Geography
Namibia is a southern African state that shares borders with South Africa, Botswana, Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe with the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The country covers about 824,116 square kilometres of land2 and some 526,000 square kilometres of sea, extending 200 nautical miles.3 Aridity characterises Namibia’s topography with two deserts: the Namib along the coast and the Kalahari in the east. Namibia is divided into 13 regions, each managed by a Regional Council (RC) and Governor. The national capital, Windhoek, is situated in the central highlands.

Namibia’s renewable natural resources are characterised by low productivity and high variability due to water scarcity, poor and degradable soil, and the resulting low capability of the land to support more intensive forms of agriculture. Unpredictable fluctuations in marine resource availability, highly variable rainfall, rangeland carrying capacity, and rain fed crop production attest to the variable nature of natural resource availability.4 Freshwater scarcity is the principal limiting factor for development in the country. Rainfall ranges between 15 and 700 mm, with only 8% of the country (in the northern and north-western regions) receiving more than 500mm per year, the minimum considered necessary for rain-fed agriculture. Namibia’s interior rivers are all ephemeral while the country’s only perennial rivers are located on the borders, far from areas of high water demand.

Namibia’s entire coastal zone (1600 km long) is characterised by low rainfall and limited freshwater resources. The marine environment supports vast populations of fish species with the fishery sector one of the best managed by world standards. Namibia is a country of vast scenic open spaces, relatively uninhabited wilderness areas, and rich biodiversity.

History
At the time of the earliest known migrations into Namibia, hunter-gather San and pastoral Damara communities were already living within modern Namibia’s borders. During the 16th century, Owambo communities settled in the area of the Cuvelai System. Simultaneously pastoral Herero groups moved south into north-western Namibia, from where they spread south and east into the central highlands. In the 18th century agricultural Kavango communities moved south to settle in the Kavango River Valley and pastoral Nama communities moved north from the Cape into southern Namibia. In 1793 the Dutch took possession of Walvis Bay, which the British annexed as part of its Cape Colony in 1884.5 In the early 1800s, a second wave of Namas, the Oorlams, who were influenced culturally by Europeans in the Cape, moved into southern Namibia, where they assimilated their Nama predecessors. The Basters, descendants of mixed-race communities in the Northern Cape, followed in 1870 to settle in central Namibia. Throughout the 18th century European missionaries and traders lived and worked among the indigenous communities.6

Amidst Europe’s scramble for Africa, Germany declared a protectorate in modern Namibia in 1884. Six years later, it established the colony German South West Africa and obtained the Caprivi Strip from Great Britain in a territory swap. After forging a conditional peace with the Witbooi Nama in 1895, the flow of German settlers into central Namibia quickened, resulting in increasing tension with the Hereros and Namas. In 1904 the Hereros and Namas rebelled against the Germans over land and the retaliatory war resulted in the extermination of an estimated 80% of the Herero and 50% of the Nama populations.

In 1915, Germany lost control over South West Africa to the Union of South Africa. The League of Nations issued a mandate to South Africa to govern the territory in 1919. Subsequently, white South African settlers moved into the territory. Following the rise of South Africa’s National Party in 1948, it imposed race separation in Namibia under the name "apartheid". In a series of resolutions, the UN General Assembly rejected the legitimacy of South Africa’s attempts to formally annex Namibia and called for its withdrawal from the territory.

In 1966 the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) launched an armed struggle against the South African regime. Other political parties and human rights organisations, both inside and outside Namibia, also worked and supported the liberation struggle. In 1978 the UN Security Council passed resolution 435, which formed the basis for subsequent negotiations throughout the 1980s on Namibia’s right to self-determination. South Africa agreed to the full implementation of resolution 435 in 1988 and the next year under the auspices of the UN, Namibia held its first free and fair elections. The Constituent Assembly drafted Namibia’s constitution and elected Sam Nujoma, the long-serving head of SWAPO, as the first president of the Republic of Namibia. Independence was formally declared on 21 March 1990, and in March 1994 South Africa ceded its control of Walvis Bay to Namibia.

