Launch of 2019-2023 Country Programming Framework

On 26 April 2019, FAO Namibia launched the Country Programme Framework (CPF) for the period 2019-2023. The CPF will guide FAO’s partnership with the government of Namibia for five years in the areas of agriculture, fisheries, forestry, food security, nutrition and rural development. The Minister of Agriculture, Water and Forestry, Hon. Alpheus G.!Naruseb was the keynote speaker and representatives of other ministries and government agencies, and media attended the launch.

In his remarks, Hon !Naruseb said the CPF is of great importance to Namibia as it will strengthen the policy, legal, strategic and institutional frameworks for agriculture, fisheries, forestry, food security, and nutrition sectors. He further stated that if fully implemented, alongside efforts by the government and other stakeholders, the four priorities of the CPF will contribute meaningfully to Namibia’s development aspirations in the spirit of leaving no one behind. The Minister also acknowledged that the new CPF comes at an opportune time for Namibia, as the country continues to face recurrent droughts, floods, veld fires, high temperatures, diseases, and pest outbreaks as a result of climate change.

Ms Farayi Zimudzi, FAO Representative in Namibia, stated that the CPF implementation process paves the way to enhance partnerships with government, national stakeholders, external stakeholders and UN system in Namibia, emphasizing FAO’s catalytic role in developing sustainable capacity in the agriculture, food security and rural development sectors. She emphasised that the CPF outlines the key outputs needed to achieve the planned outcomes focusing on the FAO Core Functions, while embodying the Organization’s mandate and comparative advantage.

The CPF was developed in alignment to Namibia’s Fifth National Development Plan and other sectoral policies and covers four priority areas in support of development aspirations of the government of Namibia, namely

1. Strengthening policy, legal, strategic and institutional frameworks for agriculture, fisheries, forestry, food security and nutrition;
2. Improving agricultural production, productivity, food safety and strengthened nutrition sensitive value chains;
3. Strengthening capacity for natural resource management and land governance; 
4. Strengthening capacity for disaster risk reduction, resilience building and climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Approximately 50 stakeholders attended the event including State Owned Enterprises under MAWF such as the Meat Board of Namibia, the Agricultural Marketing and Trade Agency (AMTA) and the Namibia Agronomic Board. Representatives from farmers unions such as the Namibia Emerging Commercial Farmers Union (NECFU), Namibia National Farmers Union (NNFU) and Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU) were also in attendance including other UN agencies namely UNDP, World Health Organization, IOM and UNICEF.