Namibia 2016 COAR

UNICEF Annual Report 2016
Namibia
Executive Summary
Namibia’s political environment remained stable in 2016. The country had achieved upper-
middle-income status in 2009 but, sharp inequalities remain, as evidenced in access to basic
services, especially for poor, rural and remote areas.
Namibia has experienced drought for the past four years, which affected food security for
over a quarter of the population, and in June 2016 a state of emergency was declared. The
stunting rate (24 per cent of children under five years), remains high for a middle-income
country. Despite this, expanded child welfare grants and food relief distribution have
mitigated the impact of drought. Poverty declined from 28.7 per cent in 2009/10 to 18 per
cent in 2016, according to the national household and income expenditure survey. The Gini
coefficient declined, from 59.7 in 2009/10 to 57.2 in 2016, making Namibia one of the few
countries in the world with decreasing income inequality.
Namibia has one of the highest HIV rates in the world, and over 60 per cent of the response
is Government-funded. The roll-out of Option B+ for prevention of mother-to-child
transmission (PMTCT) significantly increased access by HIV-positive pregnant women to
anti-retroviral therapy (ART) during antenatal care (95 per cent) and access by HIV-exposed
infants to anti-retroviral medications (ARVs) (93 per cent). However, the large infant HIV
caseload means that Namibia has not yet eliminated MTCT.
The introduction of universal secondary education in 2016, following universal primary

education in 2013, improved school access. Nevertheless, the 2016 report on out-of-school
children (OOSC) found that one in five children of school-going age is not in school (120,267
children) and another 15 per cent are at risk of dropping out. Education quality and
investment in ECD remain the main priorities for improving outcomes for children.
The mid-term review (MTR) of the 2014-18 programme of cooperation validated the strategy
mix of legislative and policy-level work, strengthening capacity to deliver services and
monitoring, evaluation and reporting. Within this framework, 2017-18 should emphasize
systems-strengthening for accelerated implementation of laws and policies, introducing
innovations to support he sub-national response and real-time data collection. UNICEF
Namibia should use the opportunity of the fifth national development plan 2017-2022 (NDP5)
and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to advocate for the realization of children’s
rights. The MTR laid the foundation for adopting a new programme structure for 2019-2023,
based on two focus areas: early years and adolescence.
Key results for 2016 reflect work in several areas. UNICEF conducted advocacy sessions
with policy-makers, supported national consultations and drafting of the revised Education
bill, which provides a firm legal foundation for universal primary and secondary education,
free pre-primary education, mother tongue education, ECD and safe and secure learning
and teaching environments.
Bottleneck analyses supported by UNICEF in the areas of PMTCT, early new-born care and
adolescent HIV services generated better understanding of how to ensure change ‘on the
ground’ for children. This was augmented by significant use of procurement services
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(US$2.5 million in 2016) with up to 60 per cent costs savings.
Awareness of new online threats to children was increased through the dissemination of
UNICEF-funded research and drafting new cybercrime legislation. These steps were backed
up by ensuring that service providers (as well as children and their caregivers) acquire the
skills to prevent and respond to abuse initiated online.
UNICEF’s joint nutrition programme for the Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland and
South Africa (BNLSS) grouping of countries promoted mutually beneficial South-South
learning and exchange on policies, research and coordination mechanisms and funding for
surge capacity for the El Niño response.
Shortfalls included delays in regulations for enforcement of the Child Care and Protection
Act (2015). Community-led total sanitation (CLTS) generated few results after two years of
implementation. However, additional technical support accelerated progress in 2016, backed
up by additional funding received late in the year to support systems strengthening for CLTS
scale-up in four regions and integration with school sanitation.
Resource mobilization efforts resulted in US$4.8 million in new grants in 2016. The areas of
humanitarian response and social inclusion – including support for strengthening national
statistical systems and multiple indicator cluster surveys (MICS) – remain critically unfunded.
Partnerships were vital, and the Government’s focus on poverty eradication provided a
valuable opportunity to focus on equity, social protection and child poverty. The UN Country
Team (UNCT) enjoyed practical, programmatic collaboration in many areas including
nutrition, health, gender, HIV and education. Relations with new private sector partners and
newly elected parliamentarians were reinforced using child rights advocates and UNICEF
Goodwill Ambassadors to address malnutrition and ECD.
Humanitarian Assistance
Namibia has experienced a persistent drought for the past four years, causing farmers to
destock and affecting over one-quarter of the population, who have limited food security. In
June 2016, a state of emergency was declared due to the ongoing drought, and Namibia
participated in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) appeal process for
Southern Africa. According to the most recent vulnerability assessment (2016/17), an
estimated 729,314 people (including 211,220 children) face a livelihood deficit and need
support with recovery interventions such as seeds, tools, ploughing costs, livestock feed and
rehabilitation of livestock water sources.
The 2015/16 rainfall season was characterized by poor and erratic rainfall and prolonged dry
spells spanning from mid-January to end-February 2016. The onset of the rains was delayed
with little to no rainfall being received in October and November 2015, leading to delayed
sowing. The three main reservoirs supplying the bulk of water for Windhoek were at 10.2 per
cent of full capacity as of July 2016 – down from dam levels of 25.2 per cent a year earlier.
Reservoirs are expected to run dry by the end of the year if no inflows are received. The
likelihood of a La Niña event in late 2016 and early 2017 increased the threat of water-borne
diseases such as diarrhoea, cholera and skin infections, requiring additional surveillance.
The stunting rate of 24 per cent among children under five years was high for a middle-
income country. Additional cases of moderate malnutrition and increasingly poor food
consumption scores indicated a worsening of food and nutrition insecurity in Namibia.
With support from the UN system in Namibia, the Government of the Republic of Namibia
(GRN) received support to strengthen its national disaster risk-reduction systems by
conducting a skills audit of the different disaster reduction institutions through an interagency
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capacity for disaster reduction initiative (CADRI) assessment. The recommendations of this
assessment were submitted to the Cabinet for review. Expertise sourced by the UN Office
for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs was seconded to the Directorate of Disaster
Risk Reduction to provide on-the-job training to strengthen planning and coordination and to
support routine production of situation updates. UNICEF supported the design of data
collection to ensure a focus on nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and links to
child protection systems.
In response to recurrent drought and floods in recent years, UNICEF Namibia supported the
GRN to integrate core commitments for children into planning and assessments, with a focus
on the inclusion of nutrition, water and sanitation into a response that was otherwise
primarily related to food and water. In 2016, nutrition, water and sanitation indicators were
included in biannual food security and nutrition assessments (March and October), through
UNICEF technical support.
An assessment of the impact of the drought on access to HIV-related services for

adolescents was integrated into the bottleneck analysis in six regions through the ‘All In’
initiative. The causality analysis revealed that one of the consequences of the drought was
lower income levels, resulting food shortages. As a result, some people including
adolescents receiving HIV treatment, skipped medication whenever they had missed a meal,
as they were required to take the medicine after meals. The assessment further reported
that loss of income had in some cases resulted in lack of transport to health facilities to
collect their medicines. For some this was a short- term disruption, for others a long-term
discontinuation of treatment. This analysis has been shared with programme partners to
identify mitigation measures to sustain treatment adherence.
While no emergency funds were received against the joint Southern Africa El Niño
humanitarian action for children appeal, a grant from the United Stated Agency for
International Development (USAID) will fund a response to meet the water and sanitation
needs of children in seven of the most affected regions in 2017. No formal cross-border
collaboration was required in 2016. UNICEF Namibia remains compliant with corporate
preparedness benchmarks, with an update of the Early Warning/ Early Action site completed
during the year. In addition, the UNCT adopted a strategy on disaster risk management in
2016.
Emerging Areas of Importance

Integrated early childhood development (ECD). The need for continuous investment in
and prioritisation of access to integrated early childhood development is essential. Part of
the challenge of teaching basic skills to all of Namibia’s children is to acknowledge the
importance of the foundations laid before a child enters Grade 1. There has been an
increasing emphasis on integrated early childhood development (IECD) in recent decades,
as it has become clearer how health, family and care factors impact a child’s ability to
acquire basic skills once at school. Whilst those working in the education and training sector
may not work directly with very young children, at the very least they need to understand and
promote comprehensive IECD practices. In Namibia, the shifting of several ECD
responsibilities from the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare (MGECW) to the
Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture (MoEAC) by the 4th national development plan may
have been premature, negating the vital responsibilities and contributions of other ministries
(MGECW, Ministry of Health and Social Services (MoHSS) and the Ministry of Home Affairs
and Immigration (MHAI) – can play in creating an enabling environment for optimal IECD
service delivery. Thus a comprehensive national framework for accelerating a cross-sectoral
response on IECD is imperative.
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The second decade. UNICEF Namibia adopted an office-wide strategy to mainstream
adolescence in each programme area. This step was further reinforced by the MTR
conclusions, calling for emphasizing both ECD and adolescence in the overall programme
strategy and results. In 2016,significant results were achieved in ensuring greater access by
adolescents to HIV services through bottleneck analysis and action planning in seven priority
districts, and through inclusion of an adolescent focus in the national strategic framework
and revised ART guidelines.
The Office mobilized additional partners during the year under the theme of ‘making a
Namibia Fit for Children’. Special focus was on engaging private sector partners and
collaborating on the sub-regional BNLSS partner engagement strategy. Parliamentarians,
child rights champions and Goodwill Ambassadors were also engaged to provide targeted
advocacy on issues of HIV, malnutrition, ECD and girl’s education.
Summary Notes and Acronyms

ACRCW African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child
ALHIV Adolescents living with HIV
ART Anti-retroviral therapy
ARVs Anti-retroviral medications
BNLSS Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland and South Africa
C4D Communication for development
CADRI Capacity for disaster reduction initiative
CLTS Community-led total sanitation
CMT Country management team
CP Country programme
CRC Convention on the Rights of the Child
CSO(s) Civil society organizations(s)
DCT Direct cash transfer
ECD Early childhood development
EMIS Education management information system
ESARO Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office
GBV Gender-based violence
GiZ German Development Cooperation Agency
GRN Government of the Republic of Namibia
GSSC Global shared service centre
HACT Harmonized approach to cash transfers
HEW(s) Health extension worker(s)
HIV Human immunodeficiency virus
ICT Information and communication technology
IECD Integrated early childhood development
IMEP Integrated monitoring and evaluation plan
IOM International Organization for Migration
LTA Long-term agreement
MAWF Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry
MGECW Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare
MHAI Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration
MoEAC Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture
MoHSS Ministry of Health and Social Services
MoPESW Ministry of Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare
MTR Mid-term review
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MoU Memorandum of understanding
NAFIN Namibian Alliance for Improved Nutrition
NDHS Namibia demographic and health survey
NDP5 Namibia’s fifth national development plan
NETI New and emerging talent initiative
NPC National Planning Commission
NSA Namibia Statistics Agency
NUST Namibia University of Science and Technology
OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
OOSC Out-of-school children
PMTCT Prevention of mother-to-child transmission (of HIV)
SADC Southern African Development Community
SDGs Sustainable Development Goals
SASG Social accountability and school governance
SOPs Standard operating procedures
SOWC State of the World’s Children report
SRH Sexual and reproductive health
UN United Nations
UNCT United Nations country team
UNDP United Nations Development Programme
UNFPA United Nations Population Fund
UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund
USAID United Stated Agency for International Development
US$ United States dollar
VAC Violence against children
WASH Water, sanitation and hygiene
WHO World Health Organization
Capacity Development
Capacity development is a core strategy for UNICEF in a middle-income country such as
Namibia. UNICEF support in the current programme of cooperation leverages Government
resources and capacities to deliver services in a more effective and efficient manner.
Current examples of this include training for 45 national and regional criminal justice officials
and social workers to improve handling of child sexual offence cases (including 25 master
trainers), followed by training for 28 social workers and prosecutors on the use of specialized
tools (such as anatomically correct dolls). These skills and tools equipped staff to increase
success rates when prosecuting child sexual offences, and to reduce secondary
victimization of children. Child online safety was also integrated into the training for ‘Life Line’
phone counsellors and community liaison officers.
UNICEF trained 60 national and regional staff from four ministries CLTS, who will supervise
a pilot to be conducted in two regions to inform national scale-up. This resulted in the
creation of demand by communities for improved sanitation and a greater sense of
ownership and empowerment to manage their own sanitation.
UNICEF Namibia provided technical support to improve the quality of the education
management information system (EMIS). A joint permanent steering committee comprised of
Government ministries, the National Statistics Agency (NSA), UNICEF and implementing
partners, guided the in-house training of 50 education planners at both national and sub-
national levels in September 2016 to enable better use of the data for planning in 2017.
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The ‘End Adolescents AIDS’ process, based on the All In initiative, enabled Government and
stakeholders to acquire skills in evidence-based programming in multiple areas. Seven high-
burden regions developed plans for data analysis and service delivery for adolescents with
HIV.
UNICEF also participated in the inter-agency capacity assessment mission for disaster risk
reduction (see Humanitarian Assistance).
Evidence Generation, Policy Dialogue and Advocacy

UNICEF Namibia commissioned research studies relevant to partner needs and priorities to
document best practices, improve decision-making and inform policies. The studies
included: The MoEAC review of the 2001 Education Act and development of a (draft)
Education Bill of 2016 was informed by an “Education Issues Paper” and a national survey
completed by over 11,000 stakeholders. The study on out of school children and school
drop-out generated evidence to support advocacy through the OOSC conference and print
and electronic media for further action to keep children in school.
UNICEF Namibia supported the development and digitalization of the EMIS, which enables
education planners to develop plans responsive to the needs of children in their given
context. 2016 was the first year that this data was published in the same year it was
collected, making it more useful for planning. A major success, with technical support from
UNICEF Namibia, was the formation of a team of education analysts tasked with analysing
all research studies in the sector and ensuring that recommendations from such studies is
streamlined and implemented by the Ministry. This practice is now being promoted in other
sectors. The baseline study on child online protection was disseminated through a
conference and through electronic and print media. It then directly informed the drafting of
the electronic and cybercrime bill, as well as training of social workers and counsellors to
manage cases of online vulnerability or child sexual abuse.
In terms of evidence building, UNICEF Namibia supported public expenditure analysis in

health, education, social welfare and social assistance and developed budget briefs that will
provide tools for advocacy in the budget development process.
Partnerships
To advance the rights of children in business and enhance programme delivery, memoranda
of understanding (MOUs) were developed with two local private companies: Engen Namibia
(a petroleum company) and the parastatal Motor Vehicle Accident Fund (MVA). The main
aim of the partnership with Engen was to promote and support the rights of children to
access basic services and to protect them in the company’s value chain. In relation to MVA,
the objectives were to assess and influence pedestrian behavioural factors as a cause of
road traffic accidents and raise awareness of safety for road users, particularly children,
through the Rapid Pro application.
To influence and bring positive change through direct youth participation, UNICEF Namibia
also initiated a partnership with the Scouts to use U-Report in 2017 for collecting real-time
data for programming area of adolescents and HIV, as well as violence against children
(VAC). Namibia’s global engagement in SUN was shaped by convening a multi-sectoral
platform through the Namibian Alliance for Improved Nutrition (NAFIN) to accelerate action
to reduce stunting and improve nutrition. During 2016 the engagement led to a partnership
with the Graça Machel Trust and a visit by the global child rights advocate to the country,
together with UNICEF’s Eastern and Southern Africa regional director to boost efforts
through joint advocacy to reduce stunting in Namibia. The visit resulted in political
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commitments made by the Prime Minister and other strategic partners to accelerate efforts
to scale up nutrition and reduce stunting in the country. A partnership with UNICEF’s
Goodwill Ambassador was instrumental in raising awareness on children living with
disabilities and overall children’s rights in Namibia. This partnership resulted in the co-
production of a song with Namibian children and local artists on UNICEF@70 celebrations.
The song will be launched in Namibia in 2017.
External Communication and Public Advocacy

UNICEF Namibia implemented strategic communication and advocacy initiatives with
partners, including children, to raise awareness on children’s rights, particularly the most
disadvantaged. National events such as the Day of the African Child, Day of the Namibian
Child and the World Breastfeeding Week were used to advocate for children’s rights. This
included an awareness-raising and fundraising initiative for children living with disabilities
through UNICEF’s Regional Goodwill Ambassador.
As part of global visibility for UNICEF@70, a video was produced with UNICEF Geneva to
highlight ‘Hope for Children’, spotlighting the positive impact of PMTCT programming in
Namibia, prompting 40,000 views in the first week. Another video, on equity, was produced
for the State of the World’s Children (SOWC) report, highlighting the challenges faced by
Namibia’s most hard-to-reach children. These efforts resulted in public dialogue on child
rights and what needs to be done to accelerate action.
Two parliamentary briefing sessions were held on the revised Education Bill, which resulted
in a motion to prioritize parliamentary discussions on the Bill in early 2017. In addition, the
process enabled both houses of Parliament to become better informed and more committed
to prioritizing children’s rights through timely law reforms and accountability for
implementation of such laws.
A visit by the UNICEF National Committee from Canada led to increased interest in nutrition
and hygiene promotion and mobilized funding from Canada, while the Swedish National
Committee country visit resulted in additional funding for adolescents living with HIV.
To optimize UNICEF's leadership as the voice for children, newspaper inserts and OpEd
pieces focusing on education, nutrition and child online protection were developed and
shared with the media. These opinion pieces resulted in a request for quarterly briefings by
the Prime Minister on key issues affecting children in Namibia.
South-South Cooperation and Triangular Cooperation

UNICEF supported the Government of Namibia counterparts to engage in South-South
cooperation on specific technical topics and through sub-regional exchanges or meetings.
Examples include the 31st Session of the African, Caribbean and Pacific European Union
Joint Parliamentary Assembly hosted in Namibia in June, at which UNICEF supported field
visits for visiting parliamentarians. Another example was presentations made by UNICEF
staff to a regional Commonwealth Secretariat meeting on cyber-crime (November 2016,
Windhoek) – focusing on the need for legislation to protect children from online sexual
exploitation and abuse and presenting the results of research conducted in Namibia on the
information communication technology (ICT) practices and exposure of Namibian children.
UNICEF also supported Namibian counterparts to visit other countries and attend network
meetings; e.g., on health financing options, leading to exploration of new forms of resource
mobilization for Namibia’s health budget.
Scaling-Up Nutrition continues to be a flagship forum for sharing the Namibian experience
and learning from other countries, e.g., on the nutrition response to El Niño. The former
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prime minister of Namibia continued to serve as part of the lead group to motivate other
countries to join SUN movement and advocate for greater global attention to the harmful
consequences of malnutrition. As a result, neighbouring Botswana also accelerated actions
to address malnutrition. This cooperation was supported through the BNLSS joint
programme on nutrition. The same programme supported surge capacity for nutrition as part
of Lesotho’s’ drought and El Niño response.
UNICEF, as acting chair of the UNCT programme development team, also engaged closely
with visits by UN coordination specialists from Tanzania and Lesotho to exchange
experiences and adopt more robust planning and review tools for the UN partnership
framework, following the MTR earlier in the year.
Identification and Promotion of Innovation

The Office formed an intra-office task team to identify and promote innovation opportunities
in programming, including greater use of technology for development.
UNICEF Namibia received funding from the UNICEF Innovation Fund in 2016 for next year.
The funds will be used to improve access to quality education with two technological tools:
an eLearning portal and a mobile app. The eLearning portal “Do Like Edu” will support
learner performance in key subject areas. The “Talk to Edu” mobile app will provide learners
with psycho-social support and career guidance.
These actions will form the technology-for-development component of Namibia’s social

accountability and school governance (SASG) programme, which increases community
involvement in education. The project was built taking into consideration all aspects of the
existing ecosystem. Learners will be encouraged by schools and communities to access the
tools. Both technologies will be tested during a pilot phase to ensure usefulness and that
they do no harm. User involvement will take place with peer2peer modelling, to ensure
sustainability. Feedback will be monitored through performance indicators to ensure a data-
driven design process and measurability.
With support from UNICEF’s Canadian national committee, the Office is also working within
the Government’s e-governance framework to support integration and inter-operability
between the civil registration and vital statistics systems of the MOHAI (particularly regarding
birth certification) and routine administrative data of the MOHSS, to link birth registration and
the medical history of each child, for more effective service delivery.
Support to Integration and Cross-Sectoral Linkages

UNICEF Namibia invested in reducing the coordination barriers among sectors, and created
platforms for cross-sectoral engagement on systems strengthening, policy development and
implementation.
For example, education, child protection and law enforcement stakeholders are now
members of the national safe schools committee, which is developing a framework to protect
the overall safety of children in and around schools. Coordination was formalised in an MOU,
in view of the planned development of a policy and roll-out of the school health curriculum in
schools across the country in 2017.
Children’s emerging vulnerability to online sexual abuse and exploitation was addressed in a
newly created national task force on child online protection that brings together line several
ministries (education, child protection, law enforcement, justice, ICT), as well as the private
sector, civil society organizations (CSOs) and academics. The task force created platforms
for learning and sharing experiences and organized a ‘National Child Online Protection’
conference, where international experts in the field engaged with professionals from Namibia
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to develop a national response framework to tackle online sexual exploitation of children.
To address low rates of timely (under one year) birth registration, which have stagnated at
around 40 per cent in recent years, UNICEF Namibia facilitated the creation of a high level
technical working group under the leadership of the Office of the Prime Minister, which
brings together health, civil registration, ICT and law enforcement sectors to map and
develop a more effective birth and death notification and registration system. The work will
guide the development of a new e-birth and death notification system, connecting
automatically with the digital national population registry system. UNICEF Namibia also
continued to invest in IECD, through high-level advocacy and engagement with responsible
line ministries, spearheaded by Graça Machel and the UNICEF regional director.
Service Delivery
Service delivery remains the primary responsibility of Government. To strengthen
accountability, UNICEF Namibia supported a public expenditure review for the education
sector, consulting with over 100 education planners, schools principals, regional directors
and human resource officers at the ministries of education and finance. The review
documented the flow of financial resources from the national to regional and school levels,
teacher provisions, funding to private schools, hostel provisioning for learners from remote
areas and how the allocation of resources benefits individual children in the classroom. The
review process will be completed in early 2017.
The SASG programme asserts that the generation and dissemination of information leads to
voice, participation and choice about schooling, rights and responsibilities, with improved
inputs, outputs, and outcomes across the school and community at large. Apart from
improving the use of school-level data for planning and target setting, the decentralization of
school-level decision-making to school-level agents (mainly school boards) leads to greater
participation, parent input, and more transparent and equitable use of resources. As part of
the programme, 1,108 school board members were trained on how to use the social
accountability tools and model systems to monitor school performance. A school board
training manual was developed and used to train school boards on their role and
responsibilities. In addition, 648 school staff were trained to promote WASH in schools, to
complement the 280 toilets constructed in CLTS villages.
Government use of UNICEF procurement services increased significantly in 2016. The

Government ordered some US$2.5 million worth of vaccines and medical supplies with
savings of up to 60 per cent on some items, allowing the budget to be more efficient with
respect to procurement.
Human Rights-Based Approach to Cooperation

UNICEF Namibia continued to invest in normative work to strengthen and report against
human rights frameworks that protect the rights of children.
Technical assistance was provided to ensure the consistency with international law and
standards of draft legislation, such as Education Bill, Child Justice Bill, Trafficking in Persons
Bill, Electronic Transactions and Cybercrime Bill and the Regulations of the Child Care and
Protection Act (2015). Legal briefs were developed to support the process and advocacy
tools for parliamentarians were developed, based on the concluding observations for
Namibia by the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC Committee) and the African
Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.
UNICEF Namibia participated actively in the development of the NDP5 (2017/18-2021/22).

