Activity plan Sweden - Namibia

This activity plan completes the project proposal for Promoting Municipal Partnership Namibia – Sweden. For more details on the project please see the project proposal.

Objective The objective of the Promoting Municipal Partnership Initiative is that at least four new relations between Swedish and Namibian municipalities have been established by June 2008 that have potential of developing into formal Municipal Partnerships within the framework of the Municipal Partnership North-South Programme. The new partnerships will help develop new, fruitful relations between Sweden and Namibia and, in a longer run, facilitate a positive development of the respective municipalities and reducing poverty.

Beneficiaries and target groups The end beneficiaries of the initiative are the inhabitants of the municipalities, at least as regards a long-term impact. However, the primary target group is a gender-balanced mix of local councillors and civil servants from municipalities in Sweden and Namibia that are working with approximately the same issues.

Implementation and method

 Matchmaking: Information collection, selection and preparation of municipalities (January -February)  Meetings and visits (March-May)  Evaluation and report (May-June)

Matchmaking In order to facilitate prosperous municipal partnerships it is necessary to select the most adequate municipalities. They should be compatible in terms of size, challenges and have some common denominators, so that there relevant areas for cooperation can be found. An example could be that the two municipalities are located in touristic areas and share ambitions on developing their tourism in an environmentally, economically and socially sustainable way. During SALA IDA’s contact mission in April 2007 they met with representatives from the Karas region in Southern Namibia. As an example, the primary areas for co-operation expressed by the Namibian municipal representatives were: water management, rural development and tourism.

Furthermore, based on the analysis from the study visit the municipalities most suitable for co-operation with Swedish counterparts are of type 1 or 2, i.e. large enough to create interest with the Swedish party and large enough to absorb the results of an international cooperation. The type 1 and 2 municipalities also have the right to determine their own revenues and budgets. Due to the considerable financial strength of Swedish municipalities and their vast areas of responsibility and activity they often have the possibility of co- operating with substantially larger Namibian counterparts. Ideally, the municipalities on both sides should share some challenges and/or opportunities. There must be a formal decision from both parties that there is a real interest in participating in this initiative and that the municipalities are ready to create a partnership with a municipality from the other country, given that the circumstances are right.

In order for SALA IDA and ALAN, the main project implementers in Sweden and Namibia, to find relevant matches they will use their access to networks through their respective association membership. SALA IDA will for example use its network that has been consolidating over the years through direct contacts with politicians and civil servants from local and regional authorities and associations. It will be necessary to make three information meetings to regional associations to cover the south, middle and north parts of Sweden.

SALA IDA will do the research in Sweden and ALAN in Namibia. When doing this research, care will be taken to prepare an information kit about each municipality of relevance. The information kits will then be exchanged between SALA IDA and ALAN in order to facilitate the selection of municipalities.

Schematic overview of the matchmaking process and the division of tasks. SALA IDA

Collection of Invitation and Preparation of information, selection of municipalities meetings municipalities

Matchmaking process

ALAN

Collection of Invitation and Preparation of information, selection of municipalities meetings municipalities

January -March

5-6 municipalities will be selected in each country. SALA IDA will distribute information about the Namibian municipalities to the Swedish municipalities and ALAN will distribute information about the Swedish municipalities to the Namibian potential counterparts.

Meetings and visits

In Sweden In the beginning of April SALA IDA will arrange a meeting in Sweden for the 5-6 municipalities that have expressed their interest in starting a cooperation project with a Namibian municipality. Two representatives from each municipality will be invited. Two representatives from ALAN will be invited to this meeting and make a presentation about Namibia and the governance structures there. They will also give a general perspective to the participants about the challenges that Namibian municipalities face today. Experts from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Sida will also be invited, as well as representatives from the Embassy of Namibia to Sweden.

The presence of ALAN at this first meeting will also give SALA IDA and ALAN a possibility to plan the following steps in a more detailed way. Contents of the meeting:

 Short presentation of SALA IDA and the MPNS  Presentation of the initiative and its background  Presentation of the two representatives from ALAN  Introduction to Namibia and its governance system  Presentation of the Swedish municipalities and their profiles  Challenges in Swedish and Namibian municipalities

This seminar will take approximately 1-15 day.

In Namibia

The next step will be for two representative from each of the the 5-6 Swedish municipalities and two representatives from SALA IDA/SALAR to visit Namibia in April or May. ALAN will have selected 5-6 municipalities that will send two representatives to Windhoek for a two-day workshop and seminar. It is important that the two groups are gender-balanced in order to ensure that both women’s and men’s interests are taken into consideration.

Proposed schedule - this schedule shall be discussed between SALA IDA and ALAN, before finally set.

