Namibia

Nature conservation creates jobs. Namibia's national parks are hoping to emulate the achievements of the Etosha National Park in the north of the country by attracting tourists from all over the world and creating jobs while also preserving the habitats of wild animals. The country boasts a wealth of unique nature reserves that need to be developed and protected.

Germany is helping Namibia's Ministry of Environment and Tourism turn the national parks in the north-east of the country, with their roughly 300,000 (largely poor) inhabitants, into popular tourist destinations. They are part of the huge Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA) that spans five countries and is roughly the same size as Italy. KfW is helping Namibia set up infrastructure in the parks, improve the way they are managed and ensure that fair joint venture agreements are concluded between the locals and the tour operators. Namibia hopes that developing the parks will increase the number of visitors to at least 80,000 a year in the next five years. This is important for the people living in and around the parks.

KfW is also involved in developing rural infrastructure such as the water supply, safeguarding and registering land rights and also the inclusive preparation of land use plans.

Project Information - National Parks(PDF, 305 KB, non-accessible)

Roads are indispensable in Namibia for developing the economy of the sparsely populated country. Anyone wanting to transport tourists to the national parks in the north, or goods from the countryside to the capital city of Windhoek, the neighbouring land-locked countries of Botswana and Zambia or to South Africa, the country's main trading partner, needs a well-developed road network. Namibia already has such a network in place in many areas, but keeping it in good condition remains a challenge on account of its size. There are also still some large areas not covered by the network, particularly in the north of the country, where there is still insufficient access to markets as well as government and social facilities.

In the poorer and slightly more densely populated north of the country, KfW is helping the Namibian government with labour-based road construction work in order to offer the mostly poor population the chance of an income and year-round access to social infrastructure. It is not rare for unemployment to exceed 70 % in this region. During the construction phase, employment will be temporarily provided for around 1,400 untrained local workers. In the absence of alternatives, this employment is hugely important to the target group.

Project Information - Labour based road construction(PDF, 209 KB, non-accessible)

It's a long way to the nearest bank in Namibia. In this sparsely populated country, many Namibians have to cover a hundred kilometres along gravel roads in order to get to a bank. As a result, people living in rural areas in particular often have no access to financial services. There is little incentive for private banks in particular to set up the network of branches that would be required to cover large sections of the population on account of the substantial costs involved. The potential earnings are also too low. As a state-run company, NamPost has a mandate to supply the population. It is the only financial service provider that is also investing in expanding its network of branches in the more sparsely populated, rural parts of Namibia.

That is why KfW Development Bank is helping NamPost expand its network of more than 160 branches and introduce smart cards. The intention is to provide financial services to small companies and households in rural areas in particular in order to improve their ability to make full use of their economic options and allow them to build up savings.