Working closely with line ministries and other UN agencies, contributions were made to the
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chapters on education, health, youth engagement, nutrition, monitoring and evaluation,
poverty eradication and rule of law, to ensure that child rights are strategically reflected in
the plan and that a monitoring and evaluation mechanism to assess their realisation is in
place.
The national agenda for children (2011-2016) is under review, as the basis for development
of a new agenda that sets realistic goals for the next four years for all sectors involved in
child wellbeing and serves as an advocacy tool for the ministries mandated to protect child
rights.
Namibia’s next state party report to the CRC Committee is due in 2017. Already in 2016, the
Government began preparations; UNICEF Namibia will support line ministries in the drafting
process.
To integrate the human rights frameworks into programming, the UN-supported end term
review of the national strategic framework on HIV contained a chapter on human rights and
HIV, and the PMTCT evaluation also included a chapter on children’s rights.
Gender Equality
The gender programmatic review, as part of the UNICEF Namibia midterm review,
reinforced the alignment of gender programming with the gender action plan, strengthened
knowledge and skills by all staff members in gender mainstreaming and established a task
force of gender focal points.
The ‘Galz and Goals’ sports programme, carried out in partnership with the Namibia Football
Association in 10 regions, empowered 3,200 adolescent girls to address adolescent
pregnancy and HIV/AIDS, due to the integration of life skills and key messages into girls’
football coaching. The 150 coaches (73 female) acquired new knowledge and skills in
sport2life coaching and instilling healthy lifestyle behaviours amongst the adolescent girls.
UNICEF and UNAIDS supported a Government evaluation of the PMTCT programme, which
documented progress in PMTCT coverage from 70 per cent (2011) to 98 per cent (2016)
and low mother-to-child transmission rates of HIV (below 4 per cent). The evaluation
identified gaps in control of new infections amongst women of reproductive age, in the
retention of baby-mother pairs in care and in ART adherence.
Gender was mainstreamed in WASH through a partnership with Society for Family Health,
providing training on puberty education and menstrual hygiene management to 1,039
educators; 43 schools began to make sanitary pads and toilet paper available. Child
protection outcomes included institutional strengthening of child online sexual exploitation
and of quality of care and referral mechanisms for gender-based violence (GBV) protection
units and safe shelters, in collaboration with the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and
International Organization on Migration (IOM).
Through the UN theme group on gender, UNICEF Namibia provided technical support for
national clusters on gender and HIV; gender, education and girl; and GBV, advancing girls
rights. This resulted into improved coordination of efforts, reduced duplication and the
identification of four key priority areas of joint support: GBV, gender-responsive budgeting,
cluster coordination and human trafficking
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Environmental Sustainability
Analysis of the impact of and response to drought in 2015/2016 highlighted the impact of
climate change on children. With the increasing frequency of droughts (and floods) in
Namibia – some parts of the country have experienced four successive years of drought –
the impact on children in 2016 focused on nutrition and access to water and sanitation as the
most urgent impacts of climate change to be addressed. The Government response has
been primarily on relief, but the 2016 assessment by the UN CADRI team highlighted the
need to focus on resilience-building in the future to mitigate the impact of climate change.
Cabinet is currently considering the recommendations.
The MTR of the current programme of cooperation highlighted the need for the remainder of
the programme to document the impact of climate change as an emerging issue. The
expansion of WASH programming in eight drought-affected regions in 2017 will promote
resilience to future climate-related shocks. Ongoing and future studies on environmental-
related issues will guide the elaboration of the next programme of cooperation 2019-2023.
UNICEF Namibia’s second environmental footprint analysis was undertaken in 2016 and
additional measures to ‘green the office’ were identified by the UNCT for implementation in
2017. This initiative was led by UNICEF, as the chair of the operations management team,
with key support from the UN Development Programme (UNDP).
UNICEF Namibia produced briefs on climate change and HIV, with a focus on adolescents
living with HIV, using the data gathered through the “All In!” assessment of bottlenecks
preventing adolescents from accessing HIV services. The analysis was adapted to include
explicit instructions to explore the impact of the current drought on access to services.
Effective Leadership
The country management team (CMT) met monthly reviewing progress in relation to the
annual management plan and Office priorities for 2016. Both the implemented and closed
audit recommendations were reviewed and a continuous effort was made to sustain all
recommendations from the 2015 internal audit. Management indicators for both programme
and operations were reviewed monthly, using the regional dashboard and new scorecard,
focusing on those indicators that were not met and recommending corrective measures. A
table of action points detailing the actions, responsible staff and agreed timelines was
maintained monthly by the country management team for follow up. The team is reviewing
the ‘Eight opportunities for streamlining office management’ document; recommendations
will be included in the 2017 annual management plan.
The joint consultative committee met four times during the year to address issues of concern
raised by management and/or staff, as well as to oversee implementation of the global staff
survey action plan.
Leave plans were updated and reviewed quarterly to ensure business continuity and to
minimize role conflicts in VISION in the context of a small/medium-size UNICEF office. Staff
attended the Skype trainings for Global Shared Services Centre (GSSC) local focal points,
releasers and alternates to ensure a smooth transition and standard operating procedures
(SOPs) for the GSSC library were also revised.
UNICEF Namibia met the minimum HACT requirements in 2016 for programmatic visits and
spot-checks, having conducted 20 programmatic visits and four spot-checks. A long-term
agreement (LTA) managed by UNICEF, will be used by the UN business operations strategy
to ensure a reduction in cost and an increase in quality of micro-assessments by all
participating agencies.
11
At the mid-year and annual review meetings the Office’s risk control self-assessment profile
was updated to mitigate residual risks identified.
Financial Resources Management

Funds were used in a timely manner, with 100 per cent utilization of regular resources and
the support budget by end-December, and unutilized balances for other resources re-phased
to 2017. Budgets were reviewed monthly and deviations from work plans, shortfalls and
anomalies were carefully analysed. Discussions with colleagues at the UNICEF Regional
Office and GSSC occurred regularly to identify areas of concern and clarify matters not
discussed during training sessions, especially role clarification and SOPs. The
recommendation to establish the BNLSS Operations Hub in July 2017 enabled sound
discussions and consensus-building at the country level, including discussion of the three-
way split of roles between UNICEF Offices, the Hub and the GSSC.
Bank reconciliations, including manual clearing, are performed by the GSSC; however, the
Office still sends the necessary documents, such as bank statements, to GSSC for
processing. Ongoing discussions between the Office, GSSC and the local bank ensured that
reconciliations took place in a timely manner. Bank reconciliations are still approved by the
Office. Concerns around an increase of turn-around times since transition to GSSC were
documented and reported to senior management and the Regional Office for possible
solutions.
Overall exposure to unliquidated direct cash transfers (DCTs) was reduced, with no
outstanding DCTs over three-months old as of December 2016. The HACT LTA is in place
and has ensured quality micro-assessments. This made it easier to carry out accurate risk
assessments, resulting in good DCT management. The LTA was also extended to other UN
agencies using HACT to improve DCT management.
Fundraising and Donor Relations

Resource mobilization and leveraging remained active, innovative and strategic, given that
Namibia’s small population and middle-income country status makes it a non-priority country
for many donors, most of whom are non-resident. As of December 2016, the country
programme (CP) for 2014-18 was 55 per cent funded.
During 2016, $4.05 million in new ‘other resource’ grants were received, including USAID
funds for WASH response to the drought ($1.4 million), Thematic Funding ($1.5 million), set-
aside ($0.75 million), national committees (Sweden, Germany and Canada), Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Center for Disease Control (CDC) and
the Innovation Fund. Social Inclusion remains acutely un-funded.
Available funds were used promptly and within agreed timeframes. All thematic funds
received prior to 2016 were 79 per cent utilized by end-year (nutrition 100 per cent), with
new tranches received at the end of the year.
The Office developed new partnerships with the private sector (local and sub-regional),
informing them of what their investments in children would yield in terms of both child
development and broader social development. UNICEF Namibia worked with local artists
and with Goodwill Ambassador Yvonne Chaka Chaka to raise awareness on children’s rights
and create fundraising opportunities through song production.
UNICEF Namibia also provided inputs to regional resource mobilization efforts (e.g., the
BNLSS investment cases and private sector engagement strategy). The Office hosted two
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national committee field visits to strengthen advocacy for the continued need in a country
marred by extreme inequalities despite its middle-income status. The Swedish National
Committee developed two films (one in 360o format) on the impact of their support in
Namibia, with a focus on education. An advocacy package was deployed to facilitate
fundraising for 2016 and beyond.
The Office continued to leverage funds from other partners for children, such as European
Union (EU) budget support (especially in education), the new EU/OECD social protection
system building fund and others.
Evaluation and Research

The monitoring and evaluation (M&E) specialist, supported by the research and evaluation
committee, oversaw implementation of the integrated monitoring and evaluation plan (IMEP)
through quarterly meetings. The IMEP was reviewed during the MTR to identify any changes
required due to new opportunities identified with partners or constraints.
Studies, research and evaluation undertaken in 2016 were used to inform any necessary
programme re-design at the MTR. As agreed with the RO, this will make better use of limited
evaluation resources to inform the design of the next programme of cooperation, rather than
an end-cycle evaluation.
Three evaluations were planned: of the SASG programme, the impact of IECD
implementation at selected centres and of the PMTCT programme. The latter was nearly
finalized by late 2016, and the former two evaluations will be finalized in early 2017.
The 2015 sports for development ‘Galz and Goals’ evaluation highlighted the programme’s
continued relevance to the needs of adolescent girls. Major recommendations proposed
were embedded in the new agreement between UNICEF and the Namibia Football
Association.
Technical support was provided to the National Planning Commission, which is seeking to
establish its role in providing an overall evaluation function for Government programmes and
projects. Final comments/inputs were provided regarding the Government integrated
national performance framework, which will be endorsed next year. It is also foreseen that
additional support will be provided to the SDG monitoring framework, also a Government-led
initiative.
Technical support was also provided to the UN programme pillars, through the UN M&E
Group, resulting in a more streamlined monitoring framework for monitoring collective UN
implementation, drawing on experience of the Tanzania and Lesotho Resident Coordinator’s
Offices, which both provided assistance in 2016.
Efficiency Gains and Cost Savings

UNICEF Namibia is reviewing the ‘Eight Opportunities to improve office management’ and
will implement recommendations during 2017, which will result in more efficient use of staff
time and resources to focus on core responsibilities and improving service delivery
standards.
A significant number of video conferencing, telephone conferencing, Skype lectures and

webinars were conducted during 2016, and a new Polycom unit was procured to ensure that
the need for face-to-face meetings was kept to a bare minimum.
UNICEF Namibia worked closely with other UN agencies during recruitment processes, to
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reduce the need for advertising and time required, because of the availability of rosters and
short-lists that were shared among agencies.
By collaborating with other UN agencies on security costs, UNICEF Namibia saved up to

US$25,000 per annum compared to unilaterally procuring such services. The
telecommunications contract was also reduced to a minimum of 64 kbps and local service
providers were contracted, resulting in savings of US$2,500 and an increase in bandwidth
from 5G to 10G.
The Office participated in the environmental footprint assessment project again this year to
identify areas for greater efficiency. The data was used by the energy efficiency project led
by UNDP. A supplier was identified to install solar panels to make the building more energy
efficient and allow UN agencies to store all excess electricity. Energy efficient bulbs and
motion-sensitive lights will also be installed in 2017 to improve efficiency even further.
Supply Management
The supply function at UNICEF Namibia continued to be competently managed in 2016, with
valuable support from the South Africa-based Procurement Centre and UNICEF Copenhagen
Supply Division. The office supply plan and institutional contract plans were finalized by March
2016; 59 per cent of sales orders were raised against the supply plan and 88 per cent of
requisitions raised against the institutional contract plan. Both plans were monitored quarterly
at CMT meetings, and feedback on implementation was given during monthly programme
meetings.
Item Description (US$ value)
Total value of procurement by NCO 364,006.38

Programme supplies 496,653.84
Operational supplies 61,806.62
Services 257,071.07
Procurement Services
Ministry of Health 2,775,895.66
Vitamin A, printing, ICT equipment, stationery, hospital equipment and anatomically correct
dolls for child-friendly courts were the main supplies procured in 2016.
As part of the El Niño drought response, UNICEF Namibia, with assistance from the South
Africa Procurement Centre, procured water tankers and will receive delivery by February
2017.
LTAs were established for design and layout services, custom clearance services,
photography services and HACT to undertake Micro- and macro-assessments. to improve
timeliness and quality of delivery of services.
Assistance received from the South Africa Procurement Centre and Supply Division was
swift and professional and supplies/equipment were received on time.
UNICEF Namibia was also part of the UN Procurement Group to initiate more joint
procurement procedures within the framework of implementing the quadrennial
comprehensive policy review.
UNICEF Namibia assisted the MOHSS, through an MOU on procurement services, to procure
vaccines and therapeutic complex of vitamins and minerals. It is noteworthy that the Ministry
saved domestic resources worth up to 60 per cent of the market price by using UNICEF
procurement services for these vaccines.
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Security for Staff and Premises
Firefighting equipment in the form of fire extinguishers and fire hydrants, were installed and
the maintenance contract in place ensures that the equipment is serviced annually. Smoke
detectors, surveillance cameras and an intercom system were also installed. Visitors are
thoroughly scanned before entering the premises. Codan radios were installed in vehicles for
communication with the base station, and UNICEF drivers were trained in their operation.
Manning of the radio base station posed some challenges, which were discussed by the
operations management team; recommendations for action were submitted to the UNCT for
further assessment and action.
In terms of minimum operating residential security standards, the UN Department of Safety

and Security reviewed staff premises to ensure that standards were met. The Office
supported international and national staff to beef up security at their residences. Security
briefings for new staff and consultants took place at least once a month or as required.
Staff members were also encouraged to ensure that private vehicles have first-aid kits, fire
extinguishers, spare wheel, jack, reflector triangle, and a battery powered lantern for staff
safety. Defensive driving training was conducted for all drivers and first aid kits were re-
equipped.
Drivers continue to go for eye tests every two years, and the 10 principles of driving were
used as guidance to ensure compliance not only with vehicle maintenance but also driver
competence and adherence to local laws.
No specific additional security measures were required to enhance programme delivery in

the field.
All senior management and security focal points completed the online security risk
management training course in 2016.
Human Resources
For UNICEF Namibia, human resources are key for delivering a fit for purpose programme.
Three staff members joined during 2016: one international professional, one national
professional and one general service on temporary appointment (one male, two females).
Five posts could not be filled due to financial constraints; however, mitigation measures were
applied, relying on short-term assistance and/or task-shifting among existing staff.
Performance management is an Office priority, with a 100 per cent completion rate for
performance planning and ongoing discussions between supervisees and supervisors.
Only six of nine planned group trainings took place, due to competing priorities. The
individual training completion rate improved in 2016’ 19 of the 23 planned individual trainings
were completed.
The staff retreat was held in March 2016, and was externally facilitated to review the global
staff survey action plan. All activities in the plan were completed and compliance was
monitored. A refresher on ethics for all staff was facilitated by a consultant made available by
UNICEF Headquarters.
UN Cares completed all planned five major activities and the UNCT continued to be
committed to implementation of 10 minimum standards on HIV in the workplace. A 100 per
cent implementation rate was achieved, but with room for improvement regarding learning
activities on stigma and discrimination as well as to ensure that first-aid using universal
15
precautions is provided to all UN staff. The provision of psycho-social support for all UN staff
was very effective, and staff and their dependents made use of the service.
Regular resource funding was used to partly cover the communication for development
(C4D) specialist and the adolescents & HIV/AIDS specialist’s salaries, due to limited other
resources funding at mid-year; however, funding for 2017 was more secure as of December
2016.
Effective Use of Information and Communication Technology

Effective UNICEF staff require up-to-date information systems for better collaboration and
efficiency. In 2016 UNICEF Namibia embarked on several pathways to upgrade its systems
in line with corporate standards:
UNICEF Namibia migrated its workstations operating systems to Windows 8.1 in preparation
for the move to Windows 10.
The bandwidth demands of corporate systems necessitated that UNICEF Namibia upgrade
its bandwidth capacity from 5Mbps (from two separate internet service providers) to 10Mps.
For the other service provider, bandwidth was downgraded to a mere 64kbps link, due to
cost and latency.
UNICEF Namibia engaged an intern – a student from Namibia University of Science and
Technology (NUST) – to alleviate the load on the management information system’s
assistant. This will allow for better delivery of services and build local capacity.
The UN ICT taskforce met twice this year and agreed to implement an electronic display
system for UN House, to provide information on relevant activities taking place at UN
premises. The proposal was presented to the operations management team and awaiting
direction on the way forward.
The ICT section continued to deliver user and system support services in a timely and
satisfactory manner. This was not limited to desktop support but also orientation on new
systems and providing telecommunications facilities through the use of standard telephony
and Internet telephony using Skype for Business, which reduced calling costs tremendously.
Programme Components from RAM
ANALYSIS BY OUTCOME AND OUTPUT RESULTS
OUTCOME 1 Special Purpose
Analytical Statement of Progress:

The routine security survey was administered by UNDSS at all UN agencies, including
UNICEF, confirming that UNICEF is complying with MOSS in all areas including:
documentation, the warden system, crisis management, senior management team meetings,
security clearances and travel notifications, incident reporting and building an
emergency/evacuation plan.
All four drivers were trained and continue to undergo eye tests every two years. The 10
principles of driving were used as guidance to ensure compliance, not only with vehicle
maintenance, but also of driver competence and adherence to local laws.
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OUTPUT 1 Premises and Security

