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NDI Final Report NAMIBIA: CONSOLIDATION OF NDI Final Report NAMIBIA: CONSOLIDATION OF DEMOCRACY PHASE II USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 690-A-00-00-00235-00 Project Dates: September 25, 2000 to September 30, 2004 I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Since its independence 1990, Namibia has made significant strides in establishing and consolidating democratic institutions and processes. Parliament better reflects its representative role and has developed structures to respond to citizens' concerns. Increased interaction is evident between parliamentary committees and the executive branch, and members of parliament (MPs) regularly participate in debates that take into account the interests of Namibian citizens in public policy issues. Despite progress, however, parliament continued to lack some essential structures for sustainability. Challenges also remained in citizen access to parliamentary information in Namibia’s highly centralized government system, and civil society organizations had not fully assumed their role as advocates for public interest and as watchdogs of the government. With support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), during the past 10 years, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) and its Namibian partners in parliament and civil society have been working to support the country’s democratic transition. In September 2000, NDI initiated a program to further support the consolidation of parliamentary democracy and increase citizen participation in the legislative process in Namibia. This program represented the continuation of NDI’s work under two previous USAID agreements: Namibia: Consolidating Parliamentary Democracy (Cooperative Agreement No. 690-A-00-98-00228-00); and Namibia: Democratic Institution Building (Grant No. 673-0007-G- 00-514-00). NDI received a one-year extension to the cooperative agreement in 2002 and additional funding in 2003 for its continued activities with parliament and civil society, as well as to initiate work with political parties. Throughout the program, NDI provided assistance to both houses of parliament, conducted advocacy training for civil society organizations, implemented capacity building programs for media and strengthened the management and organizational capacity of political parties. NDI’s program sought to contribute to the USAID/Namibia’s Strategic Objective #4: Increased Accountability of Parliament to all Namibian Citizens. Specific objectives were the following: NDI Final Report, Namibia: Consolidation of Democracy Phase II · Parliament creates the structures and develops the skills to function as an independent branch of national government distinct from the executive and the judiciary; · The National Council and National Assembly establish, maintain and expand mechanisms for citizen input into the national policymaking process; · Members and staff of the National Council and National Assembly enhance their capacity to carry out legislative and outreach functions; · Civil society increases its capacity to participate in Namibia’s democratic institutions and processes – particularly parliament; · Program sustainability is achieved through collaboration, increased delegation and transfer of roles and responsibilities to indigenous Namibian partners, including the development of a Democracy Support Center; and · Political parties enhance their organizational and management capacity and strengthen their resource mobilization and membership recruitment strategies to develop political leaders that can serve as a mechanism for increased public participation. NDI’s program focused on a variety of institution-building and skills-building activities for both legislators and civil society to support a strong and sustainable democratic system. Program activities included: strengthening the internal workings of parliament through ongoing consultations on the budget process, training parliamentary clerks on committee processes and conducting public hearings on legislation; increasing citizen participation by enhancing public access to parliamentary information and proceedings through innovative use of information technology; initiating a constituency outreach effort using a mobile training unit; providing technical and financial assistance to local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to increase their ability to participate in political and legislative processes and advocate for public interest; working with political parties through consultations and workshops to increase their capacity and prepare for upcoming elections; and developing a Democracy Support Center (DSC) that will enable indigenous groups to continue sustaining democratic development in Namibia. The program resulted in a number of notable achievements, including: · Parliament regularly conducted constituency outreach activities and has assumed responsibility for organizing and conducting outreach to solicit public input into the legislative process, including regional outreach tours outside the capital using a mobile training unit and facilitated by the Speaker of the National Assembly. · Parliament conducted its first Democracy and Development Expo, attended by more than 3,000 participants from government, civil society and the media, and has adopted the forum as a way to increase its links with the public. The presence of parliamentarians in parliament gardens to talk to members of the public, as well as the radio talk shows in indigenous languages hosted by parliamentarians contributed significantly to the accomplishment of increased accountability to and interaction with citizens. · National Council committees now conduct public hearings in regions throughout the country to solicit citizen input in the legislative process; the numbers of public hearings conducted and the number of bills garnering public debate increased steadily throughout the program. · NDI equipped parliament with its own radio and television production studio, which has already began live broadcasting of legislative and committee proceedings. The Constituency Channel is expanding linkages between parliament and the public through its coverage. USAID Cooperative Agreement No. 690-A-00-00-00235-00 2 NDI Final Report, Namibia: Consolidation of Democracy Phase II · Civil society groups have increased their interaction with parliament and capacity to advocate for citizen interests in a number of priority issue areas including land reform, women’s rights, ethics and the national budget process. · Parliament launched its first public website and instituted an information management system that provides access to legislative information; parliament formed a committee to maintain the system and provide training to members and staff to ensure sustainability. · NDI political party training helped all political parties prepare for upcoming elections by improving regional and local activists’ resource mobilization and planning skills, internal communication mechanisms, message development skills and outreach strategies. All of the Institute’s activities sought to provide participants with skills and information that would survive the life of NDI in Namibia. At the end of the program, USAID awarded a follow-on cooperative agreement to one of NDI’s principal local partners, the Namibian Institute of Democracy (NID). This organization will manage the Democracy Support Center, which will continue many of the successful programs that NDI developed over the years. The DSC will be governed by a consortium of local entities – providing extraordinary opportunity for sustainability and ownership of democracy and governance support at the local level. II. BACKGROUND Since Namibia's independence in 1990, with funding from USAID, NDI has been providing technical assistance and support to consolidate democratic institutions during the county's transition to democracy. Over the past 10 years, NDI and its Namibian partners in parliament and civil society have made significant strides in achieving their objectives. Parliament has made considerable progress since independence. The institution better reflects its representative role and has developed structures to respond to citizens’ concerns. Parliament is also enlarging its oversight role, demonstrating constructive interaction between parliamentary committees and agents of the executive, and recognising its role as an institution that can build consensus and resolve conflicts on matters of public policy. MPs participate in rigorous debate, reflecting the interests of the Namibian citizens. The National Assembly and National Council both revised their rules and procedures to better organize the business of the two houses. Revisions included referring bills to committees, tabling committee reports and recommendations within defined time frames, and developing calendars to accommodate non-legislative procedures, such as question time, petitions and time for speeches and statements. The parliament also established provisions that assisted it in operating in a more transparent and accountable manner. Of particular note, the National Assembly adopted a code of conduct for MPs. Both houses made substantial progress in establishing an independent Parliamentary Service to oversee the staffing of the legislative branch, which would enable parliament to manage its administration and personnel without executive interference. Despite this progress, parliament continued to lack some essential structures for sustainability. After 10 years of independence, parliament did not possess the autonomy required to sufficiently check the
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