Stakeholders & Partners

Stakeholders & Partners

The NACOMA Project has a very diverse stakeholder base inclusive of line ministries (LMs), Regional Councils (RCs), Local Authorities (LAs), civil society, sectoral stakeholders (e.g. aquaculture, tourism, mining, etc) and support organisations (i.e. academic institutions and donor projects). A Participation and Communication Plan (PCP) was developed during project preparation and a Communication and Awareness Strategy (CAS) and Action Plan has been developed to engage the above stakeholders through activities, methods and tools for communication and participation.

The UNDP/GEF BCLME Programme, which started in 2002, is a joint initiative by the governments of Angola, Namibia and South Africa to manage and utilize the resources of the Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem in a sustainable and integrated manner. It aims at coordinating actions in the participating countries to ensure that the entire marine ecosystem is managed as a whole across the national boundaries.

The linkage to the BCLME and BENEFIT Programmes is one of the key partnerships for the NACOMA Project.

Main actions are to:

NACOMA contributes to specific issues that are being addressed by the BCLME Programme that are of specific importance to Namibia. These include effects of mining activities on marine and coastal ecosystems and coastal zone management issues, especially on high – low water mark transect. Remedial regional actions recommended by the BCLME Programme, can be integrated into the NACOMA Project for Namibia.

For more information about the BCLME programme, refer to its website: http://www.bclme.org

BENEFIT, which began in 1999, is a 10 year SADC marine research science and training programme, involving the three member states of Angola, Namibia (NatMIRC) and South Africa, aiming at promoting the optimal and sustainable utilization of the Benguela ecosystem's living resource. The intention of the programme is to contribute to more effective management of the Benguela's resources, promote job creation and contribute towards food security of the region.

The activities include research of the understanding of the fluctuation in the marine living resources and which environmental factors influence these fluctuations, developing human capacity and infrastructure for marine science and technology, and providing system-wide data and information for management. Some activities of BENEFIT will have a direct bearing on NACOMA, such as the harmonization of policies (e.g. related to mining leases), biodiversity status (e.g. providing information on potential sites for MPA) and sensitivity mapping of the whole coast.

Being a research-orientated program, BENEFIT is expected to compliment greatly the NACOMA Project in carrying out or coordinating specific research based requirements on the marine environment of the coastal zone. Specific areas of identified linkages between the two initiatives relate to islands (and potential sites for MPAs), estuaries on Kunene river mouth and high – low water mark transect. It has been agreed that BENEFIT will host the Scientific Group on ICZM, as well as provide necessary capacity, training, on-job training and technical expertise to the development (and potentially future environmental) planners in regional councils and line ministries.

For more information about the BENEFIT programme, refer to its website: http://www.benefit.org.na

The UNDP/GEF SPAN project aims to strengthen Namibia's main protected areas, focusing on effective management of the national Protected Area (PA) network and concentrating on terrestrial ecosystems.

During Phase 1, the SPAN Project will focus on:

The second phase would further consolidate and expand the Protected Area (PA) network.

The NACOMA Project will support coastal ecosystems of biodiversity importance (e.g. Namib-Naukluft, Sperrgebiet and Skeleton and new MPA sites), which is complementing the PA Project’s support for park management plans. The NACOMA Project will further support capacity building, in particular for RCs, LAs and line ministries for integrated coastal management planning and participatory approaches for mainstreaming and involvement of sector stakeholder and local communities. Close coordination and collaboration between NACOMA and the SPAN Project started during NACOMA's preparation phase and will continue through participation of SPAN representatives in the SC, specific workshops, sharing of progress reports and coordination of activities related to management plans, sustainable financing, legal framework, training, knowledge management and establishment of park management monitoring database.

For more information about the SPAN project, refer to its website: http://www.span.org.na

The regional pilot initiative “Distance Learning Information Sharing Tool” (DLIST), funded by World Bank/GEF, was highly successful in enhancing knowledge about environmental issues under the International Waters Focal Area. DLIST Benguela is a distance learning and information-sharing tool dedicated to coastal players in Angola, Namibia and South Africa.

Linkages to the NACOMA Project are multi-fold: NACOMA will rely heavily on communication and information sharing mechanisms in developing a coastal policy for Namibia, and DLIST is ideally positioned to fulfill this role.

DLIST also provides an interface between various programs which are targeting the coastal areas and will, thereby, form useful links between coastal communities and programs that focus on biodiversity conservation such as NACOMA.

DLIST will further make an important contribution to capacity building and institutional strengthening - one of the objectives of NACOMA - by providing training to NACOMA players. In fact, regional planners have been enthusiastic participants in the DLIST pilot, both in the distance learning component and the discussion forums.

For more information about DLIST, refer to its website: http://www.dlist-benguela.org

The sub-regional CI/CEPF SKEP Programme has agreed to second SKEP Namibia to the non-governmental Namibian Nature Foundation (NNF) to host and administer the programme and a Small Grants Funds for 200-2007. The Namibian Sperrgebiet has been identified as one of the five SKEP sub-regional priority areas.

Planned activities include:

Linkages to the NACOMA Project: Based on the inclusion of the coastal part of the Sperrgebiet, the ICZMC will include a SKEP representative to ensure complementarity of approaches, in particular for the implementation of management plans.

For more information about the SKEP programme, refer to its website:
- Namibia website: http://www.nnf.org.na/SKEP/skepindex.htm
- Main project website: http://www.skep.org

The French Support to the Decentralisation Process (2004 – 2008) aims to strengthen development planning capacities for Regional Councils and line ministries, and put in place operational systems, methods and tools to support development plan processes and guarantee implication of all stakeholders. This four years programme is hosted by the Directorate of Decentralisation Coordination in the Ministry of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development (MRLGHRD), under the authority of the Director of Decentralization.

Its three components deal with development planning capacities, methods and tools at national and regional level; elaboration, implementation and follow-up of RDPs; elaboration and implementation of communication and development plan IT tools; and creation and assessment of systems to develop democracy and participation from grass-root level to regional level.

Collaborations between NACOMA project and the FrSNDP project are looked for on various topics at regional level especially technical support to be delivered to Regional Councils regarding planning, projects cycle management and public participation approaches and mechanisms (Training/workshops/mentoring, etc). Within the framework of this collaboration, a Junior Technical Assistant (JTA) was recruited to provide technical support to the NACOMA PCO. The overall expected role of the JTA is to assist the four coastal Regional Councils (Kunene, Erongo, Hardap and Karas) and Local Authorities through the NACOMA project to fully support integration and mainstreaming of biodiversity management aspects into regional and local policies and planning mechanism and frameworks.

For more information about the decentralisation process, refer to its website: http://www.decentralisation.gov.na

The World Bank/GEF ICEMA, launched in November 2004, aims to scale-up community-based ecosystem management on communal conservancies’ lands in Namibia for the benefit of rural people, and sustainable use of natural resources. The five-year Project will fund ecosystem-based income generating activities in selected conservancies, enhance biodiversity and ecosystem processes that support sustainable benefits to local communities, and provide targeted support to the MET for the implementation of the National CBNRM program and policies over the long term.

The NACOMA Project will add to ICEMA's activities by providing additional capacity to the MET for biodiversity conservation and sustainable use, including mainstreaming and delegation of coastal biodiversity management into development planning and management. Additionally, as some of the targeted conservancies are in the jurisdiction area of coastal RCs but well in land, capacity built and awareness raised in the regional and local levels under NACOMA will also contribute to the successful implementation of ICEMA in these conservancies. Both projects support the same strategic approach to ecosystem management of empowerment of sub-national entities for ecosystem management and BD conservation.