The UN House perimeter fence was secured by blocking vehicles from parking within six feet
of the fence. In terms of office safety, firefighting equipment (fire extinguishers and fire
hydrants) were installed and maintained. Smoke detectors and surveillance cameras were
also installed. Visitors were scanned before entering the premises and all mail was screened
through metal detectors before being allowed into the office premises.
To enhance communication in the field and increased security, UNICEF drivers were trained
in the operation of and equipped with satellite phones to ensure they will be able to
communicate whenever mobile phone coverage is weak or non-existence. Drivers also
underwent defensive driving training, which will enhance staff safety and security and thus
programme delivery. Drivers continued to go for eye tests every two years, and the 10
principles of driving were used as guidance to ensure compliance not only with vehicle
maintenance but also driver competence and adherence to local laws. Staff members were
also encouraged to ensure that private vehicles have first-aid kits, fire extinguishers, spare
wheel, jack, reflector triangle and a battery-powered lantern for staff safety
OUTCOME 2 Governance and Systems

Operations support to programmes was provided in the areas of finance, administration,
human resources, supply, security and ICT. Audit, peer reviews and risk control self-
assessment reviews all provided frameworks for maintaining standards and improving the
quality of support in all these areas. (Full details described in narrative text on management
effectiveness and efficiency.)
OUTPUT 1 Effective and efficient Governance and Systems

All individual and institutional contracts below US$30,000 were reviewed on a timely basis.
The table of authority and letter of delegation were updated for 2016 and shared with
relevant staff. All conflicts were addressed through remediation or mitigation. The five closed
recommendations of the 2015 audit were sustained. Disposal of obsolete or surplus property
was carried out in a timely manner and asset records were updated in VISION. The
partnership review committee convened and reviewed all partnership agreements within
the agreed time frame.
UNICEF, as the lead for the procurement team, shared LTAs for customs clearance,
micro/macro assessments and design and layout.
The CMT continued to review operations and programme indicators and maintained a table
of action points that are reviewed every month to ensure timely action. The CMT discussed
the eight opportunities to streamline office management, which will be implemented in 2017.
The senior management team met weekly to address areas of concern in programme or
operations and suggest possible solutions. The joint consultative committee met four times
during the year to address issues of concern. The HACT task force developed an assurance
plan, and programmatic visits and spot-checks were carried out as planned.
Based on the MoU signed with the Government of Namibia, procurement services saved the
government over US$1.5m in the procurement of vaccines. In readiness for the GSSC, all
local focal points and local focal points releasers were identified for finance, master data
management and human resources. All were trained and continue to attend webinars on
new developments. The GSSC SOP library is used as a reference point to ensure that the
latest guidelines and procedures are implemented.
17
OUTPUT 2 Effective and efficient management and stewardship of Financial Resources

UNICEF Namibia routinely engaged with the GSSC, as per the new process. The Office
continued to monitor budgets closely and investigate deviations from work plans. The CMT
continued to review budgets and utilization rates during monthly meetings and seek
clarification of over or under expenditure. OR funds were reviewed by the CMT and
programme group in terms of utilization, liquidation of cash assistance, donor reporting and
expiration.
Bank reconciliation was reviewed monthly and submitted to GSSC, and all reconciliations
were investigated and cleared within 30 days. Bank reconciliation is also part of operations
group management indicators and feeds into the monthly CMT report. Key indicators such
as open trips, DCTs over six months, vacancies, IT open calls, supply plan monitoring and
open bank reconciliations were monitored on the dashboard and discussed during
operations meetings and shared monthly with the CMT and quarterly with UNICEF’s Eastern
and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO).
Operations colleagues met monthly to review progress against planned targets and ensure
that outstanding or lagging activities were addressed. Payroll simulations, Netpay reports,
funds availability reports and payroll journals were run monthly, before payroll finalization, to
ensure accuracy and funds availability. Monthly cash forecasting continued to be used by
sections to ensure that the local bank balance does not exceed US$100,000 at the end of
the month, as per UNICEF’s global principles. Variations between forecasts and actuals
utilized were investigated and addressed to ensure improvements in the system. The
allotment of US$4,026,693 for other resources/regular was US$995,307 below the planned
amount of US$5,022,000 and 67 per cent was utilized during 2016. Nearly all (99.7 per cent)
of the US$428,219 institutional budget allocation was utilized, while 98 per cent of the
US$1,015,672 regular resources allotment was spent during the year.
OUTPUT 3 Effective and efficient management of human capacity

UNICEF Namibia planned nine group training activities, of which six were completed,
including: ethics, emotional intelligence and change management, career counselling and
development (replaced P2D), follow-up on leadership communication and conflict
management (assertiveness), first-aid, VISION induction for new staff via knowledge
management sessions, refresher training on programme support and monitoring the HACT
framework, introduction to the new talent management system and staff retreat. In terms of
individual trainings, 23 activities were planned and the Office improved its completion rate;
19 were completed by year-end. The Office received a training budget of US$5,000, of which
US$4,526 was utilized to cover the career counselling and development training. Training on
change management and career counselling and development were attended by all 34 staff
members. The staff retreat was facilitated by an external consultant who incorporated team-
building exercises and revisited the 2014 global staff survey action plan, monitoring of which
is carried out by the CMT and joint consultative committee.
Three staff members joined UNICEF Namibia during 2016: one international professional,
one national professional and one general service on temporary appointment (1 male and 2
females). Five posts could not be filled due to financial challenges; however, mitigation
measures were applied. The Office appointed a UN volunteer nutrition specialist to fill the
nutrition manager P-4 post. The chief of child protection was assigned to cover the chief of
social policy position, both P-4 assignments. A consultant was hired to take up the child
protection specialist duties, (P-3). The P-2 NETI health officer continued to work toward the
18
HIV specialist P-3 key deliverables; finally, the Office formed a committee on resource
mobilization.
Performance management continued to be a priority for the Office, which achieved a 100 per
cent completion rate for performance planning and on-going discussion between
supervisees and supervisor. The Office expected the year-end evaluation to be complete by
February 2017, with a 100 per cent completion rate.
The transition to GSSC, in collaboration with the BNLSS HR unit in South Africa, was
coordinated by ESARO and was completed within the given time-frame, beginning in March
and completed in October 2016.
UN Cares planned five major activities, which were carried out as planned; the UNCT
continued to be committed to the implementation of 10 minimum standards on HIV in the
workplace. All minimum standards were implemented, but with room for improvement to
increase learning activities on stigma and discrimination and ensure that first-aid, using
universal precautions, is provided to all UN staff. The provision to psycho-social support for
all UN staff was very effective and staff made use of the service, along together with their
family members (each family member was allowed five sessions of the service).
OUTCOME 3 By the end of 2018, Cross-sectoral support provided for programme

effectiveness and efficiency.

Child rights and equity were integrated into the GRN-UN partnership framework for 2014-18,
and UNICEF support is reflected in all four joint rolling two-year work-plans for
implementation.
UNICEF’s presence in Namibia marked its 25th year in 2015, coinciding with the anniversary
of the country’s independence. Combined with the CRC@25, this provided rich opportunities
for advocacy, including the publication of “A Namibia Fit For Children”, which tracked the
changes over 25 years, as well as highlighting the unfinished business of the MDGs. The
newly elected Government also declared a “War on Poverty”, within which UNICEF
advocated for a distinct focus on child poverty. The annual review meeting with all UNICEF
partners provided an opportunity for all partners to receive an overview of, and be part of,
overall progress made for children.
In 2016, the MTR of the programme of cooperation between the GRN and UNICEF, found
the strategic approach to operating in an upper-middle-income country to be valid, with some
shifts in emphasis to strengthen linkages between the robust policy environment and
bottlenecks in implementation, and to ensure that knowledge generated on the situation of
children and adolescents is used by policy makers, planners and implementing partners. The
MTR also endorsed greater cross-sectoral work to achieve results for ECD and for
adolescents during the remainder of the CP. The MTR of the GRN-UN partnership
framework also endorsed the strategy mix, and made specific recommendations to improve
coordination of planning, implementation and review through greater use of joint
programming and specific joint programmes (e.g., national statistical systems, gender,
resilience building).
OUTPUT 1 By the end of 2016, all Programmes aligned with UNICEF Strategic Plan, ESAR
Priorities and UNPAF and managed for results.

UNICEF commitments under the 2014-18 CP document fully reflected the GRN-UN
programme framework for 2014-28 and its rolling two-year work plans.
19
Programme results also aligned with UNICEF’s Strategic Plan, and UNICEF Namibia
engaged in preparation of regional priorities and advocacy strategies to reflect areas
applicable to Namibia’s country context. Regional priority indicators were integrated into the
CP results framework. BNLSS planning centred on the areas of eMTCT, nutrition, social
policy and violence against women and children, each of which contributes to a regional
priority.
The annual review with UNICEF partners was held in December 2015.
Development of Namibia’s fifth national development plan during 2016 was highly
consultative, allowing UNICEF and other partners to advocate effectively for increased
attention to strategic areas such as ECD, education quality, nutrition, sanitation, social
protection, child protection and health.
The 2016 MTR of the programme of cooperation between the GRN and UNICEF found the
strategic approach to operating in an upper-middle-income country to be valid, with some
shifts in emphasis, to strengthen linkages between the robust policy environment and
implementation bottlenecks and to ensure that knowledge generated on the situation of
children and adolescents is used by policy-makers, planners and implementing
partners. The MTR also endorsed greater cross-sectoral work to achieve results in ECD and
for adolescents during the remainder of the CP. The MTR also endorsed the strategy mix,
and made specific recommendations for improved coordination of planning, implementation
and review through greater use of joint programming and specific joint programmes (e.g.
national statistical systems, gender, resilience-building).
The 2016 review process was undertaken at the sector level, in light of the MTR process
earlier in the year.
OUTPUT 2 By the end of 2016, Issues of gender, adolescent development and participation
and HIV integrated in all programme areas and supported.

In collaboration with UNAIDS, UNICEF supported the MOHSS to carry out an evaluation of
the PMTCT programme, to assess implementation progress. The evaluation also sought to
inform the elimination validation process, since Namibia achieved below 4 per cent in
mother-to-child transmission rates. With an increase in PMTCT coverage from 70 per cent
(2011) to 98 per cent (2016), which is a significant achievement, the evaluation reported
gaps in control of new infections amongst women of reproductive age. Retention in care and
adherence to ART, suboptimal services for HIV-exposed infants and insufficient monitoring
and information systems, particularly with baby-mother pairs, were some of the key findings
from the evaluation that require attention.
UNICEF supported the MOHSS to carry out the ‘All In’ phase 2 bottleneck analysis in seven
high adolescent-HIV burden regions. While the adolescent and HIV data generated through
‘All In’ phase 1 informed the reprogramming of the Global Fund towards adolescent girls and
young women interventions, leveraging US$3.2 million. Phase 2 offered an opportunity for
capacity development in data-driven planning at the sub-national level. A key result was the
development of regional plans on adolescent HIV and sexual and reproductive health (SRH),
which will accelerate access and provision of key HIV interventions for adolescents,
including commodity management, human resource capacity strengthening, increasing
coverage of HIV testing and counselling, timely initiation and retention of adolescents in
treatment, and adolescent-targeted behaviour-change messaging on HIV and teenage
pregnancy. Partnership was strengthened with the US President’s Emergency Plan Against
AIDS (PEPFAR) and CDC, which provided financial contributions for the second phase.
20
Technical support was provided to the end-term review of the national strategic framework
on HIV (2011-2016) to assess implementation progress. UNICEF played a central role in
bringing the voice and issues affecting adolescents throughout the review process, within the
‘All In’ framework. The review recommended focused and targeted interventions to reach the
most affected populations, especially adolescent girls and young women, and addressing
stigma.
As part of the MTR, a gender programmatic review was carried out to shape and refine CP
alignment with UNICEF’s gender action plan (GAP). The review included gender
mainstreaming training for all staff, strengthening UNICEF’s capacity. Notable results were
the establishment of a focal point task force, which is coordinating gender programming
across sectors, and the alignment of targeted and mainstreamed gender priorities with the
GAP. The review demonstrated the strides achieved by UNICEF Namibia toward realization
of the GAP’s targeted interventions under adolescent health, such as the adolescent girls’
empowerment programme through sports for development, which is reaching over 3,000
adolescent girls, and the PMTCT programme, which has 98 per cent coverage. The key
mainstreaming programmes were: the integrated school health programme, WASH, national
school safety and support to gender-based violence units. The review also identified key
areas requiring improvement, including gender reporting and monitoring, alignment with
gender indicators and inadequate gender analysis.
OUTPUT 3 By the end of 2016, increased commitment & capacity of media & partners to
report responsibly on key child rights issues strengthened.

In line with the global communication and advocacy strategy and UNICEF’s equity focus,
UNICEF Namibia continued to use various media platforms to inform, educate and advocate
for children’s rights through sharing of press releases, media advisories, op-eds and
appearances on radio and television discussion shows and interviews. In 2015 four op-ed
pieces (focusing on ECD, nutrition, ending child marriage and education policy review) were
published. To continue the previous year’s advocacy – aimed at ensuring that the most
vulnerable children have equitable access to high-quality services, including in health,
education, protection and water, sanitation and hygiene – UNICEF facilitated three separate
media field visits to UNICEF-supported programmes. These visits helped to enhance
UNICEF’s visibility in the country and to increase media access to stories on how children
and families benefit from UNICEF support.
In 2015, in response to the changing situation with regards to the HIV and AIDS epidemic
and guidelines and recommendations, and to advocate for children’s rights to treatment, the
Namibia Network of AIDS Service Organizations (NANASO) and UNICEF held a training for
24 media practitioners and editors in Windhoek. The objective was to enhance the capacity
of journalists to report on emerging HIV and AIDS-related issues, including the change in
global guidelines and trends in Namibia’s HIV and AIDS epidemic. As part of the main
outcome, participants were expected to produce stories for their respective media houses,
with the aim of enhanced visibility of HIV and AIDS-related issues through effective and
quality media coverage. As a result, eight stories/articles were covered in the local media,
highlighting various topics covered in the training – nutrition situation in Namibia, risks of
artificial feeding, International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes, normative
guidance & resources on eMTCT.
Continuing the momentum created in 2015, UNICEF held another four field
visits with journalists to UNICEF-supported programmes in 2016. The aim was to expose
media practitioners to the work of UNICEF and challenges facing children, especially those
21
in hard-to-reach areas. Twelve stories appeared in the local print media focussing on
children and the hope UNICEF brings. A partnership with the Media Institute of Southern
Africa, through its "Children in the Media" project, resulted in two 'total takeover by children”
days during the launch of the SOWC report and on safe internet day. In addition, a one-day
media training on the SDGs was conducted, reaching 32 local journalists.
OUTPUT 4 By the end of 2016, increased public & key stakeholder access to information on
Namibia's children & Rights of Children.

UNICEF worked with the Namibia Institute for Democracy to develop information and
educational materials, including radio spots, five newspaper inserts and a documentary on
the social accountability programme. The aim was to promote learners’ participation in
educational matters, especially through the EDU circle initiative. The materials also helped to
raise awareness among learners, parents and the school community around issues related
to school governance and the rights and responsibility of learners in enhancing quality
education, and to help them understand the roles, purposes, functions and responsibilities of
the education system.
As part of the school governance and social accountability initiative, an anti–bullying

campaign was launched to address violence in schools and create an safe and enabling
environment for learners, as well as to create a culture of caring between learners, teachers
and the community. Educational materials, including posters, radio spots and television
adverts were used to disseminate campaign messages. Technical assistance was given to
the MOHSS for the development and implementation of communication strategies to create
awareness and demand for the annual maternal and child health days, as well as for the
measles/rubella supplementary immunisation activities. This included capacity building
sessions on social mobilisation and support for the development of radio, television and print
messages.
To mark 25 years of Independence (and the CRC@25) UNICEF and the NSA published “A
Namibia Fit for Children”, which reviewed changes in child well-being since Namibia’s
Independence as an advocacy tool to inform programmes and strategies to improve living
conditions for Namibian children. An advocacy package on UNICEF activities in Namibia
(2015-2018) and a brochure and leaflet were finalized and disseminated. Human interest
stories on HIV, immunization and hygiene promotion were developed. As part its nutrition
advocacy the Office hosted UNICEF Advocate for Children Graça Machel, and Regional
Goodwill Ambassador Yvonne Chaka Chaka and the regional advocate for young people, as
part of the Durban International AIDS Conference.
Newspaper inserts/advertisements and op-eds on ECD, nutrition and child protection online
were developed and shared with the media for knowledge generation and advocacy. To
promote and showcase UNICEF’s work for global visibility and advocacy, two key advocacy
videos (the SOWC equity video & Hope video for UNICEF@70) were produced and
disseminated. To ensure continuous access to key information on children's issues, national
& international media interviews were conducted during key events such as the AIDS
conference, SOWC launch, Breastfeeding Week, and UNICEF@70.
OUTPUT 5 By the end of 2016, Strategic alliances &public/private partnerships to promote

action on children's rights developed

In 2015 some 46 per cent of the programme annual ceiling for other regular resources was
funded and US$2.5 million was mobilized through new grants, but no funds were mobilized
22
from the private sector. In 2016, resource mobilization remained active, with both national
committees and bi-laterals (including the few still resident in Namibia) and, as of December
2016, the CP for 2014-18 was 55 per cent funded.
During 2016, US$4.05 million in new OR-R grants was received, including USAID funds for
WASH response to the drought ($1.4 million), thematic funding (US$1.5m), set-aside funds
(US$0.75m), national committees (Sweden, Germany and Canada), OECD, CDC and the
Innovation Fund. Namibia’s small population and middle-income status undermined its
prioritization among donors. Social inclusion remained acutely un-funded.
Available funds were used promptly and within agreed timeframes. All thematic funds
received prior to 2016 had been 79 per cent utilized by end-year, with new tranches received
at the end of 2016.
In keeping with the UNICEF Strategic Plan 2014-2017 on strategic partnerships, a concept
note and proposal were developed to engage a petroleum company, Engen, in supporting
UNICEF to promote access to critical information related to health, education, water,
sanitation and hygiene, and child protection at all their facilities nationwide. An MoU with the
Motor Vehicle Accident Fund was also developed, to promote citizen reporting on accidents,
which are now one of the leading causes of adolescent deaths. These two initiatives will be
guided by the new regional public-private partnership strategy to take effect in 2017.
In line with the global communication strategy to forge partnerships and engage people to
take actions for children, in 2016 five familiarization/advocacy field visits to UNICEF-
supported beneficiaries were conducted, involving the Swedish and Canadian national
committees, and key influential people such as Graça Machel (for strategic nutrition
advocacy) and Yvonne Chaka Chaka (for children's rights and equity). A partnership was
forged with the Ministry of Information, Telecom Namibia and the NSA to advocate for child
online protection and ending violence against children. UNICEF Namibia also continued to
accelerate the momentum built on ECD advocacy through its partnership with the First
Lady. In this regard, two newspaper inserts were published in local newspapers and, as per
the global campaign, a series of ECD social media packages were distributed
Continued partnership with the National Assembly resulted in two parliamentary
briefings on the revised Education Bill, reaching 64 parliamentarians with information about
the Bill.
OUTCOME 4 By the end of 2018, appropriate maternal and child health legislation, policies,
strategic plans and budgets set up and implemented.

