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Mapping and verification of communal land rights in the regions receive boost from EU donation

Mapping and verification of communal land rights in the regions receive boost from EU donation

The European Union, Ambassador to Namibia, Sinikka Antila officially handed over 10 vehicles to the government valued at more than N$ 6,549,000 at an event held in Windhoek on Monday.

The 10 vehicles are part of the Programme for Communal Land Development (PCLD), supported jointly by KfW, the European Union, and the government, through the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform (MAWRL).

Speaking at the handover, Antila said the PCLDs overall objective is “improving the land-based livelihoods of rural communities through the development of communal land and their better integration into the mainstream economy’’.

The vehicles will be used to further support the mapping and verification of communal land rights in the different regions of Namibia, to fast-track security of tenure for more than 70% of subsistence farmers living on communal land to obtain their rights to land, she noted.

“I have briefly studied the most recent PCLD progress report; while we have good progress on many of the results, we are currently at 148,190 of Communal Land Registration of the final target of 245,000 that we have set to achieve. This presents a backlog of 96,810 communal land parcels that we still need to register, and I have realized that the progress on this front has been very slow in recent years. I am assuming that this is mostly due to the unavailability of vehicles, and hence acquiring these 10 vehicles is very crucial for this exercise,” she added.

Lands minister, Hon Calle Schlettwein said the event is an important milestone for the improvement of the livelihoods of the people living in the communal areas.

“The vehicles that are donated will be used in key activities for the implementation of the five result areas of the PCLD,” he said, adding for the ministry to administer and manage land effectively and reach out to people living in the different parts of the country, they need to be mobile and to be able to visit all the areas.

The vehicles donated include nine Toyota Hilux double cab bakkies which will be used in the various regions and one Toyota Rav4 which will be used in an administrative deployment.


From the left, Ursula Hein-Rooinasie from KfW Development Bank, EU Ambassador Sinikka Antila, Minister of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform, Hon Callé Schlettwein and Dr Andreas Goetze, Deputy Head of Mission at the German Embassy.


 

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