Decentralisation well on track

Urban and rural development minister Erastus Uutoni has called on ministries still preparing to decentralise to increase efforts to expedite the transfer of functions eligible for decentralisation to regional councils.He made these remarks at the decentralisation consultative forum taking place in Swakopmund from Tuesday until today.The forum is hosted under the theme ‘Towards the full implementation of the decentralisation policy in Namibia’.“I am reliably informed that some of those ministries are in their final preparatory stages and will soon witness the handing over of more functions to regional councils. Among others, these are the ministries of health and social services, youth, sport, and national services, as well as some additional functions from the ministry of agriculture, water and land reform.”Uutoni said there is a collective responsibility to ensure the Namibian people are provided with the quality and quantity of public goods and services they need as close as possible to where they live, go to school or work.“It is of vital importance that we continue to harmonise and strengthen our multi-levelled coordination mechanisms between the central and subnational organs of our government. It is a commonly accepted fact that proper coordination removes duplication of efforts and wastage of resources on the one hand, whereas on the other hand, it promotes efficiency in resource utilisation and synergies across and between sectors.”Transfers monitoredUutoni said there has been a steady transfer of service functions and related resources over the past few years from various decentralising line ministries to regional councils.These included the ministries of education, arts and culture, works and transport, information and communication technology, gender equality, poverty eradication and social welfare, as well as agriculture, water and land reform."I am also pleased that the majority of these ministries have also started to conduct periodic assessments on the performance by regional councils of decentralised functions as part of their continuous monitoring and evaluation function, which is further demonstration of their commitment to ensure successful decentralisation.”Assess policy success The minister said an independent study has been commissioned to assess the status of the implementation of the decentralisation policy as outlined in Harambee Prosperity Plan II. The study is expected to be completed during the third quarter of the 2024/25 financial year.Uutoni said the ministry will meanwhile also "press ahead to ensure that required amendments to the Regional Councils’ Act of 1992 as submitted to Cabinet are affected to address administrative and other issues identified for the smooth running of the RCs affairs."The decentralising consultative forum offers the ministry, regional councils, decentralising line ministries and other partner government institutions an opportunity to reflect on and assess current progress, share best practices and ideas, discuss challenges and collectively formulate strategies and remedial measures to overcome any such challenges going forward.

Decentralisation well on track

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-14

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Decentralisation well on track

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-14

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