participants’ knowledge and skills in specific areas of governance and leadership; expose participants to new trends of managing cultural sites; and allow for the exchange of experiences and ideas among cultural sites’ managers and members of the management committees.More |
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The consultancy on the development of the apprenticeship Programme for Cultural Tourism in Namibia:
This is a consultancy funded from the MDG-F Culture and Tourism Development Joint Programme. The aim of this consultancy was to conduct a needs assessment among the cultural enterprises for the purpose of developing a generic and sustainable apprenticeship programme for management committee members, site employees and community members who benefit from the sites.
This consultancy has built on the work that has been carried out before within the framework of the MDG Fund Programme and other consultancies reports such as the Territorial Diagnosis and Institutional Mapping (TDIMs) of Cultural Tourism Pilot Projects in Namibia, the demand and supply analysis as well as the ILO/MTI’s “Start Your Own Cultural Business” course. It also takes into account the operational documentations, criteria and guidelines that have been developed by the Programme Management Unit and provided to all cultural sites ever since the beginning of the implementation of the programme. These consultancies, studies and documentations have helped for the hardware to be established and be put in place at all the sites. More |
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 Consuming Culture: Marketing Namibia’s Cultural Tourism Products
Consuming Culture: Marketing Namibia’s Cultural Tourism Products is a study commissioned under the MDG-F Joint Programme; with the aim to describe the existing supply of and demand for cultural tourism products as a tool to support the planning of the pilot projects that are being developed under the Joint Programme as a major initiative to develop sustainable cultural tourism in Namibia.
The report is intended to be used at the national and regional level to assist with the marketing of the pilot projects being developed under the MDG-F Joint Programme. The report will also contribute to the local economic development (LED) strategies developed under the MDG-F Programme that will help these projects to become sustainable and to facilitate the reproduction of successful pilot projects in other parts of Namibia. More |
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