02 May 2002

Windhoek, Namibia: The Government of Namibia this week launched a new programme calling on the services of more than 1,000 national and international UN Volunteers to work with and train Namibians to become teachers, doctors and health workers, public administrators, business managers, agriculturists and other professionals in a bid to fight poverty and HIV/AIDS as well as to promote development.

Under the project -- carried out in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and executed by the Bonn-based United Nations Volunteers (UNV) -- UN Volunteers are to take an active part in building local capacity until the year 2005.

"The volunteers will provide capacity-building support through … the upgrading of the skills of the staff of Government institutions in order to help strengthen Namibia's human and institutional capacities for poverty reduction, decentralization and development management," said the Director General of the National Planning Commission, Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila.

The UN Volunteers, the first of which are to take up their assignments in June, will work primarily to assist the Government in decentralization and regional planning, education and training, health, agriculture as well as small and medium enterprise development. Through on-the-job training, mentoring, online teaching/learning resources and workshops, they will upgrade technical skills and the ability of about 1,000 staff of beneficiary institutions to perform their functions. Some 500 national UN Volunteers are expected to take part in the programme. The indirect beneficiaries of this programme are mainly the disadvantaged groups and communities of men, women and children in the most deprived regions of the country.

The Government, in partnership with the bilateral and multilateral donor community, will cover the costs of the programme, which is estimated at nearly US$29 million. The Government has provided over US$3 million, and UNDP and UNV are providing about US$300,000. A Round Table Conference to mobilize resources from the donor community is to be held later this year.

"This initiative is considered to be of top priority in the development support of UNDP in Namibia," said UNDP Resident Representative, Dr. Jacqui Badcock.

The UNV programme in Namibia was launched soon after the country's independence from South Africa in 1990. Since then, more than 200 UN Volunteers have served on 12 projects, many of them in support of the education and health sectors.