Day 1 – Presentation of the purpose of the mission. Short introduction to the Municipal Partnerships North-South programme to the Namibian municipal representatives: facts, main features and challenges, including mutuality, gender issues and environmental problems.

Day 2 - Presentation of the Swedish political systems, overview of the countries and their traditions and cultures. Presentation of the municipalities and their main challenges. Identification of the main problems of the participating municipalities and possible areas for cooperation.

After the two-day workshop, the group will be divided in two. Both groups will go on study tours for two days to visit the municipalities of the Namibian representatives, but for logistic reasons everyone cannot visit all 5-6 municipalities. Have the municipalities already found a partner; the study tour will evidently go to the chosen Namibians municipality.

For SALA IDA and ALAN to discuss - Shall the municipalities choose a partner before the study tour or during the tour? During day 5, the groups will gather again to draw some final conclusions and decide on the next step for the future. Introduction to the Municipal Partnerships North-South programme: facts, main features and challenges, including mutuality, gender issues and environmental problems. Please see the below figure for a schematic overview.

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3-4 Day 5

Short introduction Presentation of Group 1: Visit to 2-3 Conclusions and to the MPNS Namibia and municipalities in Namibia next steps. programme. Sweden, the Introduction to Presentations of political systems the MPNS the Swedish and etc. Identification programme Namibian of problems. Group 2: Visit to 2-3 municipalities municipalities in Namibia

After the completion of the visit to Namibia, the municipalities are likely to be able to get started with writing the applications. In some cases, it is possible that the municipalities will wish to apply for grants for projects and coordination and management subsidy at once. Normally, SALA IDA would require an inception phase, but given that the municipalities have already met and discussed possible areas for cooperation, they might feel that they have already gone further in their process than the inception phase would take them. Still, SALA IDA does not exclude the possibility to apply for an inception phase. SALA IDA is ready to support them with the writing of their applications. During the spring there is only one application round with final date April 14. The applications developed during this project between Sweden and Namibia will be judged during the application round after the summer or during the fall.

Evaluation and report The Namibian and Swedish participants’ individual evaluations will serve as sources of information. When the municipalities submit their applications for inception phases or projects, we will be able to see to some extent if the initiative has been successful judging by the quality and quantity of the applications. The narrative report will be written in collaboration with ALAN and submitted together with the financial report in July. The deadline is July 31, 2008. Schematic overview

SI= SALA IDA A=ALAN January February March April May June July Matchmaking Contact with interested SI:Information SI: Further municipalities on SALA IDA’s develop SI & A webb site, marketing article in activities SALAR’s news toward letter Swedish A: Information municipalities, will also be e.g. mail to posted on the municipalities ALAN website in Sweden, at personal www.alan.org. contacts etc. na A: Develop marketing activities toward Namibian municipalities &obtain commitment of interest LA’s for partnership,des ign of town profiles Exchange of SI& A: SI&A: information on Exchange of Evaluation for municipalities information on interested SI & A municipalities. municipalities. Discussions on Selection of focus groups interested and areas for municipalities cooperation Visits Stakeholder meeting in SI: Research SI: Three Stockholm on suitable seminar SI seminar meetings in activities Sweden - SI: Drafting of north, middle seminar and south of programme Sweden and communication to participants. Send out invitation to seminars

Stakeholder meeting in A: Circulation A: Facilitation Namibia of information and to relevant organization local of logistics authorities pertaining to and meeting(work participants, shop) drafting and dissemination of workshop programme

Final list of SI&A: Final list SI&A: Meeting participating of participating with selected municipalities municipalities Swedish SI&A in Sweden and municipalities Namibia is (beginning of Selection of presented in April) municipalities late March SI&A (information kit on each municipality of relevance) SI&A: Selection of suitable municipalities Visit in Namibia SI & A: Start SI & A: SI&A: SI & A planning of the Planning of the Preparation of visit in Namibia visit in Namibia participating (tickets, hotels, municipalities meeting venues etc) SI&A SI&A: Implement the Preparation of visit (one-week participating travel) in municipalities Namibia (late April or beginning of May)

SI&A Final matchmaking (during the visit in Namibia) of participating municipalities. Support of choosing relevant areas of cooperation Support to SI: Support SI: Support if SI: Support if municipalities in writing municipalities necessary necessary application SI NB! Plenty of time to finish the applications. Next decision board meeting will take place during the fall. This process can continue during the following month Report Project report SI&A: Start the SI&A: Finish SI & A project report the project during the visit report with in Namibia written feed back to participating municipalities Reporting to Sida and SI: Start SI: Project the Embassy writing project report SI report report finished - July 31.