In 2016 UNICEF provided high-level technical support to the GRN and partners on policy
development and dialogue. Various policies and strategies were developed: every new-born
action plan, school feeding policy, food security and nutrition policy, Code of Marketing of
Breast Milk Substitutes (awaiting approval by the office of the Attorney General), extension
of the national sanitation strategy plan, open defecation-free protocol, and guidelines and
tools for the implementation of Option B+ to support health workers in the delivery of quality
PMTCT services and eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
In collaboration with UNICEF, the MoHSS conducted the 2016 PMTCT evaluation and
impact assessment, and revised and disseminated the guidelines and standard operating
procedures for PMTCT to support low-performing districts that have been unable to reach
100 per cent roll-out due to limited coordination and health worker capacity. In collaboration
with UNAIDS, UNICEF supported the MoHSS-led evaluation, using a 10-year lens; focusing
on the four prongs of PMTCT programming; and exploring cross-cutting themes of gender,
child rights, and equity. The results showed that Namibia reached both process and impact
23
indicators for eMTCT but still suffers from a heavy case load of HIV-infected infants. The
findings were disseminated at the Namibia AIDS Conference and were used to inform the
PMTCT technical working group on the status of Namibia’s e-MTCT efforts.
Based on recommendations from the PMTCT evaluation, UNICEF’s priorities for 2017 are
support for cohort monitoring, piloting and conducting bottleneck analyses at the regional
and district levels to support health system-strengthening and micro- planning for
eMTCT. This exercise will be facilitated by lessons learned from the new-born action plan
and ‘All In’ bottleneck analyses conducted in February and August 2016, respectively.
UNICEF supported the MoHSS to conduct a comprehensive review of the national

immunization programme, which produced recommendations on how to strengthen the
immunization system in Namibia. This exercise was followed by a switch from trivalent to
bivalent polio vaccine, and a Government-funded national campaign on measles and rubella.
The MoHSS signed an MOU to procure services through UNICEF’s Supply Division on 16
October 2015, which progressed smoothly during 2016. The Government has spent more
than US$2.4 million on procurement of vaccines, plumpy nut, and other commodities.
UNICEF will continue to advocate for full utilization of the MOU, beyond vaccines. Through
the MoU, MoHSS saves up to 60 per cent and enjoys efficiency gains.
To accelerate advocacy on nutrition, UNICEF supported the development of the nutrition

advocacy booklet for parliamentarians, to sensitize them on their role in promoting improved
nutritional status for children as a follow-up to the Inter-Parliamentary Union conference on
this topic hosted in Namibia in 2015. UNICEF also played a key role in supporting
the coordination of, and co-organizing, a plenary session and field visit focusing on nutrition
during the 31st session of the African Caribbean Pacific-EU parliamentary assembly held
in Namibia in June 2016. Support was also provided to NUST to develop and implement a
degree course on nutrition, targeting young Namibians.
To strengthen the WASH coordination mechanism, UNICEF supported the Ministry of

Agriculture, Water and Forestry to develop terms of reference and a code of conduct for the
Water and Sanitation (WatSan) Forum. These documents will help to increase attendance at
meetings and enhance the involvement of all partners. UNICEF supported high-level
Government participation at a sanitation learning workshop in Johannesburg, to reinforce
commitment to implementing CLTS in Namibia. The workshop led to the revitalization of the
WatSan Forum and inter-ministerial committee around the CLTS approach.
The overall Government budget for health is gradually increasing, although not yet meeting
the Abuja target (15 per cent). A large percentage of the budget is allocated for tertiary care.
The total health sector budget for 2015/16 was US$458 million; approximately US$199 per
capita. The SUN country implementation plan (SUNCIP) proposed an additional US$43
million over three years to improve nutrition outcomes for children.
OUTPUT 1 Quality technical support provided for Health & Nutrition programme
management.

UNICEF Namibia provided high-level coordination, management and technical support on
nutrition, HIV, WASH and maternal and child health. The support targeted strengthening of
coordination mechanisms for each sector, development of various policies and strategies,
advocacy and fundraising for piloting/implementation of these policies, strengthening the
information system, improving inter-sectoral collaboration within UNICEF and external
partners and reinforcement of monitoring and supervision.
24
All posts in the child health and nutrition team were filled or mitigated as follows: HIV
specialist (P3) was covered through the new and emerging talent initiative (NETI); the
nutrition specialist (P4) post was covered by a UN volunteer.
OUTPUT 2 By 2018, appropriate legislation, policies, strategic plans and budgets for
maternal, adolescent, new-born and child health established and implemented

UNICEF Namibia provided high-level technical support to the GRN and partners on policy
development and dialogue. Various policies and strategies were developed including: every
new-born action plan, school feeding policy, food security and nutrition policy, Code of
Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes (awaiting approval by the Office of the Attorney
General), extension of the national sanitation strategy plan, open defecation-free protocol,
and guidelines and tools for the implementation of Option B+; including the 2016 PMTCT
evaluation and impact assessment.

immunization programme that yielded clear recommendations on how to strengthen the
immunization system in Namibia. The MoHSS signed an MOU to procure commodities
through UNICEF’s Supply Division on 16 October 2015; implementation progressed
smoothly. The Government has spent more than US$2,4 million for procurement of
vaccines, plumpy nut and other items, with savings of up to 60 per cent on specific items
compared to prior procurements.
UNICEF Namibia supported the drafting of a nutrition advocacy booklet for parliamentarians
to sensitize them on their role in improving children’s nutritional status. Support was also
provided to Namibia University of Science and Technology to develop and implement a
degree course in nutrition, targeting young Namibians.
UNICEF Namibia supported the Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry to develop the
terms of reference and code of conduct for the Water and Sanitation (WATSAN) Forum.
UNICEF supported high-level Government participation at a sanitation learning workshop in
Johannesburg to reinforce the GRN’s commitment to implementation of the CLTS approach
in Namibia. The workshop led to revitalization of the WATSAN Forum and formation of an
inter-ministerial committee on the CLTS approach.
The overall Government budget for health increased gradually, but did not meet the Abuja
target (15 per cent). A large percentage of the MoHSS budget is allocated for tertiary care.
The total health sector budget for 2015/16 was US$58 million, approximately US$199 per
capita. The SUNCIP proposed an additional US$43 million over three years to improve
nutrition outcomes for children.
OUTCOME 5 By the end of 2018, 85 per cent of mothers, adolescents, new-borns and
under-fives, especially the most vulnerable, benefit from access to health care services,
including HIV prevention, care, treatment and support.

Major causes of under-five mortality remain neonatal conditions (50 per cent), diarrhoea and
pneumonia (31 per cent), malnutrition (12 per cent) and HIV (3 per cent).
To address the issue of neonatal mortality, UNICEF Namibia supported a new-

born bottleneck analysis in February 2016, attended by regional administration and
programme officers, paediatricians and neonatologist, including nurse midwives. The
results informed the development of the national every new-born action plan (ENAP) in June
25
2016. The analysis and development of ENAP resulted in raising awareness among policy-
makers and programme officers and implementers on the importance of prioritizing maternal
and neonatal health, in particular new-born mortality as the component of child mortality
which has seen least progress in recent years. In addition, UNICEF supported training of
352 health workers and nurses on emergency obstetric and neonatal care.
To address the issue of diarrhoea and pneumonia, 1,648 health extension workers (HEWs)
were trained and deployed in 13 of 14 regions to ensure that children under five are
diagnosed, treated (simple diarrhoea) and referred to nearest health facility. Only in Erongo
region was the programme not yet rolled out. The HEWs are contributing to increased
service uptake for antenatal care, deliveries, immunization, family planning and deliveries at
facilities. Due to the presence of HEWs in communities, awareness about health issues is
increasing, as the HEWs promote early health-seeking behaviours on all health, nutrition,
HIV and sanitation-related programmes and services.

immunization programme, which produced recommendations on the way to strengthen the
immunization system in Namibia. During April 2016, Namibia switched from tri-valent to bi-
valent polio vaccine, as part of the global Initiative to end polio.
In its effort to improve the timeliness and value-for-money of procurement, the MoHSS
signed an MOU with UNICEF Copenhagen in October 2015; implementation progressed
smoothly. In 2016, the Government spent more than US$2.4 million on the procurement of
vaccines, plumpy nut, and other commodities. UNICEF will continue to advocate for full
utilization of the MOU, beyond vaccines. Through this MoU, MoHSS benefits from a cost
saving of up to 60 per cent, along with efficiency gains.
In July 2016 UNICEF Namibia supported the Government to conduct a national mass
measles rubella campaign targeting 1,859,857 people from the age of nine months to 39
years. Coverage of 103 per cent was achieved (1,908,193 vaccinated). UNICEF covered key
activities such as C4D, training of health personnel and supervision; vaccines were secured
through procurement services, using Government resources.
The roll-out of Option B+ led to large increases in the percentage of HIV-positive pregnant
women accessing ART during antenatal care (95 per cent). By the end of 2016, over 95 per
cent of facilities were offering PMTCT services and 75 per cent of primary-level facilities
were offering Option B+ on site. Moreover, 93 per cent of infants born to HIV-infected
mothers were receiving ARVs for PMTCT in 2016.
In 2016 the MoHSS, in collaboration with UNICEF, revised and disseminated guidelines and
SOPs for PMTCT, to support low-performing districts that have been unable to reach 100
per cent roll-out due to limited coordination and health worker capacity.
The MoHSS, with UNICEF Namibia’s support, planned, organized and implemented a series
of 14 training-of-trainer workshops aimed at increasing health worker capacities to deliver
Option B+, nurse-initiated management of ART and early infant diagnosis. The workshops
trained 160 health workers (36 male, 124 female) in 14 regions, 28 of whom will serve as
trainers. This activity increased the number of facilities initiating Option B+ on site from 80
per cent to 95 per cent.
UNICEF also supported the training of 100 HEWs on child health and danger signs;
community-based, integrated child health and HIV; PMTCT; early infant diagnosis; and
WASH, which increased their capacity to identify general childhood danger signs and
provide health promotion. Additionally, UNICEF supported the training of 37 faith-based
leaders (all male) on PMTCT and gender-based violence, which increased community
26
mobilization and renewed the commitment of religious leaders on PMTCT and male partner
involvement to end the epidemic. Finally, UNICEF Namibia, in collaboration with UNAIDS,
supported the MoHSS-led evaluation of the national PMTCT programme, using a 10-year
lens, focusing on the four prongs of PMTCT programming and exploring cross-cutting
themes of gender, child rights, and equity. The findings of the evaluation were used to inform
the PMTCT technical working group about the status of Namibia’s e-MTCT efforts. Based on
the recommendations of the PMTCT evaluation, UNICEF’s priorities for 2017 are: support for
cohort monitoring and conducting bottleneck analysis at the regional and district levels to
support health system-strengthening and micro-planning on eMTCT.
OUTPUT 1 By 2018, young people (10-24yrs) are equipped to access sexual and
reproductive health including HIV information and services

High-level managerial and technical support was provided through the MoHSS and other
partners on improving maternal, new-born, child and adolescent health.
UNICEF has a national maternal and child health specialist officer and a Health Officer
(P2/NETI) supporting various line ministries and partners to plan, implement and monitor
high-impact interventions.
Additional technical assistance, was provided through an international consultant recruited to

develop the national new-born care action plan, protocols and guidelines. The national plan
will be endorsed for implementation by end-2016.
UNICEF Namibia provided high-quality logistic and technical support for key immunization
activities: the shift of polio vaccines in April 2016; comprehensive review of the
national immunization programme in May 2016; national measles rubella campaign in July
2016 and maternal-child health week in November 2016.
OUTPUT 2 By 2018, AFHS facilities and health facilities provide improved comprehensive
and integrated SRH and HIV services for young people and key populations

UNICEF Namibia supported the GRN to advance the adolescent treatment and care agenda,
to ensure that adolescents living with HIV are aware of their status and have access to
effective HIV treatment and quality care programmes. Specifically, support was provided for
national and sub-national efforts to optimize provision of comprehensive services for
adolescents living with HIV (ALHIV). UNICEF provided technical assistance towards for the
operation of teen clubs for adolescents living with HIV. The clubs offer an adolescent-friendly
space where the children receive psycho-social support and care and interact with peers on
their common experiences. The number of teen clubs increased from one in 2012 to 15 of the
35 health districts by the end of 2014, reaching over 5,000 children.
Further support was provided to strengthen the capacity of health workers and caregivers on
issues surrounding ALHIV. In particular, UNICEF Namibia supported the training of 65
caregivers and 23 health workers in Oshana and Ohangwena, which reinforced caregiver
support to adolescents living with HIV and encouraged caregiver disclosure, by providing best
practices on communication. In addition, Oshana region was supported with training for 98
HEWs, who acquired knowledge on the ALHIV care and treatment guidelines, increasing their
capacity to provide quality services and support to HIV-positive adolescents in communities
to reduce default rates.
Stigma and discrimination continued to affect issues of parental disclosure to adolescents,
affecting treatment adherence.
27
OUTPUT 3 By 2018, young people (10-24yrs) are equipped to access sexual and
reproductive health including HIV information and services

UNICEF Namibia supported national and sub-national efforts to increase the dissemination
of HIV information and services for adolescents and young people by increasing youth
participation. The engagement of adolescents and young people in the ‘All In’ bottleneck
analysis process provided them with space, through focus group discussions, to analyse root
causes of the bottlenecks affecting delivery of services to adolescents and young people.
This engagement gave adolescents an opportunity to suggest solutions and to access HIV
and SRH information. Sports for development continued to provide space for adolescents’
participation in HIV programming. UNICEF, in partnership with the Namibia Football
Association, supported over 3,000 adolescent girls, through football leagues, were they
received education on healthy lifestyles, including dissemination of messages on HIV
prevention and prevention of teenage pregnancy.
In collaboration with MOHSS, UNICEF Namibia supported the Katutura Hospital Teen Club
to hold a retreat where ALHIV received orientation about key emerging issues in HIV and
SRH that affect their lives, particularly sexuality. A total of 59 teens, (30 females, 29 males)
attended the retreat and were accompanied by two social workers, two doctors, two nurses,
one administrative officer and two health assistants. In addition, a group of 15 members of
Champions for Life, including one ALHIV from Zambia, joined the retreat and shared very
inspiring testimony on overcoming stigma. They also presented a drama on grief and
depression. The adolescents present were particularly interested in discussing issues
related to transition from a paediatric to an adult clinic
OUTPUT 4 By 2018, Public and Higher learning institutions, CSOs, and youth centers
provide improved comprehensive sexuality education and HIV prevention for out-of-school
young people and key populations

Support for implementation of the Eastern and Southern Africa commitment on
comprehensive sexuality education to reduce HIV infection and improve sexual health
outcomes continued in 2016. In collaboration with UNESCO, UNFPA, UNAIDS and German
Development Cooperation (GiZ), UNICEF supported the MoEAC and MoHSS to roll out
regional dialogues on the commitment. This resulted in strengthening regional multi-sectoral
coordination mechanisms for youth health task forces to anchor the commitment.
Coordination was placed under the integrated school health committee, within the framework
of the MOU between the two ministries. UNESCO supported the development of a CSE
curriculum for out-of-school youth and an online CSE training for teachers involving 100
teachers. Using the recommendations from the OOSC study, which UNICEF supported,
strategies will be put in place to reach out-of-school youth with CSE information.
OUTPUT 5 By 2018, HIV-NSF coordination structures function effectively and in a

sustainable manner

The National AIDS Executive Committee, chaired by the Deputy Permanent Secretary of the
MoHSS, continued to play a role in oversight, coordination and management of the national
HIV/AIDS response, guided by the institutional framework that stipulates the roles of various
entities including: technical advisory committees, sector steering committees,
special/development committees and regional AIDS coordinating committees. The
committee further facilitated tracking both domestic and external financing of the HIV
response. The Government's financial contribution stood at 64 per cent, mainly for
procurement of ARVs, demonstrating strong commitment. PEPFAR provided the largest
28
external financial support, mainly in human resources for health, by deploying medical
doctors and health information systems, permitting sharper targeting in high-
burden locations.
UNICEF provided technical support to the MoEAC for reviving the education and youth
sector steering committee, responsible for providing technical guidance, support and
recommendations for effective coordination and implementation of SRH interventions,
including HIV and AIDS among adolescents and young people. UNICEF supported the
development of terms of reference for the committee and facilitated convening of committee
meetings. Discussions of the work plan were underway in late 2016, and will inform the
coordination of adolescent and youth interventions on HIV/AIDS.
The Global Fund country coordination committee was very active during the year. Current
UN members are UNAIDS and WHO, representing the interests of all UN agencies,
including UNICEF, through the Joint UN Team on AIDS, which met monthly to coordinate
UN support to the Government for HIV and AIDS. The committee’s main achievement was
approval for reprogramming of the current Global Fund grant, which includes a new service
delivery area on adolescent girls and young women.
The climax of the work on adolescent girls and young women was reached in September
2016 when UNAIDS appointed the First Lady of Namibia as the UNAIDS special advocate
for young women and adolescent girls. This was followed by the launch of the World AIDS
Day report by the President and the UNAIDS Executive Director, highlighting the GRN’s
important role in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The advocacy work culminated in the first-ever
national AIDS conference under the theme 'Together we are ending AIDS in Namibia' where
the 2013 integrated biological and behavioural survey report, covering issues of key
populations – including men having sex with men and female sex workers – was released,
more than three years after the study. This signalled a policy shift by Government in the
direction of providing services to key populations to control new infections.
Namibia has adopted and is piloting ‘Treat All’ in three regions (Khomas, Ohangwena and
Zambezi), where some success stories are already being registered, including faster
initiation of treatment, identification of pre-ART patients with low CD4 counts and tracking of
pre-ART who were lost to follow-up.
OUTPUT 6 By 2018, districts effectively implement e-MTCT plans

The roll-out of Option B+ has led to large increases in the percentage of HIV-positive
pregnant women accessing ART during antenatal care (95 per cent). By the end of 2016,
over 95 per cent of facilities were offering PMTCT services and 75 per cent of primary level
facilities were offering Option B+ on site. Moreover, 93 per cent of infants born to HIV-
infected mothers are receiving ARVs for PMTCT. Some regions used a phased approach to
the implementation of Option B+ due to logistical reasons and limited human capacity.
Scaling up Option B+ in Namibia by integrating ART in maternal and child health services
required an expansion of the workforce and task- shifting, to allow nurse-led ART initiation.
In 2016 the MoHSS and UNICEF Namibia revised and disseminated guidelines and
SOPs for PMTCT to support the low-performing districts that were unable to reach 100 per
cent rollout due to limited coordination and health worker capacity.
In 2015 the MoHSS identified that limited health worker capacity to initiate Option B+ on-site
led to referrals for initiation of lifelong ARVs—increasing loss to follow-up. The MoHSS, with
UNICEF Namibia’s support, planned, organized and implemented a series of 14 training-of-
trainer workshops aimed at increasing health worker capacities in Option B+, nurse-initiated
and managed ART and early infant diagnosis. The workshops trained 160 health workers
29
(36 male, 124 female) in 14 regions (28 were trained as trainers). This training increased the
number of facilities initiating Option B+ on site from 80 per cent to 95 per cent.
UNICEF also supported training for 100 HEWs on child health, community-based integrated
child health and HIV, PMTCT, early infant diagnosis and WASH, increasing their capacity to
identify general childhood danger signs and to provide health promotion and community-
facility linkages. Additionally, UNICEF supported the training of 37 faith-based leaders (37
male, 0 female) on PMTCT and gender-based violence, which increased community
mobilization and renewed the commitment of religious leaders on PMTCT and male partner
involvement to end the epidemic.
Finally, UNICEF Namibia, in collaboration with UNAIDS, supported the MoHSS-led

evaluation of the national PMTCT programme, using a 10-year lens with a focus on the four
prongs of PMTCT programming and exploring cross-cutting themes of gender, child rights
and equity. The findings were used to inform the PMTCT technical working group on the
status of Namibia’s elimination efforts. Based on the recommendations of the PMTCT
evaluation, UNICEF’s priorities for 2017 are support for cohort monitoring, piloting and
conducting bottleneck analysis at the regional and district levels to support health system-
strengthening and micro-planning to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
OUTPUT 7 By 2018, skills of Health Workers in the provision of MNCH, HIV/SRH, and
nutrition services improved

Neonatal death contributes to more than 40 per cent of the overall under-five mortality rate.
Consequentially, the GRN developed plans to prioritize improving the quality of new-born
care. Some 1,648 HEWs were deployed in 13 of the country’s 14 regions to ensure that
children under five are diagnosed, treated and referred to the nearest health facility. Erongo
is the only region without HEWs, as it is the most urban region. The HEWs contributed to
increased service uptakes for antenatal care, deliveries, immunization and family planning
and a reduction in home births. Due to presence of HEWs in the communities, awareness on
health issues increased, as the HEWs are promoting health-seeking
behaviours. They promote awareness of danger signs during pregnancy, labour and delivery
and post-delivery among women and their partners. HEWs have erected 'Tippy Tap' facilities
to promote hand-washing, which is contributing to reduced cases of diarrhoea among
children.
The nutritional status of children also improved, since caregivers received nutritional
counselling and health promotion advice. UNICEF Namibia supported a
stakeholder’s workshop on conducting a new-born bottleneck analysis in February 2016,
attended by regional administrations, programme officers, paediatricians, neonatologists and
nurse midwives. The results informed the development of national every new-born action
plan launched in June 2016. The bottleneck analysis and development of ENAP led to
increased awareness among policy makers, programme officers and implementers on the
importance of prioritising maternal and neonatal health.
With support from UNICEF and WHO, nurses and doctors from all 14 regions were trained
on 'adverse events following immunization' which increased their capacity for early detection
and reporting of cases. HEWs were also trained on emergency obstetric and neonatal
care (EmONC) in October 2016, following the EmONC assessment conducted in September
2016. The training resulted in increased knowledge about the importance of access to
EmONC facilities and skills in the field.
30
OUTPUT 8 By 2018, Health Facilities equipped to provide quality MNCH, HIV/SRH, and
nutrition services

