Namibians are rightly sceptical about whether Namibia’s abundant natural resources, in particular oil and gas, will ever benefit them meaningfully, or even their children’s children.
Natural resource governance considers how power, decision making and responsibility for natural resources are administered in a country.
As an economics graduate and strategy leader at the National Petroleum Corporation (Namcor), I see two key elements to Namibia’s natural resource governance question – biodiversity and conservation, and the socio-economic aspect, also known as ‘who gets to benefit?’
The first aspect, I believe, is being ably dealt with by expert NGOs working closely with the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism.
Governance architecture is a thornier issue.
The infrastructure is satisfactory, but we lack the capacity to sustain it – too few of us have a value addition mindset.
As a result, our economic structure predominantly rests on exporting raw materials, which creates wealth and jobs overseas, but not here at home.
The litmus test for determining the strength of resource governance architecture is its ability to serve both the people and the environment.
If it does not serve both, it is not sustainable.
Sustainability is embedded not only in how we manage our natural resources, but who manages it and who gets to benefit.
THE CRUNCH
Herein lies the crunch: Why are we so rich in resources and yet lag in key development or economic indicators?
Namibia is ranked the fifth richest country in Africa in terms of natural resources, boasting diamonds, uranium, copper, gold, lead, tin, lithium, zinc, and now oil. Despite these natural endowments, we are still unable to free many of our citizens from the shackles of poverty and unemployment.
We are battling chronic unemployment, which is projected to reach 23% in 2023 and 22,5% in 2024. Youth unemployment is higher, at 34%.
In addition, we have the godfather of all social evils, inequality, ranking as the world’s second-most unequal country (after South Africa), with a Gini co-efficient of 59,1 in 2015, according to World Bank estimates.
Our resource governance architecture is of little use if it cannot make a dent in these figures.
Our governance architecture is a product of our natural resource ideological stance – essentially, our understanding of how decisions on natural resources ought to be made.
We need to see the trickle-down benefits of natural resources to citizens, specifically indigenous peoples and the youth.
I believe one of the best ways to assess the effectiveness of any governance infrastructure is to establish its correlation with key economic and development indicators.
In Namibia, these indicators are contained in our National Development Plan (NDP), the UN Sustainable Development Goals, on which our NDPs and Harambee prosperity Plan are largely based.
These documents peg Namibia’s prosperity to measurable outcomes such as poverty rates, unemployment rates and its Gini-co-efficiency.
CLASSIC CASE
We have lofty goals, but are making too little progress. The problem is enmeshed in our somewhat lopsided handling of our natural resource governance model.
The model is sound, but we have fallen short in aligning it to capacity building. As a result, our current natural resource governance is not sustainable.
If Namibia had applied a laser sharp focus to capacity building and value addition from the outset, we probably would not be experiencing the unemployment rate we have, or an economic structure characterised by the export of raw materials.
The governance question must thus be considered alongside capacity building if we are to deliver sustainable natural resource management for the benefit of Namibia and her people.
In short, we need a model that assigns equal weight to the governance structure, capacity building and sustainability.
A classic example of the governance-capacity-sustainability nexus was establishing the Namibia Petrofund in 1993, a direct response to the scarcity of skilled personnel in the petroleum industry at the time.
The aim was to build capacity and to mainstream competent Namibians into the industry so we would have the capacity if oil was discovered.
The fund achieved its goal – many of the movers and shakers in Namibia’s petroleum industry today are products of the Petrofund programme.
However, the fund addresses only people working in the petroleum sector.
THE CHALLENGE
The question that lingers – and the challenge that remains – is how Namibia’s natural resource governance architecture will facilitate the participation of all Namibians, especially the youth, in managing our oil and gas resources.
The answer lies in legislation and policy-making, in particular, the much-anticipated local content policy, under the auspices of the ministry of mines.
The policy promotes the participation and development of domestic industries and labour in the oil and gas sector, and the transfer of technology and capital to Namibians.
Yet, legislation and policy alone are inadequate. The key issue is implementation.
As with all laws and policies designed to better the lives of Namibians, we need an end-game mindset.
If law, and policies do not benefit ordinary Namibians, bringing the private sector, civil society and the youth into the management of our natural resources will fail to achieve its purpose.
We will need visionary leadership, a strong focus on preventing and curbing corruption, and smart partnerships with those with the reservoir of technical knowledge, such as international oil and service companies.
CORRUPTION AND
ACCOUNTABILITY
Corruption will derail the best plans unless the necessary mechanisms are in place.
Across the board, we need vigorous, consistently applied measures that ensure transparency and accountability in public administration, including rules on conflicts of interest, asset declaration and public access to information.
We also need strong oversight mechanisms and bodies, staffed by competent individuals drawn from civil society and the private sector with a proven commitment to open governance.
We can turn our poverty story around given the wealth lying beneath our feet, if we have the will and the zeal to do so. Resource management architecture is not enough. We need to ensure that capacity building keeps pace with legislation so that our entire orientation is towards mainstreaming Namibians, particularly the youth, into sector participation, adding value to our raw materials, managing them for the benefit of all, while holding our leaders to account.
- Shiwana Ndeunyema is the executive: business strategy at Namcor. Among others, he also co-leads consultancy services in developing a State Ownership Policy Model for Public Enterprises in Namibia.
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