NASCO Announced the launch of ‘’Grant Projects’’

Windhoek March 14 – The Namibian Association of Community Based Natural Resources Management (CBNRM) Support Organisations (NASCO) has launched Grant Projects, which are designed to enhance the Community Based Natural Resources Management
(CBNRM) sector. The launch which took place in Windhoek yesterday at the NASCO headquarters.
During a press conference, was officially opened by Maxi Louis, the Director of
NASCO and attended by members of the San Community, the Director of Nyae
Nyae Development Foundation of Namibia (NNDFN) Lara Diez, the Director of
The Namibian Development Trust (NDT) Ronnie Dempers, and the European
Union (EU) Ambassador, H.E. Ms. Sinnika Antila.
The European Union decided to provide support to improve governance of the
national Community Based Natural Resources Management Programme and to
improve the participation of CSOs in governance and development.
The EU has done this by approving 2 grants to organisations that are members of NASCO, whose collective goal is to work in close collaboration with the Ministry
of Environmental and Tourism, to bring together technical expertise and resources,
to address systematic issues in the CBNRM programme.
The first grant (798,000.00 euros) has been awarded to a consortium consisting of
the Namibia Nature Foundation (NNF), Namibia Development Trust (NDT) and
Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation (IRDNC), who will focus
on improving equitable benefit distribution through enhanced accountability of
management structures and active community inclusion in decision making.
The second grant (436,817.00 euros) has been awarded to Nyae Nyae
Development Foundation of Namibia, to improve the management/leadership,
community participation and visibility of the most marginalized and vulnerable
indigenous San conservancies (Nyae Nyae and Na Jaqna). The EU ambassador, H.E. Ms Sinnika Ankila, said that she trusts that synergies and complementarity will be created with other ongoing initiatives to strengthen the CBNRM sector in Namibia.
She further adds that the two grants that were awarded, amount up 1,24 Million
Euros (equivalent to approximately N$ 20 000 000) and are funded under the
European Union’s thematic programme ‘’Civil Society Organisations and Local
Authorities”, which aims at strengthening these actors in EU partner countries.
‘’The overall objective of this programme is to reinforce the capacities of local
actors, to promote the role of CSOs as independent development actors more
effectively and to encourage a meaningful and structured participation of CSOs in
domestic policies of our partner countries,’’ she said.

Urias Ngodji

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