To improve and address ongoing issues in Namibia related to the quality of maternal, new-
born and child health, UNICEF, WHO and UNFPA continued to work together to train nurses
on the required skills – including expanded knowledge on immunization – through a
comprehensive assessment of the expanded programme on immunization and follow-up on
recommendations for effective vaccine management assessments. During 2016 UNICEF
Namibia supported the Government to procure quality vaccines and supplies, using the
existing MoU with UNICEF procurement services. This resulted in costs savings (up to 60
per cent for most vaccines), timely deliveries and reduced stock outs. This complements the
work of other development partners (e.g. U.S. government) who are strengthening the
Central Medical Stores.
OUTPUT 9 By 2018, access to services for the prevention and control of priority
communicable diseases improved

UNICEF Namibia supported MoHSS to conduct a comprehensive review of the national
immunization programme, which produced recommendations for strengthening the
immunization system in Namibia, building on the effective vaccine management assessment
of 2015.
During April 2016, Namibia switched from trivalent to bivalent oral polio vaccine as part of
the global ‘End Game Polio’ initiative.
In its effort to support procurement services, the MoHSS signed an MOU with UNICEF in
October 2015, which has progressed smoothly. In 2016 the Government spent more than
US$2.4 million on procurement of vaccines, plumpy nut, and other commodities. UNICEF
will continue to advocate for the full utilisation of the MOU, beyond vaccines. Through this
MoU, the MoHSS achieved cost savings of up to 60 per cent and efficiency gains.
In July 2016 UNICEF supported the GRN to conduct a national measles/rubella mass
campaign targeting 1,859,857 people from nine months to 39 years of age. Coverage of 103
per cent was achieved (1,908,193 vaccinated). UNICEF supported communication for
development, training health personnel and supervisors.
OUTPUT 10 By 2018, women and men, key populations and young people have access to
comprehensive HIV counseling and testing and prevention services

Scaling up of HIV testing and counselling (HTC) was one of the most successful programme
areas, as mixed models, including provider-initiated testing and counselling, door-to-door,
school-based HTC, were implemented. The MOHSS introduced a task-shifting approach to
curb the challenge posed by a critical shortage of health workers; lay counsellors provide
HTC at health clinics. This resulted in HTC uptake at public health facilities increasing two-
and-a-half-fold between 2008 and 2014: from 131,180 to 317,862 people. According to the
2013 demographic and health survey (NDHS), HTC coverage increased from 35 per cent
(2007) to 75 per cent (2013).
However HIV testing is low among the adolescents, with only 28.5 per cent of females and
13.9 per cent of males aged 15-19 years having been tested in the past 12 months. This low
HTC coverage poses a challenge for initiating treatment among newly infected adolescents.
31
UNICEF, in partnership with UNAIDS and the CDC, supported the MOHSS to carry out a
bottleneck analysis of the root causes of low HTC coverage among adolescents. The
causality analysis identified critical factors such as commodity stock outs; sub-optimal
provision of adolescent-friendly SRH services (in terms of both untrained health workers and
actual provision of minimum standards for adolescent-friendly health services; and data
gaps. A multi-sectoral task team consisting of staff from three ministries (MOHSS, MOEAC,
Ministry of Sports, Youth & National Services) as well as adolescent- and youth-led
organizations, civil society organizations and development partners spearheaded
the process and supported the regions to develop plans to begin to address these
bottlenecks.
In addition to increasing access, availability and utilization of HTC amongst adolescents, the
plans included strengthening management information systems at the sub-national level
to generate age- and sex- disaggregated routine HTC data. The plans also emphasized the
need to develop adolescent-focused behavioural change and communication messages and
to engage parents and communities to support adolescent health-seeking behaviour for
HTC.
OUTCOME 6 By the end of 2018, stunting prevalence among children under 5 reduced
nationally from current 29 per cent to less than 20 per cent.

UNICEF provided technical support to line ministries – MoHSS, MoEAC, Ministry of Urban
and Rural Development (MURD) and Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry (MAWF) –
for coordination and joint planning, implementation and monitoring of nutrition and WASH
activities. Coordination remained a challenge in terms of attendance at meetings of other line
ministries and functionality of the regional coordination mechanisms and information system
at various levels.
As a response, UNICEF supported the MoHSS to develop an integrated health information

system and nutrition surveillance system. MAWF received support to develop the water
supply and sanitation information system. These systems will capture real-time data on
WASH and nutrition, and inform prompt response and programming.
Technical support was provided during the development of various policies and strategies,
such as the food and nutrition security policy, school feeding policy and national sanitation
strategy. A nutrition advocacy booklet for parliamentarians was developed to sensitize
members of Parliament on their role in promoting improved nutritional status of children.
UNICEF supported the Government’s efforts to train human resources in nutrition and
signed an MoU with NUST to support the development and implementation of a degree
course in nutrition, for which curriculum development commenced in 2016.
As lead UN agency for the Namibia Alliance for Improved Nutrition and the WatSan Forum,
UNICEF organized and coordinated quarterly meetings in which stakeholders shared
experiences, achievements and challenges in implementation of nutrition and WatSan
interventions. UNICEF supported Namibia to become an active member of the
SUN movement by participating in all teleconferences and major international events. UN
child rights advocate Graça Machel and the UNICEF regional director conducted a joint
advocacy visit to Namibia to accelerate action on ECD and nutrition as areas where
Namibia lags its status as an upper-middle-income country.
The major challenge in the WASH sector was the lack of a clear approach for scaling up
sanitation. The preferred approach by Government is sanitation supply; however, MAWF
and MURD have differing approaches to design and use of the toilets constructed. Evidence
32
from the field shows that most of the structures constructed are not used. Open defecation is
still practiced in villages that have 100 per cent toilet coverage through MAWF subsidies.
The national sanitation strategy calls for piloting CLTS in rural areas to increase sanitation
coverage. CLTS was implemented in four regions (Ohangwena, Zambezi, Kavango West
and East). However, it has not yielded the required results. Thus, UNICEF supported the
MAWF, as coordinator of WATSAN Forum, to review the current implementation of CLTS
approach, design a new, updated CLTS programme and build capacity on CLTS of 43 staff
from the four ministries involved. An international consultant from the CLTS Foundation,
hired by UNICEF, conducted a review process/consultation on CLTS at both the national
and regional levels. This was an opportunity to advocate with key stakeholders at the
national level (directors, deputy directors and WatSan Forum members) and regional level
(governors, constituency councillors, regional directors) about the importance of the launch
of CLTS approach. Discussions were initiated with Government counterparts to consider
providing facilities to communities that have become ODF through CLTS as an incentive to
move them up the sanitation ladder.
Technical support was provided to the MAWF to hold an annual sector execution plan
planning meeting, during which WatSan indicators were reviewed and annual targets set.
Through the partnership between UNICEF and Namibia Red Cross Society, adaptive
capacities and resilience of individuals and communities were built to withstand the effects of
climatic change on health and nutrition in several regions (Zambezi, Kavango West,
Kavango East, Ohangwena, Omusati, Oshana, Oshikoto and Kunene).This partnership
piloted CLTS in five villages in Ohangwena, of which one became open defecation-free and
was awaiting certification, subject to the approval of ODF protocol.
On June 24, 2016, the President of the Republic of Namibia officially declared a state of
emergency due to the ongoing drought. The Namibian Government, through its directorate
of disaster risk management, under the Office of the Prime Minister, developed a costed
drought preparedness and response plan. In support of the plan UNICEF submitted a
proposal and secured funds from USAID to address challenges posed by the drought. The
intervention aimed to improve water and sanitation coverage and change behaviour on
sanitation and hygiene practices among targeted schools and communities, to impact on the
health, nutrition and wellbeing of children in a humanitarian situation. The activities were
designed to support efforts to eliminate open defecation and provide humanitarian
assistance through water trucking to of-pipe communities affected by the drought.
OUTPUT 1 Quality technical support provided for programme management of Nutrition and
WASH

High-level managerial and technical support was provided for scaling up nutrition through
NAFIN and elimination of open defecation in Namibia through the national WatSan forum.
UNICEF has a WASH specialist and a nutrition specialist supporting various line ministries to
plan, implement and monitor nutrition and WASH interventions.
OUTPUT 2 By 2018, NAFIN able to coordinate and monitor the implementation of multi-
sectoral Scaling-Up Nutrition Country Plan.

Technical support was provided for the development of various policies and strategies, such
as the food and nutrition security policy and school feeding policy. A nutrition advocacy
booklet for parliamentarians was drafted to sensitize members of Parliament on their role in
promoting improved nutritional status of children. Support was also provided to NUST to
33
develop and implement a degree course in nutrition. Because of UNICEF support,
the Government successfully implemented 92 per cent of activities planned for 2016 in
the SUNCIP.
UNICEF is a key member of NAFIN, and facilitated the organization of quarterly meetings in
which stakeholders shared experiences, achievements and challenges in implementation of
nutrition interventions. However, ongoing challenges in terms of attendance by other line
ministries and the functionality of the regional coordination mechanisms remain. UNICEF
supported country efforts to be an active member of SUN movement by participating in all
teleconferences and major events at the international level.
UNICEF also supported Government efforts to train human resources in nutrition, and
signed an MoU with NUST to support the development and implementation of a degree
course in nutrition. The curriculum process was underway. In 2016, UNICEF also supported
the MoHSS to develop a nutrition surveillance system that will help to capture real-time data
on the nutritional status of Namibian children and inform prompt response and programming.
In response to one of the SADC Inter Parliamentary Union recommendations, a nutrition

booklet for parliamentarians was drafted. The booklet is intended to sensitize and create
awareness on the roles parliamentarians can play to improve the nutritional status of
Namibian children.
OUTPUT 3 By 2018, MoHSS able to coordinate, plan, implement and monitor non-
communicable diseases prevention and control

The 2013 NDHS was the first national survey in Namibia to include biomarker
measurements of blood pressure and fasting blood glucose. Six per cent of women
and seven percent of men are diabetic; that is, they have elevated fasting plasma glucose
values or report that they are taking diabetes medication. An additional 7 per cent of women
and 6 per cent of men are pre-diabetic. Among eligible respondents age 35-64, more than
four in ten women (44 per cent) and men (45 per cent) have elevated blood pressure or are
currently taking medicine to lower their blood pressure.
The prevalence of obesity among children under five declined only slightly between 2006
and 2013: from 4 per cent to 3 per cent. An obesity assessment was conducted in five
schools in Khomas Region, however the MoHSS has yet to release the results. A national
committee on non-communicable disease has yet to be set up, and there currently is no
national strategy (delayed by the NDHS results). WHO is the lead UN agency in this sector
and the MoHSS, with WHO support, developed guidelines for the dietary management of
NCDs, with technical support from UNICEF Namibia.
OUTPUT 4 By 2018, MAWF able to coordinate, plan, implement and monitor the WASH
program

The Directorate of Water and Sanitation Sector Coordination hosted an annual sector
execution plan planning meeting in April. WatSan Forum members reviewed indicators and
set annual targets for the sector. The 2016 plan incorporated a new indicator on open
defecation-free communities, in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals. A target
of 80 open defecation-free villages was set for 2016.
Sector coordination remains a challenge. To strengthen and improve the coordination

mechanism, the terms of reference of the WatSan Forum were revised and a code of
conduct for members developed.
34
As part of the partnership between UNICEF and the Society for Family Health, 648
principals, teachers and cleaners were trained on WASH in schools. The country’s
100 school health clubs continued to play a crucial role in hygiene promotion activities at
school and in communities. Club members promote hand-washing with soap, drama
performances, conduct hygiene promotion sessions and clean up the schools’ surroundings.
Notable results were: availability of hand-washing facilities and soap close to toilets,
adoption of hand-washing with soap after using the toilets and school surroundings are kept
clean. In addition, school management began to use universal primary education funds to
address WASH needs (i.e., buying toilet paper, sanitary pads for girls and soap for hand-
washing.
UNICEF Namibia’s partnership with the Namibia Red Cross Society continued to
support five triggered villages on CLTS and, in 2015-16, 280 toilets were constructed.
Ondingwanyama, a village that achieved universal sanitation coverage, sustained the
adopted good hygiene practices. Each household has and uses toilets with tippy taps and
handwashing soap or ash close to the toilets. There are no human feaces in the surrounding
area and the number of flies has declined. The village serves as a model for the CLTS
approach. Surrounding villages began to request implementation of CLTS. In addition,
Government officials visited Ondingwanyama to observe the progress.
UNICEF supported high-level participation by Government officials at the sanitation learning

workshop in Johannesburg in April. The workshop provided an opportunity for South-South
cooperation and exposure to experience from other countries and available sanitation tools.
A major outcome in Namibia was a consensus to implement CLTS through Government
structures. The CLTS Foundation made available a consultant from Zambia to support CLTS
implementation in Namibia. The consultant conducted a review of CLTS implementation,
trained Government staff members and designed a CLTS programme, scheduled to begin in
2017. The consultant also drafted the ODF protocol that is under discussion at the national
level and will guide the certification of Ondingwanyama village as ODF.
UNICEF supported the City of Windhoek’s hygiene promotion month in September and the
celebration of the Global Hand-Washing Day. The events were used to advocate for the
importance of WASH.
OUTPUT 5 By 2018, increased capacity and delivery of services to ensure protection of the
nutritional status and that girls, boys and women have protected and reliable access to
sufficient safe water, sanitation and hygiene facilities in humanitarian situations.

On June 24, 2016, the President of the Republic of Namibia officially declared a state of
emergency due to the ongoing drought. The Namibian Government, through its directorate
of disaster risk management, under the Office of the Prime Minister, developed a costed
drought preparedness and response plan. In support of the plan UNICEF submitted a
proposal and secured funds from USAID to address challenges posed by the drought. The
intervention aimed to improve water and sanitation coverage and change behaviour on
sanitation and hygiene practices among targeted schools and communities, to impact on the
health, nutrition and wellbeing of children in a humanitarian situation. The activities were
designed to support efforts to eliminate open defecation and provide humanitarian
assistance through water trucking to of-pipe communities affected by the drought.
35
OUTCOME 7 By the end of 2018, appropriate legislation, policies, strategic plans and
budgets set up and implemented for improved teaching and learning outcomes for boys and
girls (pre-primary, primary, secondary).

There is a generally strong enabling and supportive environment for quality basic education
in Namibia. The challenge lies in capacity on the ground and in regions to translate
supportive polices, legislation and directives into change for children. Key legislation was
finalised in 2016 through the draft Education Bill, which is expected to be enacted in 2017.
After national and regional consultations held in 2015, an Issues Paper and Survey Reports
were developed and finalized in the first quarter of 2016. The promulgation of the new
Education Act for Namibia is a major development in terms of aligning the Education Act to
progressive policies in relation to universal primary and secondary education, free pre-
primary education, mother tongue education, ECD and safe and secure learning and
teaching environments. The new Act will create an enabling policy environment to deliver on
the SDGs, especially as it relates to health, nutrition and poverty reduction.
To further strengthen the policy environment for improved delivery of education services, a
number of important strategic documents were being developed or reviewed by the MoEAC
and other line ministries, with technical and financial support from UNICEF
Namibia, including: the strategic framework for IECD; national safe school framework;
integrated school health programme; and out-of-school children action plan. The purpose of
the national safe schools framework is to consolidate existing laws and good practices and
provide an agreed national approach to help schools and their communities address issues
of unsafe conditions and practices, (bullying, harassment, violence) in addition to child abuse
and neglect. The framework would support existing mechanisms and initiatives, such as the
sector policy on inclusive education, as well as the integrated school health programme, a
joint programme between the MoHSS and MoEAC. A critical tool for data collection in
education is the EMIS, which is also being revamped through support from UNICEF
Namibia.
The education sector has received over 20 per cent of the national budget during the past 26
years; however, budgetary provisions did not translate into quality learning and teaching
outcomes. As a result, UNICEF is supporting the MoEAC to conduct a comprehensive public
expenditure review, to be completed in 2017. The purpose of this exercise is to conduct an
analysis of public expenditure and financial accountability in the education sector, to create
an effective, efficient and equity- based education expenditure framework for primary and
secondary education in Namibia.
OUTPUT 1 By 2018, quality technical leadership provided and programme results achieved

UNICEF maintains an excellent relationship with the MoEAC, with progress made towards
achieving quality education. UNICEF continued as lead technical support for the ministry in
terms of Integrated ECD, human resource development, review of the Education Act, the
release of EMIS data, capacity building on education data sets, SASG and the creation of a
safe and conducive learning environment. UNICEF also continued to convene the education
pillar of the GRN-UN partnership framework (UNPAF), with two scheduled meetings held
during the reporting period. As convener of the UNPAF education and training pillar,
UNICEF received recognition in the UNPAF MTR report as the only functional pillar and as a
model for other pillar leads. UNICEF assisted line ministries to create a sustainable
foundation for implementation of the strategic programmes through the establishment of the
governing bodies at the national and regional levels to oversee implementation of the IECD
programme, integrated school health programme and safe schools programme.
36
OUTPUT 2 By 2018, MoEAC has enhanced capacity at all levels to better plan, monitor and
evaluate education programmes and policies.

UNICEF Namibia’s support to the MoEAC for efficient data management involved two main
interventions: (1) technical and financial support for data collection, analysis and
presentation of EMIS data and (2) capacity building of MoEAC’s education data planners at
both national and regional levels, for in-house EMIS management.
UNICEF Namibia supported a complete technical revamp of the annual education census
(AEC), including digitalisation of the platform, rendering it more efficient and user- friendly
through user acceptance testing carried out with the participation of MoEAC data planners,
thus serving both as a training opportunity and a validation of the platform’s user
acceptability. The platform went live in January 2016 and has since been used to train the
core body of data capturers and EMIS personnel at the national level. In light of MoEAC
plans to decentralize EMIS, UNICEF provided technical support to assess the devolution-
readiness of regional EMIS offices to assume planning functions around data collection and
analysis.
To render the AEC platform more responsive to the needs of children and facilitate
coordinated service delivery in education, UNICEF conducted a gap analysis to ascertain
which questions ought to be featured in the census, which pertain to integrated school health
programme and IECD. It is expected that these questions will be incorporated in the platform
from 2017 onwards.
The annual education census is complemented by the school register of needs and the
register of orphaned and vulnerable children, two vital censuses conducted seperately. A
critical component of EMIS is the “Fifteenth School Day Report” (15 SDR) which was
published for the first time in the same calendar year for 2015 and 2016 as an accurate
reflection of the situation in schools. UNICEF supported MoEAC to clean and analyse data
for the 15 SDR and for public dissemination of data through widely read newspapers in a
user-friendly format.
To increase MoEAC’s capacity for effective data management, UNICEF supported the
Ministry to procure the services of a leading EMIS expert, who carried out a three-day
training for 28 education data planners (two from each of Namibia’s 14 regions) titled “Skills
Development for Education Planners in EMIS in Namibia”. Further training was also
conducted over four days for regional education planners and regional councils, for 28
officials, to strengthen the planned decentralization of EMIS.
In terms of the timely release of data for development and planning, an EMIS template was
created for the MoEAC to ensure that essential data on schools are released within three
months of the 15th day in the school year, ensuring timely use of data for planning. With
UNICEF support, the MoEAC EMIS now operates under the motto “this year’s data this
year”.
OUTPUT 3 By 2018, key education policies (ECD, learner pregnancy & inclusive education)
are reviewed and their implementation strategies approved by MoEAC

Apart from the review of the Education Act as a key enabling legislative document expected
to serve a rights-based and pro-poor educational practice, a number of complementary
documents are being revised or strengthened through support from UNICEF Namibia. The
37
strategic framework for IECD was finalized and submitted to two ministers for approval
(MoEAC and MGECW). To ensure a sustainable foundation for the implementation of IECD
policy in Namibia, a series of meeting were held with senior officials from the two ministries,
including permanent secretaries and European Union delegation officials (as the major
development partners in this sub-sector) to refine the IECD framework and align it to
strategic national planning documents such as the NDP5. Through UNICEF advocacy and
support, IECD is featured prominently in the draft document as a critical enabler for
economic and human development. UNICEF Namibia strengthened the establishment of a
functional national governing body to serve as a platform for sharing and promoting the
implementation of quality and inclusive IECD services, with a focus on the poorest and most
vulnerable children and communities.
Training on the sector policy of inclusive education was conducted in all regions of Namibia
to benefit educational planners and programme developers, including curriculum developers,
with a specific focus on establishing an inclusive culture, values and best practices. The
sector policy seeks to expand access to and provision of quality education for all, including
children with disabilities and other marginalized groups, and to establish therapeutic and
protective support mechanisms at the community level. The MoEAC expects that at least 40
per cent of teaching staff will be able to effectively implement inclusive education practices in
schools by the end of 2018.
The national school health task force gathered and maintained momentum in 2016. It met on
average once a month, making it the most effectively coordinated national mechanism for
implementing a cross-sectoral endeavour requiring multi-stakeholder involvement.
UNICEF Namibia supports the MoEAC and the MoHSS in the coordination of the task force
by assuming the role of the interim secretariat. In 2016, the two ministries signed an MoU
committing to work together closely on the issue of school health.
To address the challenge of school safety in an integrated manner, the MoEAC and UNICEF
Namibia embarked on the development of a comprehensive national safe schools
framework. The aim is to provide guidance for all school communities and educational/health
professionals to create and maintain a positive and safe school climate, this contributing to
positive teaching and learning outcomes, while protecting learners from engaging in risky
behaviours such as substance abuse, violence, and early sexual debut that could lead to
teenage pregnancy.
OUTPUT 4 By 2018, national institutions of higher education have expanded research

outputs linked to MoEAC programmatic needs.