Demography
Namibia’s total population is 1,800,000. It has one of the lowest population density ratios 2.1 persons per square kilometre. More than half of Namibians live in the five north-central regions of Omusati, Oshana, Ohangwena, Oshikoto and Kavango. These regions account for only 16% of Namibia’s surface area but 54% of the population.⁷

With over 250,000 people, Khomas is Namibia’s most populated region, having 93% of its inhabitants living in the capital city of Windhoek. The next largest cities are Walvis Bay (43,600), Oshakati/Ongwediva (39,000) and Rundu (37,000) and all cities and towns are growing rapidly as a result of migration for economic opportunity.

More than 40% of Namibians are younger than 15 years. As a result of improved family planning, the waning of a post-Independence baby boom and possibly the effect of HIV/AIDS, there has been a significant decline in fertility rates since 1991. Consequently the population zero to four years old is smaller than the number of Namibians aged five to nine years. From age five onwards the population size steadily decreases, an age structure that is typical of countries with relatively high rates of fertility and mortality. While the rural areas have higher proportions of young people and senior citizens, urban areas have proportionally more people of economically active age (15 to 59 years).

AIDS is having a profound impact on Namibian demography. Namibia had a high population growth rate (3.1% per annum) in the decade before Independence, in part because of migration. The negative impact of AIDS on health and longevity has reduced the growth rate to 2.6% per annum. Likewise, as a result of AIDS Namibia’s life expectancy declined from 61 to 49 between 1991 and 2001. For men it fell to 48 from 59 and for women to 50 from 63.8

Namibia has 24 indigenous languages and major dialects, including Oshiwambo, Rukavango, Otjiherero, Damara, Nama, Silozi, Khoisan and Setswana, and three prominent languages of European origin: Afrikaans, German and English. Although English is Namibia’s official language, only 2% of households use it as their main language. Afrikaans remains the lingua franca in most of the southern four-fifths of the nation, while two dialects of Oshiwambo-Oshindonga and Oshikwanyama-are taught in some schools. Some 90% of Namibians identify themselves as Christians.

Economy
Namibia is classified as a lower middle-income country, with an annual average per capita income of around US$1,800, ranking 65th out of 175 countries. However, this masks extreme inequalities in income distribution, standard of living, and quality of life. When using the Human Development Index, which combines income with indicators of health and education, Namibia slides to 126th in 2004.9 As such, average income as a measure of development is less relevant in Namibia than elsewhere.

Economic growth in Namibia over the past decade has been low and erratic. On average, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita has grown around 1% since 1990. The main economic sectors are mining, fisheries, fish and meat processing and government services. In the near term, annual growth is expected to pick up slightly to 3%-4%, driven mainly by mining and tourism.10

In 2002, exports accounted for 50% of GDP and imports for almost 80%. Main exports include diamonds (35%), prepared and preserved fish (21%) and metal and uranium ore (9%). Namibia imports most production inputs, intermediate goods (including fuel and lubricants), consumer products and food stuffs mainly from South Africa.11 Over the past decade Namibia has seen a growing surplus on the current account, where a structural trade deficit is more than offset by revenues from the Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU) and tourism receipts. However, the capital account is increasingly in deficit, reflecting large net outflows of pension and life insurance funds that are invested in South Africa. It is a rare paradox for a developing country to have savings exceed investments and thus be a net exporter of capital.

While private capital flows to Namibia have increased, Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) has dropped and the prospects for continued dwindling of international support are cause for concern. That said, the Global Fund for AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis (TB) and new US funding mechanisms are welcome initiatives through which to assist the country’s fight against HIV/AIDS. However, a number of development partners are gradually reducing their grant assistance to Namibia. The main reason seems to be Namibia’s international classification as a lower middle-income country.

Monetary policy is set within the context of the Common Monetary Area and the peg of the Namibia Dollar to the South African Rand. After several years of upward pressure lending rates were cut by 5% points during 2003 mirroring interest rate trends in South Africa. Consumer price inflation ran at 7% in 2003 the lowest level since Independence and significantly lower than in 2002 when food prices rose by 20%.12 Fiscal policy is set within a three year rolling Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) with tight targets to ensure macro-economic stability given the economy’s high vulnerability to external shocks such as impacts of adverse weather patterns on agriculture and fisheries, and exchange rate volatility on US dollar-denominated exports, especially diamond mining. Government revenues are under pressure because of expected lower transfers from the SACU customs pool and adverse impacts on tariffs of the RSA/EU trade agreement. SACU transfers are projected to fall by N$1 billion in the three years after 2004/05. As a result, the Government plans to cut back expenditure by no less than 28% between 2002/03 and 2006/07 primarily by curtailing personnel expenditure. Annual budget deficits have averaged 3.2% since Independence but in MTEF 2004/05- 2006/07 the budget deficit will be limited to 1.3% of GDP on average. As a result, total expenditure and the debt ratio will both fall to below 30% of GDP by the end of 2006/07.¹³

