Environmentalists honoured at the Sustainable Development Awards
A total of ten men and women received awards in respective categories that they were nominated in, at the recently held Sustainable Development Awards.
The award ceremony held on Friday 21 May targeted the private sector and SMEs, community level natural resource management and utilization initiatives, research and development, youth action for sustainable development, pioneering journalism in the field of sustainable development, green banks, school in action for sustainable development, women in action for sustainable development and thought leadership.
The awards were hosted under the theme “accelerating the green economy transformation as we recover from COVID-19”.
Speaking at the event and sharing the overview of the Sustainable Development Awards, Gloria Simubali, Chairperson of the Sustainable Development Advisory Council said, “These Awards fit directly to this mandate and seek to reach out to all sectors of society active in promoting sustainable development across the country, including organs of state, non-governmental organisations, community-based organisations, the private sector and funding agencies.
Welcoming the nominees and those in attendance was Benedict Libanda, the Chief Executive Officer of the Environmental Investment Fund of Namibia highlighted that the awards have grown since the first awards were held in 2015.
Libanda further denoted that in total the organizing committee had received 74 applications in total for this third edition of the awards and encouraged all the winners and nominees to continue to lead with deep convictions in the race against the developmental challenges we face today.
The winners at the event included:
• Private Sector Champions for Sustainable Development with 3 sub-categories for start-ups, Small and Medium Enterprises as well as established companies: Start-ups: Paver Plast; SME: Ebikes 4 Africa; Established Companies: Hoanib Skeleton Coast Camp.
• Community level natural resource management and utilization initiatives: Lukas Mandema
• Research and Development to reward outstanding pieces of research or innovations in the field of sustainable development: Professor Daniel Likius (University of Namibia)
• Youth Action for Sustainable Development, which focuses on youth leadership and initiatives in the area of sustainable development: Toini Amutenya
• Pioneering journalism in the field of sustainable development, which will reward outstanding performance in the areas of best print media, best social media, best radio and best television: Best Television: Lesley Tjiueza; Best Print: Absalom Shigwedha; Best Radio: David Bishop
• Women and Environment: Agnes Tjirare
• Sustainable Schools: Ediva Primary School – Public School; Private School Swakopmund – Private School
• Green Financial Services/Institution: Bank Windhoek
• Thought Leadership: Dr. Mary Seely.
The Sustainable Development Awards were first held in 2015 and were based on a joint idea of the Environmental Investment Fund of Namibia and Sustainable Development Advisory Council. It was planned to be hosted every two years and a subsequent second edition of the awards was held in 2017. The third edition of the awards were delayed for a number of reasons but were finally held on 21 May 2021.
Pictured, first from the left, Deputy Minister of Sport, Youth and National Service, Emma Kantema – Gaomas, recipient of the Youth Action for sustainable development award, Toini Amutenya and Indileni Nanghonga, Senior Research and Product Development Specialist from Agribank.