The report from the out-of-school children study was approved by the MoEAC and
disseminated at a national workshop officiated by the minister. The human resources
development plan and implementation strategy for the Namibian education sector was
completed and approved by the MoEAC and submitted to Cabinet. The plan is aimed at all
those involved in the development of Namibia’s education system, in particular those
working in the area of human resources. It is aimed at guiding planners and managers in the
system, including those who draw up annual plans and budgets for key education planning
organisations (particularly the MoEAC), agencies such as the National Institute for
Educational Development and Namibia Students Financial Assistance Fund, and
educational institutions such as the University of Namibia, NUST and the Namibia College of
Open Learning.
But the plan is also aimed at stakeholders outside the education sector who need to
understand the current and future human resource needs of the basic education sector,
including the national planning commission, office of the Prime Minister, Ministry of Finance
and international partners such as UNICEF, UNESCO, the European Union and the World
38
Bank. The plan also serves as a point of departure for work that the Ministry expects to
undertake for a human resources development plan for the country as a whole.
The issues paper for the review of the Education Act 16 of 2001, was approved by the
MoEAC and a draft Bill was in place, that will lead to the promulgation of a new Education
Act in 2017. The positive deviance study was completed. The study examined the factors
that enable some schools to consistently demonstrate exceptional academic performance,
differentiating them from schools sharing the same circumstances and resources, with the
view to sharing the best practices at the national level. An article was submitted to an
international peer-reviewed journal, and a paper based on the findings was accepted for
presentation at the International Conference on Comparative Education and Equality.
Further, an IECD centre-based needs assessment was completed. The findings were being
analysed, in partnership with the Office of the First Lady, the MoEAC and MGECW. The
objective of the exercise was to identify existing immediate needs at the centre level for
effective service delivery in IECD, to identify gaps and bottlenecks in access to services and
to recommend key components of essential needs for services at centre level.
OUTPUT 5 By 2018, MoEAC emergency preparedness and response capacity strengthened

and sustained at national and regional levels

During 2016 UNICEF Namibia advocated for the school feeding programme to be expanded
to needy children from poor and vulnerable communities and households and to ECD
centres and secondary schools. The draft Education lill made recommendations to this
effect.
UNICEF provided input to the national drought emergency response plan. Although lack of
resources prevented targeted programming on drought and flood relief, ongoing technical
support was provided in response planning and capacity.
OUTCOME 8 By the end of 2018, 66 per cent of school-aged children (boys and girls)
(especially among the socially excluded), benefit from continued access to improved
learning through to secondary education within a safe schooling environment.

Despite the prioritization of education in Namibia, educational outcomes do not meet
expectations. There has been a steady increase in access to education starting in 2013, with
a total increase in enrolment of approximately 11 per cent from 2013 to 2016. Drop-out and
repeater rates, however, remain high. The 2016 Out-of-School report revealed that 11 per
cent of primary-aged, 18 per cent of junior secondary-aged and 34 per cent of tertiary-aged
children were not in school in 2011. The GRN initiated free universal secondary education in
2016, following the introduction of free primary education in 2013, to address socio-
economic barriers to education. Some Namibian children do not complete Grade 1, others
never go to school (or fail Grade 1 and leave). For the age group 20-24 years captured in the
2011 census, that was the case for 9 per cent of the cohort. For younger age cohorts, the
percentage declined – to 6 per cent among 12 year olds – but appears to be rising again for
younger children. Because many children start school late, the figures for the younger age
cohorts may be slightly exaggerated.
However, the indications are that there is a need for further efforts to get all children to
attend school at the lowest grades. Starting school late is still quite common, as is evident in
the gross enrolment ratios and repetition rates. It is apparent that the proportion of children
in school peaks at age 10 or even higher, and not at the age group that Grade 1 children
should have been in the census, namely seven years. Many children drop out of school long
before completing senior secondary school, but in some cases even before completing
primary school. Of specific concern are the poor survival rates of children from the poorest
39
and most marginalized areas. Data suggest that fewer than 1 per cent of learners who start
grade 1 in these areas complete grade 12.
Despite increased access, learning achievements and outcomes remain a challenge. High
repetition rates point to inefficiencies in the system. Indications are that children may remain
at school for ten years without completing primary school or the first year of junior
secondary.
Lack of access to ECD services is another indicator for poor performance in school. Only 48
per cent of children in grade 1 had access to one year of formal learning prior to entering
grade 1. Namibia has an enabling policy environment for the implementation of IECD
services. The Child Care and Protection Act, Act No. 3 of 2015, the national integrated early
childhood development policy of 2007, the national agenda for children 2012-2016 and the
draft Education Bill, to be enacted by Parliament by March 2017 were all developed with
UNICEF technical assistance to guarantee the provision of integrated ECD services.
UNICEF Namibia supported the pilot of an IECD approach in five of the 14 regions of
Namibia, benefiting over 600 children, 100 caregivers and parents and communities. The
budgetary allocation per learner in primary education (US$1,100) and secondary education
(US$1,300) in 2015/16 increased significantly since 2012. Allocation per secondary learner
more than tripled during this period and allocation per primary learner increased at a rate of
1.5. However, pre-primary education receives an allocation of less than half of that received
by primary and secondary education, even though enrolment in pre-primary education more
than doubled (from 17,572 to 37,148) over the same period. This indicates the need for
improved planning to balance the allocation and expenditure in pre-primary education to
achieve a beneficial balance to meet learning and development requirements and ensure a
solid foundation for lifelong learning.
In terms of learning outcomes, the significant investment made by the GRN in basic
education is not translating into improved learning outcomes and results for children. The
budget for education was equivalent to 10.6 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic
Product in 2015. Between 74 and 79.3 per cent of this total education budget was dedicated
to basic education, arts and culture, which includes pre-primary, primary and secondary
education, with the remaining allocated to higher education, training and innovation.
Education continued to receive the largest share of the national budget, its share increasing
by almost 2 per cent over the past five years. Despite this investment, more than 50 per cent
of grade 12 learners do not manage to pass English as a second language or physical
science with a score of 50 per cent or more.
This makes it is clear that, despite improvements in access, systemic issues related to the
provision of quality education (such as teacher development, the proper use of data for
planning and development, improved transitioning from ECD to primary and secondary
education) require attention.
OUTPUT 1 Quality technical support provided for programme management of Education

UNICEF Namibia provided both technical and financial support to the MoEAC to conduct a
public expenditure review for the education sector. The process involved regional
consultations with over 100 education planners, school principals, regional directors and
human resource officers from five of the 14 regions of Namibia, and officials at the MoEAC
and Ministry of Finance. The consultations provided critical information with regard to the
flow of financial resources from the national to regional and school levels, teacher
provisions, funding to private schools, hostel provisioning for learners from remote areas and
how the allocation of resources benefits individual children in the classroom. The review
process will be completed in early 2017 and the findings will be used to ensure that
resources are allocated in a pro-poor manner; e.g., placing more emphasis on children from
40
poor and vulnerable communities and on the procurement of teaching and learning
materials.
As a result of the out-of-school children conference, a youth task force was established,
supported by UNICEF, comprising members of the various youth-led organisations under the
National Youth Council, which played an active role in the conference. Every region is
represented on the task force. The taskforce reports to the OOSC national steering
committee, as well as to the national school health taskforce, providing both bodies with
youth perspectives, to ensure youth-centred planning, programme design and
implementation. UNICEF co-convenes these task forces and steering committees with the
Government.
Through advocacy and awareness-raising, IECD has gained prominence at the ministries of
education and gender, but inter-ministerial and stakeholder collaboration remained a
challenge in Namibia. UNICEF participated in the inter-country quality node early childhood
development (ICQN–ECD) to review the draft strategic plan (2016-2018) and develop an
implementation framework to guide the activities of the ICQN over the next three years. The
strategic plan will be shared with African Ministers responsible for education and child
development and country focal persons, to ensure the implementation of quality ECD
services at the national and continental levels. UNICEF provided inputs to the concept note
for a pre-conference gathering on ECD to be held in March 2017.
To expedite implementation of the national gender policy of Namibia (2010-2020) through a

national plan of action, Cabinet called for gender coordination mechanisms, focused around
six themed ‘clusters’ mandated to address gender issues within their field. The education,
training and girl child cluster is chaired by the MoEAC, and UNICEF is a member, providing
technical support and guidance to the secretariat.
UNICEF facilitated the drafting of the section on education and skills for the NDP5, stressing
the importance of investing both human and financial resources in this sector and
strengthening inter-ministerial and multi-sectoral stakeholder collaboration and coordination.
The NDP 5 will be launched in early 2017.
OUTPUT 2 By 2018, young people demonstrate improved knowledge and skills for informed
decisions on HIV prevention and SRH

UNICEF Namibia, in collaboration with UNESCO, supported training for Life Skills teachers
on the new junior secondary school life skills curriculum through the National Institute for
Education Development (NIED). The training offered 439 upper primary life skills teachers a
four-day course and reorientation on the new curriculum. A training manual was developed
in the process through designated facilitators under NIED supervision. Emphasis was placed
on life skills-based education, with a special focus on sensitive issues around HIV
management, early detection and prevention, and support. Further, the training placed
special emphasis on continuous assessment and learning support for in-service training.
Key bottlenecks in successful delivery of HIV prevention, management and support through
the life skills programme are cultural/traditional factors that impede teachers from openly
discussing and teaching sex education. In many instances, the private views of teachers
regarding sexual matters determine their didactics, regardless of the curriculum. UNICEF, in
collaboration with development partners, provided extensive support in the development of
the integrated school health programme, which features a fully developed a training-of-
trainers manual on school health as well as the school health portal. Such an integrated
approach to school health is expected to benefit the life skills delivery by bringing together
analysis and monitoring of various dimensions of school health under a unified framework.
41
UNICEF supported implementation of a school sport for development (SS4D) training
programme, the aim of which was to foster positive choices and outcomes for the
participating adolescent girls and their families through an integration of physical
education and life skills programming. The programme provides leadership and life skills
education to secondary school learners, as part of SS4D. By June 2016, 38 educators and
five ministry officials had received training in SS4D, and weekly physical education classes
were taking place in the schools. Life skills messages were incorporated into physical
education activities at all four schools, reaching 4,783 learners. The SS4D pilot has
increased the overall capacity of educators to deliver quality physical education and school
sports. Sports has been found to provide a positive medium for learning healthy habits and
skills, and the learners who were involved in the pilot benefited from improved confidence,
social skills and knowledge of health and nutrition, as well as physical skills. Terms of
reference for a SS4D steering committee were developed, with endorsement pending. The
momentum of the SS4D programme was somewhat hindered due to weak linkages between
the line ministries and limited engagement from the Ministry of Sports, Youth and National
Service. While UNICEF’s implementing partner, Sportstec, worked well with regional officials
from Ministry, at the national level commitment was intermittent.
OUTPUT 3 By 2018, all schools in Namibia are implementing and monitoring standards and
regulations for effective teaching and learning.

Regarding adequate sanitation in primary schools, Namibia may exceed its target of <10 per
cent by 2018. In pre-primary education, adequate toilet facilities were available in only one-
third (34.3 per cent) of ECD centres. The provision of more and better housing for qualified
teachers in remote schools should be prioritized within fiscal and practical constraints.
Currently, a considerable amount (US$8 million) is allocated for teacher housing in the
MoEAC budget. Assuming half of all teachers at Category 1 schools would require housing,
the cost of providing it to those experiencing the greatest hardship would be only US$14.5
million. Thus it is possible to provide all Category 1 teachers with housing within five years
by spending about US$2.9 million per year – less than half the amount currently set aside in
the budget.
The SASG programme pilot programme was implemented in 48 schools in the Hardap
Region and 100 schools in the Ohangwena Region. In 2016 he MoEAC, with the support of
UNICEF Namibia, scaled up the programme to the Oshana Region, and training was due to
take place in the Omaheke Region in early 2017. UNICEF Namibia supported the design
and roll-out of school board training through trainers’ workshops and two community
sensitization meetings. The three-day training workshop had 53 participants, who received
skills to provide training to boards across the region. The two one-day sensitization meetings
were attended by 431 people. The agenda included presentations on the SASG programme,
the role of school boards and the responsibilities of the school community. UNICEF led an
extensive reconfiguration of the school board training manual to ensure that it is rights-
based, user-friendly and updated with the latest information. The new manual will be in use
as of January 2017.
As part of the “Start Caring-Stop Bullying” campaign UNICEF developed a range of anti-
bullying communications materials, including:
 12 television episodes of 15 minutes promoting positive behaviour to learners for a
happy, healthy life
 Six posters with anti-bullying messages
 A radio advert with an anti-bullying message, translated into 10 local languages
 An anti-bullying song
 A music video to accompany the song, with a strong anti-bullying message.
42
The TV episodes will have sign language translations added at the start of 2017.
After assessing the pilots efforts, it became apparent that the model used for promoting and
training child-to-child activities had limitations that affect their sustainability. In the original
model, learners received only one training session, and there was no mechanism in place for
them to pass their knowledge on to new members the following year. UNICEF Namibia is
developing a new concept note and supporting terms of reference to address these issues,
and strengthen the role of the Edu-circles, for implementation in 2017.
OUTPUT 4 By 2017, 60 per cent of existing ECD centers meet the minimum standards and
are managed by qualified educarers

UNICEF Namibia supported the pilot of an integrated approach to ECD in five of the 14
regions of Namibia, benefiting over 600 children, 100 caregivers and parents and
communities. Caregivers at all pilot sites received in-service training covering key aspects of
early childhood development, including: health; hygiene and nutrition; the importance of play;
early identification of neglect, abuse and special needs as well as the importance of early
learning. Training was extended to parents, who were sensitized about the importance of
strengthening communication with their children at an early age, providing nutritious food to
their children and ensuring that children are immunized and taken for regular health checks.
Parents were also taught about the importance of ensuring that the rights of children with
disabilities and other special needs are met through participation in IECD programmes,
routine health check-ups and immunization and ensuring that their children have birth
certificates. In addition, parents were sensitised about their role in meaningfully contributing
to the activities of the centres.
The assessment of the pilot programme revealed strong community and parental
participation in the activities of the ECD centres. Parents who cannot afford to pay the
monthly fee are contributing their services, though cooking food for children and cleaning the
centres, and many have taken their children for health check-ups. The caregivers are using
different approaches to IECD, and some caregivers gained knowledge about early
identification of special needs and disabilities and have the capacity to refer to professional
support. In addition, they are now able to identify abuse and neglect and refer cases to
social workers. Parents with children without birth certificates were also referred to the
relevant authorities for assistance, thus smoothing their transition to pre-primary and primary
education. In addition, health care workers are now regularly visiting ECD centres and
providing health information to parents during meetings, as well as assessing child abuse or
neglect.
OUTPUT 5 By 2018, By 2018, out-of-school children and most at risk adolescents and
adults have improved access to second chance education and skills

UNICEF Namibia, in collaboration with UNESCO and the UNESCO Institute of Statistics,
supported the MoEAC to undertake a study in 2015 to assess the magnitude of out-of-school
children in Namibia to understand why they are out of school and to contribute to a
substantial and sustainable reduction in the number of children not in school by addressing
the challenges identified. The outcome of the study was a report on: “School drop-out and
out-of-school children in Namibia: A National Review”. To share the outcomes of the report
MoEAC, with support from UNICEF and other UN agencies, organized a national conference
on “School Drop-out and Out-of-school Children” in June 2016. The conference was
attended by over 150 delegates from Namibia’s 14 regions, including representatives of
youth organizations and organizations of people with disabilities. Preceding the conference,
43
a workshop for youth participants was held where 28 youth participants (two from each of
the 14 regions) – themselves school dropouts or school returnees– took part in a youth-
centred OOSC programming to ensure that their views would be adequately reflected in the
main conference programme’s design and implementation.
Following the conference, the Namibian nation at large debated on mass media, particularly
radio and television, about the challenges facing children resulting in school drop-out and
learner pregnancy. The conference recommended critical interventions to provide quality
inclusive education to all children, irrespective of their socio-economic and cultural
backgrounds. Key recommendations that the MoEAC has committed to implement included:
strengthening implementation of the prevention and management of learner pregnancy
policy; strengthening and expanding the provision of access to the vocational stream, in
order to provide for the diverse aptitudes of learners and enable them to acquire practical
skills; improving the quality of service delivery within the sector; expanding the school
feeding programme to secondary schools that are without hostels; implementing the national
safe school framework to provide a safety net for learners; timely data collection and
analysis on the nature and magnitude of OSSC problem in Namibia; and advocating for the
meaningful participation of parents and community members in education.
As a result of the conference, an out-of-school children youth task force was established,
comprising members of various youth-led organisations that fall under the National Youth
Council and played an active role in the conference. Every region is represented on the task
force, which reports to the OOSC National steering committee and the national school health
task force, providing both bodies with youth perspectives, to ensure youth-centred planning,
programme design and implementation.
OUTCOME 9 By the end of 2018, appropriate child protection legislation, policies, strategic
plans and budgets set up and implemented.

Namibia’s children continue to be subject to violations of their right to protection throughout
their life cycle. Social workers at the gender-based violence protection unit in the capital treat
in an average week two child rape survivors under the age of eight. Among school-age
children, one in four children have already experienced sexual violence in their lives. For
adolescents, the 2013 NDHS found that 33 per cent of girls aged 15-19 years old have
experienced sexual or physical violence, and 19 per cent of pregnancies in Namibia are
carried by adolescent girls. Coupled with underlying vulnerabilities, such as the 34 per cent
child poverty rate, and the limited state budget allocation for child protection services,
children’s vulnerabilities in Namibia are not declining – despite the country’s upper-middle-
income status achieved in 2009 – and therefore remain a priority for the GRN-UNICEF
programme of cooperation.
Multiple barriers to progress were related to both the enabling environment and service
delivery gaps. After a decade of developments and consultation, the Child Care and
Protection Act was adopted in 2015, complementing the Domestic Violence Act and
Combating of Rape Act by providing a comprehensive legal framework for prevention and
response to violence against children and alternative care. The regulations were being
finalized by legal drafters at the Ministry of Justice in late 2016.
UNICEF Namibia invested in 2016 in tackling remaining the legal gaps in child protection, by
providing technical assistance to develop and advance critical laws. UNICEF conducted
comparative legal research on child online sexual exploitation and developed legal advocacy
briefs for policy makers to enable smooth passage of the Electronic Transactions and
Cybercrime Bill. This Bill, for which UNICEF provided drafting assistance on new provisions
on child sexual abuse material (in line with the latest international standards), is now set to
44
be tabled to Parliament in early 2017. UNICEF further developed a legal brief on the Child
Justice Bill, which, through subsequent advocacy, led the Ministry of Justice to approve
raising the age of criminal majority, from eight to 12 years of age in the newly revised draft
Child Justice bill. UNICEF further worked with legal drafters on the draft Trafficking In
Persons bill and advised on the draft National Population Registration bill.
To enable Government and development partners to better influence domestic resource

allocation for child protection and social protection, UNICEF conducted a state budget
expenditure analysis in social welfare and assistance. The Budget Brief produced as a result
indicates that only 0.09 per cent of state budget is spent on child welfare and statutory social
work services to vulnerable children, a percentage that remained relatively stable over the
past years. The analysis, which will be disseminated in January 2017, will guide UNICEF
advocacy on child protection budgeting.
UNICEF Namibia in 2016 stepped up its technical assistance for strengthening birth and
death registration, based on the recommendations by the national assessment and strategic
plan to strengthen civil registration and vital statistics in Namibia, which were supported in
2014 by UNICEF Namibia and UN partners. UNICEF in 2016 promoted technology
innovations in child protection by supporting a technical working group led by the Office of
the Prime Minister in mapping the current system and developing a revised birth and death
notification system, after modelling the new system in 2017 in three regions.
The national child online protection programme that UNICEF embarked on in 2015 came to
fruition in 2016. With funding from the UK, new partnerships were built and UNICEF Namibia
could put the emerging risk of online abuse and exploitation of children on the national
agenda. The Office initiated an active inter-sectoral task force; pursued legal reform and
research; created advocacy platforms and media actions; and built institutional capacities of
social welfare, education and criminal justice professionals. In March 2016 the GRN signed
the #WEPROTECT Commitment to Action on Tackling Child Online Sexual Exploitation, and
in May it hosted a high-level national conference on child online protection that brought
together global and regional opinion leaders in this field from CSOs, national police, and the
IT industry, with Namibian Government and non-government stakeholders and development
partners to discuss the latest trends and good practices in strengthening child online safety.
OUTPUT 1 Through to 2018, quality technical support provided effectively for protection
programme.