Namibia is among the eight countries in the world that spend the highest share of GDP on public expenditure in education.14 Since Independence, the education sector has consistently received the largest share of the total national budget, currently around 20%, relatively unchanged since 1990/91. Namibia is second only to South Africa in sub-Saharan Africa in terms of per capita expenditure in the health sector.15 In the 2004/05 budget the Health sector commands 9.2% of total expenditures. This share has declined steadily since 2000/01, the same time as the country started to face the increasing costs associated with the HIV/AIDS crisis.16 Debt servicing came down significantly after Independence due to cancellation of debt owed to the apartheid regime in South Africa but has been on a steady increase since 1992/93 as an accumulated effect of budget deficits. The Defence sector has almost doubled in size since Independence as measured by the share of resources devoted to the sector from the total national budget and Namibia now finds itself at the higher end of the international spectrum of defence spenders.17 Between 1991 and 2003, the number of parastatals in Namibia increased from 12 to 45 and Government spending increased from N$79 million to nearly N$1 billion either in the form of subsidies for operations or lending and equity participation.18

Political Development
The first national elections were held in 1989 and the new SWAPO-led government made a decisive break with Namibia’s apartheid past and embraced a constitution based on democratic principles in which every Namibian adult has the right to vote. National elections were held again in 1994 and 1999 with continued SWAPO majorities in the National Assembly and leadership of Sam Nujoma. A fourth national election is scheduled for November 2004.

The SWAPO Party remains very popular and there are now five different parties represented in the National Assembly and four other parties held seats in previous assemblies.19 Opposition parties and the media are both free to openly criticize the ruling party and the Government. Namibia is one of 14 countries of the continent to extend financial support to political parties. The country also has policies in place to decentralise many national functions, over time, to the 13 regions and local authorities.

The government has committed itself to the constitutionally prescribed policies of reconciliation and affirmative action, to promote stability and to maintain business confidence. In this spirit, the constitution provided that bureaucrats holding office at the date of Independence, who were predominantly white, may continue in their positions until they resign, retire or are transferred or removed from office in accordance with the law. With affirmative action, many previouslydisadvantaged Namibians have been recruited into the civil service. However, the government faces the challenges of having a relatively large civil service with significant gaps in skills and capacities. The historical legacy of Namibia is a cross-cutting factor that affects every aspect of society and Namibia’s performance in meeting national and MDGs. It also affects the preparedness of the country to avert the impact of the Triple Threat. The country has been politically stable since Independence with the exception of the Caprivi uprising in August 1999 when fighting ensued between Government and a number of Caprivians who wanted to secede.

Namibia has been recognized internationally for the progress it has made since Independence, ranked as one of only 11 "free" countries on the African continent by Freedom House.20 According to Transparency International’s "2003 Corruption Perceptions Index," Namibia is perceived to be the third "cleanest" country in Africa after Botswana and Tunisia.21 On the economic front, Namibia tied for Africa’s top spot on the Index of Economic Freedom, published by the Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal, characterised as “mostly free” along with only eight other African countries.²²

A Note on Data and Information Sources
A wide range of data and information sources form the basis for this CCA. The primary source of data has been the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) of NPCS. Other sources of data and research include line ministries, the Bank of Namibia (BoN) and UNAM, as well as several other private and public entities. In general, Namibia has made great strides in developing its own national statistical system in a relatively short period of time and has a wealth of information often of very high quality. However, as in most countries, there are data gaps, incompatibility among surveys and inconsistencies and deficiencies in methodologies. This can result in a break in time series or lack of comparability between data sets.

Though most official statistics are disaggregated by gender, age and geography, sometimes only aggregates and averages are reported. In a few instances different data sources on the same indicator point to trends going in opposite directions. As a rule the CCA uses the most authoritative sources of officially sanctioned data, including the data sets prepared by CBS for the MDG Report. If data problems and ambiguities affect the analysis it is noted in the text and caution is advised.