A torchbearer for social justice

The Namibian Development Trust (NDT) was founded in 1987 by different civil society organisations to channel aid from the European Commission to “victims of apartheid”.The organisation eventually transformed itself and has over past three decades played a significant role in community development, as it works closely with historically marginalised rural and urban communities to build their capacity for social change, through capacity-building initiatives.The NDT marked its 32nd anniversary on 21 March this year.It was officially registered in 1987 and the founding members included former Council of Churches in Namibia (CCN) secretary-general Dr Abisai Sheyavali, Evangelical Lutheran Church of Namibia (Elcin) bishop Kleopas Dumeni and Barnabas Tjizu, a trade unionist. NDT executive director Ronny Dempers spoke to Namibian Sun recently about the organisation's journey and how it has survived in the face of declining foreign aid. Dempers emphasised there were challenges, but the NDT has managed to overcome them. “Those days it was a honeymoon of funding after independence. Namibia was the darling of donors because everybody wanted to help, but now Namibia is classified as a middle-income country and this makes raising funds from the international community quite challenging,” Dempers said. He added the NDT prioritises transparency and trust and this has helped it to stay standing while a number of NGOs have folded. According to Dempers the organisation has transformed and now concentrates on community capacity-building and empowering communities to form community-based organisations.“They can use these organisations even if the NDT is not there. They can use these organisations as vehicles to address its own needs. Examples of community formations that we are working on are conservancies. Communities get rights to benefit from tourism. These benefit black communities. “There are 86 conservancies,” he said. Dempers added the culture of forming consortiums is very important to the NDT, because it goes a long way in empowering and uplifting communities. Women empowerment is also a key area for the NDT and some of its studies have even been included in the national gender policy.“Currently we are working with the Namibia Rural Women Assembly to mobilise rural women, mainly focusing on agricultural land issues and advocacy,” said Dempers. MilestoneDuring last week's anniversary celebrations, current NDT board chairperson Steve Motinga said celebrating three decades in the development sector is significant.“Today we are celebrating the existence of an organisation that has weathered the storms that were aimed at crushing its existence. We are aware that some of the interventions we have made may not have been successful, but what inspires us most is looking back and seeing how communities have taken ownership,” he said. According to him the NDT's key intervention strategies since its inception have been institution-building at grassroots level and the promotion of broad-based empowerment strategies. “The battle against poverty seems far from over, but we are delighted about some of the progress indicators,” said Motinga.He added the NDT leadership has provided a strong steering role to the operations of the Namibian Association of CBNRM Support Organisations (NACSO) and the governance functions of communal conservancies across the country. CBNRM is an acronym for Community-based Tourism and Natural Resource Management.“At the level at which the NDT is part, the national CBNRM programme reaches over 200 000 communal (land) residents and has managed to create over 5 000 jobs and generated in 2017 more than N$132 million,” Motinga said. The lack of broad-based empowerment approaches and the fact that the available opportunities have mainly benefited a few, remains a concern for the NDT. “The NDT remains concerned about the widening of inequality in Namibia. We remain concerned that our interventions at a macro level do not seem to be winning the battle aimed at reducing income inequalities,” he said. During the anniversary celebrations a candle was lit for founding members, who have since passed, including Peter Iilonga, John Pandeni, Anton Lubowski, Bishop Bonifatius Hausiku, Bishop James Hamupanda Kauluma, Bishop James Prinz and Reverend Bartholomeus Gerhardt Karuaera. JEMIMA BEUKES

A torchbearer for social justice

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Namibian Sun 2026-10-07

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A torchbearer for social justice

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Namibian Sun 2026-10-07

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