Programme implementation was on track with a new child protection specialist that came on
board in July 2016 and an international legal consultant that supported legal reform and child
online protection work. The P3 social protection specialist post remained vacant due to
funding constraints. The Chief of Child Protection and Social Protection assumed this
function. UNICEF remains the lead development partner providing technical assistance on
protection issues to the MGECW, Ministry of Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare
(MoPESW), MHAI, and ministries of Safety and Security and Justice
OUTPUT 2 By 2018, the government has acceded to additional regional human rights
treaties.

During this CP, UNICEF supported Namibia’s steps to accede to The Hague Convention on
Inter-Country Adoption by investing in a learning visit to South Africa and sharing
experiences with central authorities (to be) in Southern Africa. In 2016, The Hague
Permanent Bureau approved Namibia's accession to The Hague Convention, following the
adoption of the 2015 Child Care and Protection Act. The MGECW subsequently conducted a
45
needs assessment to inform the establishment of a Central Authority, with engagement from
the ministries of Justice, International Relations and Home Affairs and Immigration. The
Hague Convention will enter into force as soon as the Child Care and Protection Act
regulations are formally published. UNICEF Namibia liaised with Hague Permanent
Bureau in determining technical support to Namibia. UNICEF further began the process of
supporting the Government to develop its progress report to the Committee on the Rights of
the Child, due in October 2017.
OUTPUT 3 By 2016, functional multi-sectoral coordination mechanism in place that ensure

effective implementation of poverty and vulnerability policies and strategies.

Complex vulnerabilities of children often require multi-sectoral solutions. Limited coordination
between sectors and linked inefficiencies are often barriers to the successful delivery of child
protection services. UNICEF Namibia in 2016 therefore continued to invest in strengthening
coordination forums, or initiating new forums to address specific needs. UNICEF continued
to support and facilitate the inclusion of child protection stakeholders in five existing and two
new multi-sectoral coordination bodies: the school safety committee, the school health task
force, the child online protection task force, the civil registration and vital statistics
stakeholder committee, and the permanent task force on children. The latter coordination
body continued to ensure that recommendations by global and regional bodies (the UN
Committee on the Rights of the Child on Namibia's periodic report, the African Union
Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, the UN Convention of the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women) were addressed, and that the
country's national agenda for children (2012-2016) was monitored.
UNICEF Namibia worked with partners to initiate an e-birth and death notification technical
working group, led by Office of the Prime Minister, to strengthen and better link the birth and
death notification and registration system that covers the mandates of three separate
ministries – thereby addressing one of the key barriers to timely birth registration. UNICEF
also initiated and supported the national social protection core team, a previously
uncoordinated field. Under the leadership of the MoPESW, this new body will help guide and
monitor social protection reform in Namibia. UNICEF continued to provide technical
guidance to the child online protection task force and facilitated the development of a
national response framework and a 2017-2018 plan for tackling child online abuse and
exploitation risks through cross-sectoral collaboration. UNICEF acts as secretariat to all
three of these coordination bodies and supports chairpersons to monitor progress.
OUTPUT 4 By 2016, CRVS system has increased coverage and strengthened inter-
ministerial cooperation.
While birth registration rates in Namibia are high (87 per cent as per the 2013 DHS, of whom
63 per cent have a birth certificate), most registrations are still late. After an initial spike in
the number of timely birth registrations following the introduction of UNICEF-supported,
hospital-based birth registration in 2010 and support to decentralized registration points,
timely birth registration (<1 year) rates remained low (46 per cent in 2015).
A 2014 national assessment on civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) supported by
UNICEF and UN partners clarified that remaining bottlenecks include: (i) weak sector
coordination, illustrated by disconnected birth and death notification and registration
systems, resulting in limited capacity to follow up unregistered births; (ii) limited access to
birth registration services, especially one-stop services; social norms that require fathers to
name a child before registration; geographical distance and cost for parents to return to
register a birth; lack of awareness on the benefits of birth registration; and absence of a legal
framework that provides clear guidance to civil registration staff.
46
UNICEF Namibia continued to strengthen systems that facilitate access to integrated health,
civil registration and social protection services, building on the support provided to
Government in 2014-2015 to update bilateral MoUs and develop regional cross-sectoral
implementation plans between health, civil registration and social welfare officers. These
plans can be activated as soon as the MoUs are signed.
UNICEF Namibia in 2016 supported the progression of the national population and
registration bill, ensuring that it is in line with other child protection and data- protection
legislation.
UNICEF Namibia further initiated a new technical working group on e-birth and death
notification under the leadership of the Office of the Prime Minister which, jointly with other
ministries and he NSA, convened to map out the currently widely divergent death and birth
notification processes and develop a new streamlined system. This new system will be
converted by the Office of the Prime Minister into a digital front office portal on e-birth and
death notification, in the context of the roll-out of e-governance. The portal will be piloted in
2017 in three regional high-density hospitals, with UNICEF funding. The new electronic birth
and death notification system will link to the electronic national population registry system
and the social assistance system in order to enhance timely registration, produce more
accurate real-time vital statistics on the number of births and deaths in the country and
facilitate more accurate and timely social grant registrations. This cross-sectoral initiative
brought together child protection, social protection health and IT partners to develop a
common system.
UNICEF Namibia explored other decentralized service innovations to improve timely birth
registration, including a plan to offer integrated hospital-based birth and child grant
registration services at selected hospitals, presenting an additional incentive for parents to
register their child right after birth.
OUTCOME 10 By the end of 2018, more vulnerable individuals and families demand for, and
benefit from integrated child protection and justice services.

Child protection and justice services are fragmented across social welfare, safety and
security and justice sectors, with related functions in the health and education sectors. No
protocols are in place to guide collaboration and, most importantly, secure sectoral
accountability and budget allocation to ensure that on-the-ground child protection services
are delivered effectively.
Bottlenecks to effective service delivery include limited specialized capacity to investigate

and prosecute cases of violence against children; poor coordination among service
providers; fragmented social work mandates across two ministries; and low demand for
services. While violence response services are generally well-known, the services do not
reach most abused girls and women. Of the 33 per cent of girls aged 15-19 who report
having been physically or sexually abused, only 27 per cent sought help to stop the violence,
with less than half seeking help from the police, a doctor or a social work organization.
During the MTR of the UNICEF-GRN CP in 2016, the Government asked UNICEF Namibia
to provide greater support for policy implementation, equipping professionals to implement
the existing legislation. In doing so and addressing the bottlenecks outlined, UNICEF
Namibia continued to work cross-sectorally and with UN agencies present in Namibia to
build institutional capacities, while leveraging funding from other development partners for
systems-strengthening to increase efficiency.
47
For example, through the education sector UNICEF supported the roll-out of the school
health manual, which includes a chapter on violence against children and online protection.
The Office also collaborated on the development of a multi-sectoral safe schools framework,
which presents mandates for the education, social welfare and law enforcement sectors in
preventing and responding to violence against children detected in schools. The functional
review of the Child Care and Protection Act (2015) and the human resources gap analysis,
two studies for which Global Fund resources were leveraged and to which UNICEF Namibia
provided technical support, were finalized in 2016 and fed into the UNICEF-supported
budget brief on social welfare and assistance and social work case management toolkit, an
initiative for which UNICEF collaborates with the Government and USAID. IECD and anti-
bullying platforms were leveraged to raise awareness for child protection services as part of
the IECD package and for child online abuse and cyber-bullying.
The child social work caseload in Namibia is high. The human resource gap analysis
finalized in 2016 indicates that in August 2016 the ratio of state (child) social workers to the
child population stood at 1:11,000, with one social worker managing an average active
caseload of 300 cases, many related to child abuse. Coupled with limited guidance and
supervision due to distances and absence of professional debriefing or wellness
programmes, it is not a surprise that the child social work vacancy rate remains high, at 30
per cent. UNICEF Namibia in 2016 therefore teamed up with USAID-funded 4Children to
coordinate action and leverage each other’s technical and financial resources to support
Government efforts to strengthen social work case management systems. A UNICEF
ESARO-supported technical mission on integrated case management by Maestral in April
2016, which 4Children joined, provided evidence for a two-year social work case
management work plan that was subsequently developed by 4Children and the MGECW,
jointly with UNICEF. Through a Government-led technical working group, UNICEF Namibia
collaborated with 4Children to provide technical assistance for a social work case
management toolkit, incorporating revised forms and guidelines for child care and protection
committees supported in previous years by UNICEF, to make one comprehensive package
to facilitate social case work for children.
UNICEF Namibia supported the training of welfare and law enforcement professionals to
work with child witnesses of sexual offences, including online abuse, in close collaboration
with the Office of the Prosecutor, and produced implementation guides for social workers on
the Child Care and Protection Act, in cooperation with the Legal Assistance Centre.
Regarding children and online safety, the national child online protection programme initiated
in 2015 with UNICEF support, came to fruition. UNICEF in 2016 worked with the Ministry of
ICT, Telecom and the Internet Watch Foundation to negotiate the establishment of an online
reporting portal to report child sexual abuse material. It is expected that this portal will be
established as soon as the new Electronic Transactions and Cybercrime Bill is adopted in
2017. Meanwhile, UNICEF continued to build capacity of stakeholders on child online safety,
including the telecommunication industry, parliamentarians, and the criminal investigation
division of the Namibian Police, to encourage a greater role in blocking and removing
abusive content by industry, the adoption of pertinent legislation and strengthening the
cybercrime and GBV protection divisions. With dedicated funding on online protection,
UNICEF will continue to play a lead technical role with the Government.
Namibia is embracing the ‘UN delivering as one’ approach. In fields such as gender-based
violence and human trafficking, where mandates are shared among various agencies,
UNICEF engaged in active inter-agency coordination and communication. Leveraging the
expertise of every agency, this approach sought to avoid duplication and send a clear and
uniform message to partners.
48
Lastly, Namibia began efforts to strengthen child protection data for planning, budgeting and
service delivery through a review of administrative data systems supported through UNICEF
Headquarters.
OUTPUT 1 Salary and related costs(CP Specialist NO3).

The Child Protection and Social Protection programme has seen a big shift, from a mostly
unfunded programme in 2014 – which impacted on maintaining momentum with partners on
programme activities – to a healthy, well-funded programme in 2016. The new programme
assistant and child protection specialist are now on board, while an international consultant
supports the programme’s legal and child online protection work.
OUTPUT 2 By 2018, improved procedures and guidelines are in place for Government and
CSOs to provide better services to poor and vulnerable communities.

UNICEF Namibia in 2016 supported the development of a school safety framework, bringing
together education and child protection sectors to ensure that prevention and response to
violence and abuse are addressed. The framework will guide the development of a teacher
training programme planned for 2017, with the aim of improving support to learners
subjected to violence and abuse. UNICEF further worked cross-sectorally to conduct
refresher training on school health for health and education professionals, jointly with WHO,
including a module on violence in schools.
UNICEF supported implementation of the anti-bullying campaign, which fed into the
development of the national safe schools framework in 2016, as part of the collaboration
between the education and protection programmes.
UNICEF teamed up with USAID's ‘4Children’ initiative to bring together recommendations
from an UNICEF ESARO-supported technical mission on integrated case management in
April 2016, joined by 4Children, in a 4Children-supported two-year work plan for the
MoCEGW. Through a Government-led technical working group, UNICEF Namibia joined
4Children to provide technical assistance to develop a social work case management toolkit,
incorporating revised forms and guidelines for child care and protection committees that in
previous years had been supported by UNICEF, as well as the recommendations from the
functional review and gap analysis supported by the Global Fund.
A national programme on child online protection, initiated with UNICEF support in 2015,
came to fruition in 2016. Apart from legal reform, institutional capacity building and the
establishment of a multi-sectoral coordination task force, a 'Child Online Protection and
Business' workshop was organised in February 2016 with assistance from UNICEF Geneva
and Nairobi private sector experts, to broker greater engagement from the telecoms sector in
Namibia. This workshop was followed by a round-table discussion on public reporting
modalities for child online abuse and exploitation, resulting in an agreement between the
Internet Watch Foundation and Telecom Namibia to establish a Namibia digital portal to
facilitate anonymous public reporting of child online sexual abuse content. The portal is
expected to be set up and launched in early 2017. In 2016 UNICEF also launched a
comprehensive public advocacy and awareness-raising programme on child online abuse
and exploitation, consisting of a week-long social media campaign, and engaged with senior
Government officials in print and TV interviews. A UNICEF-supported national conference on
child online protection was held in May 2016, bringing together global and regional experts
to discuss the latest trends inside and outside Namibia, and enabling Namibian stakeholders
to celebrate progress. This quickly-developing field remains a priority area; funding is
pending to strengthen systems to protect children from sexual exploitation and abuse, both
online and offline.
49
OUTPUT 3 By the end of 2018, more vulnerable girls and boys and their families demand for
and benefit from integrated child protection and justice services including CRVS.

UNICEF worked with the line Ministry and a civil society partner to develop technical guides
for social workers to apply the Child Care and Protection Act in their daily work, providing
one guide for each theme; e.g., child trafficking, mandatory reporting of child abuse,
alternative care placement etc. This work is ongoing.
UNICEF supported the CSO Child Line/Life Line, to upgrade its Helpline database, (which
tracks and disaggregates incoming calls from children and referrals made to state social
workers for services) and facilitated, through global partner InHope, a training for Child
Helpline community and telephone counsellors on child online safety. UNICEF supported the
training in two regions for 150 parents and caregivers, as well as 50 teachers and 1,800
learners in a school-based awareness campaign on safe Internet use and mitigating online
risks.
Building institutional capacities within the criminal justice system is a critical component of
strong and effective child protection systems. UNICEF in 2016 invested in a multi-sectoral
skills-building programme delivered by a specialised agency to equip prosecutors,
magistrates, social workers and police officers with knowledge on child cognitive and socio-
emotional development, the impact of trauma on children and child communication, along
with skills to interpret these factors for more effective interviewing, statement taking and
court preparation of child witnesses and survivors of online and offline sexual offences. The
programme was supplemented with an extra two-day training for prosecutors and social
workers on the use of anatomically correct dolls in child sexual abuse proceedings, with 24
sets – two for each region – procured by UNICEF to facilitate implementation. The skills-
building programme, launched by the Prime Minister, was rolled-out by the Government
through a group of 35 master trainers trained by UNICEF. It is expected that the skills will
help shorten the duration of child sexual abuse cases and facilitate prosecution of offenders.
Gender-based violence protection units (specialized police units with a social worker
assigned by the MGECW), are mandated with providing multi-sectoral response to victims of
violence, abuse and exploitation. Challenges exist with relation to access to medical care for
victims of sexual violence. In 2017 UNICEF plans to support development of a multi-sectoral
protocol on collaboration in and referral from GBV protection units, and to ensure access to
forensic examination and other care by dedicated health staff.
Namibia’s police force in 2016 built a relationship with UK’s CEOP (Child Exploitation &
Online Protection) police force, which conducted a rapid assessment of Namibian police
capacity to investigate child online abuse imagery and online exploitation cases. Pending
funding availability, UNICEF plans to conduct an in-depth training for GBVP Units and the
Cybercrime Units to equip them with the required digital forensics and cyber-specific skills to
ensure prosecution of online offences. Furthermore, UNICEF aims to establish a national
coordination mechanism and strengthen international collaboration to combat transnational
crime such as child pornography.
OUTPUT 4 By the end of 2018, guidelines for providing comprehensive multi-sectoral

response services (SRH, HIV, psycho-social, justice and economic) to GBV and VAC
survivors is developed and implemented.
50
Building on the commitment to action adopted in the Gender Justice Colloquium in 2014,
and renewed energy in the UNCT gender theme group, UNICEF Namibia in 2016 embarked
on discussions with IOM and UNFPA to collaborate more closely in strengthening multi-
sectoral services for survivors of gender-based violence and violence against children of the
output results of the UNPAF.
With the 2016 arrival of dedicated funding for both UNICEF and the IOM on violence against
children (VAC) and trafficking, respectively, both agencies were in a better position to agree
on concrete areas of collaboration for 2017-18, including the development of a national
referral mechanism for victims of trafficking, shelter management guidelines and SOPs for
multi-sectoral one-stop service centres for survivors of gender-based violence/ violence
against children (GBV/VAC). Operationalization of shelters and strengthening of one-stop
centres were placed high on the political agenda in 2016 by the Office of the First Lady and
mandated line ministries, and will be pursued jointly with Government through a Delivering
as One UN approach in 2017.
UNICEF Namibia and UN sister agencies agreed to collaborate on development of a

concept note for shelter management, strengthening of protection services and the provision
of referrals to quality shelters, planned for 2017. This interagency collaboration is embedded
in the broader context of collaboration to combat human trafficking, where UNICEF plays an
important role. Activities include the drafting of a national referral mechanism and SOP that
describe the specific procedures necessary to assist child victims of trafficking. IOM, UNFPA
and UNICEF also successfully joined forces during the drafting process for the NDP5,
ensuring that issues related to gender-based violence, child protection and human trafficking
were adequately reflected, with clear indicators to measure progress.
OUTPUT 5 By 2018 State Agencies systems for the collection, analysis, utilization and
dissemination of up to date data on GBV and VAC strengthened.

Throughout this CP UNICEF Namibia advocated with ministries to strengthen the quality,
sharing and use of child protection data. The MGECW and NSA received UNICEF support in
2016 to develop an index of child wellbeing indicators for the next national household income
and expenditure survey, to ensure regular measurement of child wellbeing trends. Planned
support by the U.S. CDC for a baseline survey on violence against children did not materialize
due to the inability of agencies to agree on a global commitment for human rights-
related research. Instead UNICEF entered into an agreement to review and strengthen
administrative data systems on VAC, with support from UNICEF Headquarters. UNICEF
Namibia further supported exploratory research into the use of communication technology by
children and their awareness of online risks, implemented by NUST with the South Africa
Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention, which is an active partner in global research
networks on this topic. Partners also developed a comparative legal analysis on child online
sexual exploitation and an institutional review on child online sexual exploitation. All but the
latter were completed and published and used in advocacy.
OUTCOME 11 By the end of 2018, a social protection system with adequate financial
resources to progressively support all families with children has been set up and
institutionalized.

UNICEF Namibia in 2016 provided inputs into the national household and income
expenditure analysis, which released preliminary data late in 2016. These data show that
poverty declined from 28.7 per cent in 2009/10 to 18 per cent in 2016, with extreme poverty
falling from 15.3 per cent to 11 per cent (child poverty data not yet available). The Gini index
51
improved from 59.7 in 2009/10 to 57.2, against the global trend of greater inequality.
In 2016 UNICEF Namibia successfully leveraged funding from the EU social protection
systems initiative (a consortium comprised of the EU, OECD, Finland and GiZ) to invest in
Namibia to strengthen social protection systems. Namibia is the only middle-income
country among the 10 countries selected globally for this support. While the country has a
relatively well developed social protection system, the sector is fragmented; multiple
administration and delivery systems exist with little coordination and large groups of
vulnerable populations are excluded from assistance. Despite close to 1 per cent of state
budget being allocated to child grants, and one in five children growing up in a household
where a social grant is the primary source of income, the child poverty rate is 34 per cent.
For the EU-SPS programme, which will be rolled out through 2018, UNICEF Namibia was
selected as technical partner to support the newly established inter-ministerial core team,
bringing together all Government stakeholders in social protection, to develop a two-year
Government work plan to tackle critical bottlenecks and implement the plan.
UNICEF Namibia supported two missions of the EU-SPS initiative that helped shape its
parameters with Government, focusing on evidence-generation on child poverty,
effectiveness of current social assistance systems, social protection policy development and
coordination, institutional strengthening and innovations in integrated services and systems.
UNICEF Namibia further facilitated the skills building of multiple ministry staff of the
application of the updated NAMOD, a Namibian tax-benefit micro-simulation model
developed previously with UNICEF support, which simulates the impact of social protection
and taxation policy changes in poverty reduction and can therefore function as a valuable
planning tool. The update and training were financially supported by the United Nations
University in Finland.
In cooperation with UN sister agencies, UNICEF Namibia contributed to the development of

the government blueprint on poverty eradication and wealth redistribution, supporting
development of the social safety nets chapter of the blueprint’s implementation plan and
ensuring that the plan reflects the perspectives of civil registration and welfare ministries.
While working closely with UN partners (UNDP, FAO and WFP) on food security and poverty
eradication in the UNPAF poverty pillar, UNICEF’s lead role in social protection was
recognized by UN partners and the Government.
As part of the sub-regional joint programme on social protection, UNICEF supported the
development of four “Budget Briefs”, including one on social welfare and assistance that
provides budget-related recommendations to guide the social protection system reforms
underway. Leveraging its capacity to bring partners around the table, UNICEF is currently in
discussion with Government and a CSO to strengthen integrated service delivery by
modelling one-stop birth registration and grant registration in selected high-density hospitals
in the north, linked to community-based referral systems.
OUTPUT 1 Salary and related costs (SP Specialist P3)

Throughout this CP UNICEF Namibia advocated with ministries to strengthen the quality,
sharing and use of child protection data. The MGECW and NSA received UNICEF support in
2016 to develop an index of child wellbeing indicators for the next national household income
and expenditure survey, to ensure regular measurement of child wellbeing trends. Planned
support by the U.S. CDC for a baseline survey on violence against children did not materialize
due to the inability of agencies to agree on a global commitment for human rights-
related research. Instead UNICEF entered into an agreement to review and strengthen
administrative data systems on VAC, with support from UNICEF Headquarters. UNICEF
52
Namibia further supported exploratory research into the use of communication technology by
children and their awareness of online risks, implemented by NUST with the South Africa
Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention, which is an active partner in global research
networks on this topic. Partners also developed a comparative legal analysis on child online
sexual exploitation and an institutional review on child online sexual exploitation. All but the
latter were completed and published and used in advocacy
OUTPUT 2 By 2016, MGECW has the institutional capacity to expand the child welfare grant
system.

UNICEF Namibia in 2016 continued to play an active role both within the UN and with the
Government to influence the national poverty eradication and social protection reform
debates, based on evidence developed in the previous CP on child poverty, effectiveness
and impact of child grants and building on sustained advocacy and engagement in national
conferences on social protection during 2015. In 2016 UNICEF hosted technical missions
from the EU-OECD-GiZ and Government of Finland social protection systems initiative, a
new programme that selected Namibia as one of 10 countries for two-year technical and
financial support. In July UNICEF was officially selected as the technical partner for
implementation of this initiative, under the leadership of the MoPESW and a core team on
social protection to which UNICEF provides technical and secretariat support.
Meanwhile, child grants gradually expanded to cover more children; in September 2016,
235,791 children accessed a child grant, including a new type of grant – the vulnerable child
grant – targeting children living in households where both caregivers are unemployed. This
fifth grant category was initiated in 2015 after research conducted with UNICEF in 2010-
2014 noted that significant vulnerable child populations were excluded from the current
system. Expanded coverage received a boost in 2016 when Namibia’s Treasury allocated an
additional US$10.8 million to enable the MGECW to roll out the new vulnerable child grant to
reach an additional 125,000 eligible children. UNICEF Namibia fostered dialogue between
ministries and with civil society partners to collaborate on grants and birth registration, to
tackle the large backlog of child grant registrations accumulated due to manpower
constraints. One innovation that awaits a political decision involves cross-ministerial and civil
society support to offer one-stop birth and child grant registration in selected hospitals in
2017, with a connection to community-based identification and referral mechanisms. For
children living in rural areas the difference between accessing the grant or not would be not
only the availability of a birth certificate but also of a community welfare worker to facilitate
access.
UNICEF Namibia further facilitated engagement by the MHAI and MGECW in poverty
eradication forums organised by the MoPESW, including development of the national
blueprint on poverty eradication and its implementation plan, for which UNICEF Namibia
closely collaborated with UN partners to include social work services and strengthening of
civil registration systems to strengthen social safety nets.
The functional review and human resource development gap analysis that were initiated in
2015 with Global Fund funding, were finalized in 2016. Recommendations on increasing the
social work cadre and regrading and task-shifting in social work, to enforce the Child Care
and Protection Act (2015), were costed and included in the Budget Brief on social welfare
and assistance developed by UNICEF Namibia in 2016.
53
OUTPUT 3 By 2016, NAMOD I and II developed to link tax-benefit micro-simulation with
social protection budget forecasting.

UNICEF Namibia has consistently utilized data from the 2013 NAMOD tax-benefit micro-
simulation modelling exercise – which provided evidence of the potential poverty-reduction
impact (from 34 per cent to 9 per cent) of universal child grants – in its advocacy efforts for
universal child grants and reducing child poverty. In 2016 UNICEF hosted a capacity-
building workshop for 10 financial analysists from several relevant ministries on the revised
NAMOD, in partnership with the NAMOD developer (Southern African Social Policy
Research Insights), with funding from the United Nations University World Institute for
Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER). Opened by the ministries of finance and
poverty eradication, this training built capacity and promoted use of the NAMOD for
evidence-based social protection policy making by Government.
OUTPUT 4 By 2016, MOF, MGECW and MOLSW have increased capacity for evidence-
informed planning, financing and implementation of social protection measures.

As part of the sub-regional BNLSS joint work plan on social protection, UNICEF Namibia
developed a set of four “Budget Briefs”, including one on social welfare and assistance. The
state budget analysis summarized in the Budget Brief noted that expenditure on child grants
has gradually increased – from 0.2 per cent of the state budget in 2010/11 to 0.97 per cent in
2016/17 (in monetary terms from US$1.4 million to US$44 million) – because of the
extended coverage; increases averaged 0.9 per cent between 2013/14 and 2016/17. This
allocation is significantly higher than the budget allocated to social work and child protection
services, at 0.09 per cent. At the same time, the ratio of administrative officer/social worker:
grant beneficiary also rose steadily, adding to the workload of social workers and taking time
away from case management functions.
The analysis further demonstrated that while social grants for vulnerable children have
gradually reached more children, the real value of the monthly grant per child has dropped
substantially over time, due to inflation. Currently the real value of the monthly child grant,
which stands at US$18, is US$5 per month, well below the food poverty line of US$15. The
cost of accessing a social grant in Namibia, where distances are great, often outweighs the
grant value itself, posing a financial access barrier. There is a need to adjust social grants
annually based on inflation rates or public-sector salary increments in order to improve the
standard of living of those with low-incomes and avoid a widening income gap, as well as to
expand coverage and increase the value of the grant, for it to have a meaningful effect on
poverty eradication. These recommendations, captured in the Budget Brief, were taken
forward by UNICEF during child protection planning and budgeting dialogues with the
Ministry of Finance and MGECW. The budget briefs will be launched publicly in early 2017,
after which a new round of briefs, based on the 2017/18 budget, will be produced.
OUTCOME 12 By the end of 2018, evidence-based policies and legislative frameworks for
the realization of the rights of all children and adolescents in place, implemented, effectively
monitored and adequately resourced.

UNICEF Namibia continued to support implementation of the country's guiding strategy for
child rights, the national agenda for children, and coordination among Government and non-
government stakeholders to support Namibia's progress toward meeting its commitments
under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the African Charter on the Rights
and Welfare of Children. Preparations were made for developing the country’s CRC
progress report, due in October 2017. UNICEF Namibia supported the Government in
54
monitoring and reporting progress on the implementation of international and regional treaty
bodies it has ratified. UNICEF Namibia further facilitated accession to international treaties,
and provided technical assistance for finalization and adoption of laws that incorporate CRC
principles into Namibia law.
A major achievement in this respect in 2016 was the public consultation to finalize the
Education Act for submission to Parliament in 2017. UNICEF further provided inputs into
stakeholder task forces that address children's rights, including the permanent task
force that was initiated by UNICEF but is now led by Government.
In 2016 UNICEF Namibia also supported a secondary analysis of the 2013 NDHS, in which
multiple overlapping deprivation analysis had been integrated. UNICEF further assisted the
NSA and MGECW in the development of an index of child wellbeing, to inform household
survey questionnaires. UNICEF Namibia developed budget briefs that provide a summary
analysis of state expenditures in the health, water and sanitation, education, social welfare
and social assistance sectors, as well as a public expenditure analysis on
education, contributing to UNICEF's advocacy on child- sensitive budgeting and programme
planning. UNICEF further supported the Government with stakeholder consultations on the
review and update of the national agenda for children. (Results on social protection are
reported under the child protection and social protection programmes).
OUTPUT 1 Quality technical support provided effectively for child-sensitive legislation,

policies, strategic plans and budgets

Social policy technical assistance was provided by UNICEF’s research and evaluation
specialist and the chief of child protection and social protection, who was temporarily
covering social policy. Technical support was provided for research and data management,
the Namibia household income and expenditure survey (design and development of
questionnaires) and strengthening the national statistical system. The officer in charge of
social policy managed production of the budget briefs, the national agenda for children
review and stakeholder consultations and NAMOD, with assistance from the research and
evaluation specialist.
OUTPUT 2 By 2016, Social sector ministries have increased capacity for effective and
efficient budget planning and implementation

In its advocacy efforts for universal child grants and reduction of child poverty, UNICEF has
consistently utilized data from the 2013 NAMOD tax-benefit micro-simulation modelling
exercise, which provided evidence of the potential poverty-reduction impact (34 per cent to 9
per cent) of universal child grants. The NAMOD tax benefit micro-simulation model is a tool
that enables measurement of the impact of changes in policies around social protection and
taxation, including the impact of targeting and levels of social grants on reducing child
poverty. In 2016, the tool was revised to include changes in rules around taxation and
expansion of social grant coverage. UNICEF Namibia hosted a capacity-building workshop
for 10 financial analysists from the MGECW, MOPESW and ministries of Finance and
Labour, on the revised NAMOD, in partnership with NAMOD developer the Southern African
Social Policy Research Insights, with funding from UNU-WIDER. Opened by high-level
officials from the ministries of Finance and Poverty Eradication, this training built capacity
and promoted use of the NAMOD for evidence-based social protection policy-making by
Government.
UNICEF further conducted a rapid budget analysis exercise highlighting the implications for
children. UNICEF Namibia attended training on public finance for children (PF4C), and future
work will be centred around mainstreaming public finance in all the sections and using the
55
PF4C tool to leverage domestic resources for children. This background work will also
provide a basis for 2017 budget briefs. In 2016 budget briefs covered: the state budget,
health and sanitation, education and social welfare and assistance.
OUTPUT 3 By 2018, government, CSO and the general public are better able to protect
human rights

UNICEF Namibia supported public human rights dialogues in 2016 to advance law reform
and ensure that child rights themes on protecting women and children remained high on the
political agenda.
The national public consultation process for the development of the new Education Act, in
which the public in all 14 regions engaged in discussions with Government officials on how
best to guarantee the education rights of children in Namibia, a process supported by
UNICEF in 2015, culminated in adoption of the Act in 2016.
Legal briefs were developed to support the drafting process, along with advocacy tools for
parliamentarians; the concluding observations and general comments on Namibia’s progress
by the CRC Committee served as the basis for these submissions.
Namibia’s reporting to the CRC Committee is due in 2017. Already in 2016, the Government
started preparations for the reporting cycle. UNICEF Namibia supported preparations for the
reporting phase and will further support line ministries in the drafting process.
UNICEF in 2016 further supported national stakeholder consultations for Government,
learners, teachers and the IT industry to broker commitment to tackle online child abuse,
culminating in a national conference on child online protection that highlighted global trends
and lessons learned to address emerging child rights violations online.
UNICEF supported the work of the children's advocate in the National Ombudsman's Office,
engaging frequently with her regarding grave child rights violations that were not adequately
addressed by Government.
Stakeholder consultations were held and supported with technical advice by UNICEF to
review the current national agenda for children and develop a new document that can
generate cross-sectoral action on the protection of child rights and serve as an advocacy
tool for both Government and development partners.
OUTPUT 4 By 2018, national statistical system consistently produces, disseminates and

utilizes high quality disaggregated statistical data.

The NSA is in the process of integrating administrative data systems from ministries into its
social statistics system, but faces challenges with gaining access to data routinely collected
by the ministries. Meanwhile, UNICEF provided technical support for design of the national
household income and expenditure survey, through the development and inclusion of
nutrition and social grant impact indicators. The latter will provide a baseline for a planned
impact assessment of the expended child grant system. The survey was finalized and a
preliminary report focusing on general (not child) poverty was launched late 2016. This
report shows a decline in the country’s poverty rate. Micro-data is available and presents an
opportunity to further conduct in-depth secondary analysis of the adolescent index, child
poverty/child welfare index and ECD.
Another survey for which UNICEF provided technical support was the national inter-census
demographic survey, results of which will be available next year. UNICEF also promoted the
use of MICS 6 in country. To this end the NSA was supported to attend a technical training
56
on MICS and, together with the NSA, UNICEF Namibia will seek to promote the use one
MICS survey in between the regular DHS surveys that the country has adopted.
UNICEF continued to be part of discussions on strengthening national statistics systems.

Ongoing discussion took place on the government performance-monitoring framework,
monitoring implementation of national development plans, the MOHSS’s strategic
information management technical working groups and, recently, the MGECW strategic
information working group. UNICEF provided technical support to these working groups by
promoting the use of data for informed decision-making. A common challenge for Namibia is
that different data collection systems are not integrated; through these technical working
groups UNICEF aims to strengthen and increase the integration of these different data
collection system platforms. The UN M&E team also provided support to the Government to
promote greater capacity to monitor and report on SDG indicators in 2017 and beyond.
OUTPUT 5 By 2018, the government has acceded to additional regional and international
human rights treaties, and is complying with reporting obligations.

UNICEF Namibia started in 2016 to work with MGECW and Ministry of Justice to prepare for
the development of Namibia's progress report to the CRC Committee, due in October 2017.
In January 2015 the Child Care and Protection bill, which domesticates the CRC, was
formally adopted, and promulgated as an Act in June 2015. UNICEF Namibia is currently
supporting the MGECW to finalize regulations that will enable enforcement and
implementation of the Act, expected in 2017 following a delay due to the number of laws
under review in 2016. UNICEF continued to support quarterly sessions of the permanent
task force on children and the child protection collaborative, convened by the MGECW,
proposing agenda items and promoting participation by other sectors.
UNICEF provided technical input into a variety of bills aiming to enhance the implementation
of children's rights in Namibia. The Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology
spear-headed the drafting of the Electronic Transaction and Cybercrime bill, which
incorporates a provision that comprehensively criminalizes child pornography in Namibia and
is in line with the highest international standards. Furthermore, UNICEF supported drafting of
the Child Justice bill, which will reform the system for juvenile suspects and offenders.
UNICEF's technical engagement led to a revised draft, in which the minister approved
raising the age of criminal responsibility from eight to 12 years – one of UNICEF's key
advocacy points. UNICEF also engaged in the finalization of the Human Trafficking bill, to
ensure that it is in line with the child trafficking provisions of the Child Care and Protection
Act.
OUTPUT 6 By 2016, key Government institutions, private sectors, CSOs and academia are
better able to generate, analyse and disseminate evidence on the root causes of poverty and
vulnerability in Namibia
In 2016, technical assistance was provided to the NSA on the household income and
expenditure survey, and discussions were facilitated between the NSA, EU and OECD on
dedicated research on the root causes of poverty, child poverty analysis, and quantitative
research inclusion/exclusion from social protection schemes. An analysis of child poverty is
planned for 2017.
Social policy technical assistance was provided for the development of a dedicated chapter
on multiple overlapping deprivations in the secondary analysis of the 2013 NDHS.
57
More details on poverty analysis can be found under the social protection Outcome.
OUTPUT 7 By 2017, NDP 5 is developed inclusive of national SDG targets

The consultation process for drafting the NDP5 (2017/18-2021/22) was underway at the sub-
national and national levels in late 2016. All UN agencies in Namibia are involved in this
consultation process, with the UNICEF Representative joining consultations for the northern
regions. Terms of reference were developed for experts in water, energy and cross-cutting
areas, to place short-term national consultants with the National Planning Commission to
coordinate and assist with development of the NDP5. UN agencies also engaged with
sectoral working groups to provide technical inputs and advice to the prioritization process
and ensure alignment with the SDGs and the African Union Agenda.
Document Centre
Evaluation and research
Sequence Type of
Title
Number Report
Regulation of Child Online Sexual Abuse: Legal Analysis of
2016/007 Study
International Law and Comparative Legal Analysis
Evaluation of Namibia’s PMTCT Programme 2016/006 Evaluation
Call to Action #EndAdolescentsAIDS – The “All In” In-Depth
2016/005 Study
Analysis Of Priority Interventions
Exploratory research study on knowledge, attitudes and
practises of ICT use and online safety risks by children in 2016/004 Research
Namibia
A Study of Positive Deviant Schools in Namibia 2016/003 Study
Strengthening data quality and reporting on adolescents living
2016/002 Review
with HIV in Namibia
Galz & Goals Sport for Development Programme: Impact
2016/001 Evaluation
Evaluation Report Namibia 2016
Other publications
Title
For Every Child Equity
There is Hope!
Lessons learned
Document Type/Category Title

Innovation Child Online Protection in Namibia
58
Programme documents
Document
Title Name
Type
Towards a Namibia Fit for Children: Situation
Country Namibia - Situation
Analysis on the Status of Children's and
Update Analysis - 2013 (web).pdf
Adolescents' Rights (2010-2013)
Namibia UNPAF 2014-18
Government of the Republic of Namibia - UN
CPD Final PDF version-09-
Partnership Framework (UNPAF) (2014-2018)
13.pdf
UNPAF -Final PDF
CPD DELETE this duplicate entry
version-09-13.pdf
59

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UNICEF Annual Report 2016

The introduction of universal secondary education in 2016, following universal primary

An assessment of the impact of the drought on access to HIV-related services for

Emerging Areas of Importance

Summary Notes and Acronyms

Evidence Generation, Policy Dialogue and Advocacy

In terms of evidence building, UNICEF Namibia supported public expenditure analysis in

External Communication and Public Advocacy

South-South Cooperation and Triangular Cooperation

Identification and Promotion of Innovation

These actions will form the technology-for-development component of Namibia’s social

Support to Integration and Cross-Sectoral Linkages

Government use of UNICEF procurement services increased significantly in 2016. The

Human Rights-Based Approach to Cooperation

UNICEF Namibia participated actively in the development of the NDP5 (2017/18-2021/22).

Financial Resources Management

Fundraising and Donor Relations

Evaluation and Research

Efficiency Gains and Cost Savings

A significant number of video conferencing, telephone conferencing, Skype lectures and

By collaborating with other UN agencies on security costs, UNICEF Namibia saved up to

Item Description (US$ value)

Total value of procurement by NCO 364,006.38

Ministry of Health 2,775,895.66

In terms of minimum operating residential security standards, the UN Department of Safety

No specific additional security measures were required to enhance programme delivery in

Effective Use of Information and Communication Technology

Programme Components from RAM

ANALYSIS BY OUTCOME AND OUTPUT RESULTS

OUTCOME 1 Special Purpose

Analytical Statement of Progress:

Analytical Statement of Progress:

OUTCOME 2 Governance and Systems

Analytical Statement of Progress:

OUTPUT 1 Effective and efficient Governance and Systems

Analytical Statement of Progress:

Analytical Statement of Progress:

OUTPUT 3 Effective and efficient management of human capacity

Analytical Statement of Progress:

OUTCOME 3 By the end of 2018, Cross-sectoral support provided for programme

Analytical Statement of Progress:

Analytical Statement of Progress:

Analytical Statement of Progress:

Analytical Statement of Progress:

Analytical Statement of Progress:

As part of the school governance and social accountability initiative, an anti–bullying

OUTPUT 5 By the end of 2016, Strategic alliances &public/private partnerships to promote

Analytical Statement of Progress:

Analytical Statement of Progress:

UNICEF supported the MoHSS to conduct a comprehensive review of the national

To accelerate advocacy on nutrition, UNICEF supported the development of the nutrition

To strengthen the WASH coordination mechanism, UNICEF supported the Ministry of

Analytical Statement of Progress:

Analytical Statement of Progress:

UNICEF supported the MoHSS to conduct a comprehensive review of the national

Analytical Statement of Progress:

To address the issue of neonatal mortality, UNICEF Namibia supported a new-

UNICEF supported the MoHSS to conduct a comprehensive review of the national

Analytical Statement of Progress:

Additional technical assistance, was provided through an international consultant recruited to