Staff Reporter
THE Ministry of Agriculture, Water, and Land Reform has convened a workshop in the capital to draft a new Resettlement Criteria, which will accompany the new Resettlement Policy of 2023, approved by the cabinet. Speaking at the workshop, the Governor of the Khomas region, Laura McLeod—Katjirua explained that the Second National Land Conference took 176 resolutions, one of which directed that the resettlement policy be reviewed to respond to contemporary land needs and demands.
She added that the Resettlement Policy has now been revised and approved by the Cabinet. The revised policy has taken a different approach by introducing three resettlement models, namely: the High, Moderate, and Low Economic model and better support packages. Since 1990, the government, through its land reform program under the lands ministry, has acquired 571 farms.
McLeod-Katjirua said that the scope for land demand has since broadened with dispossessed communities calling for accelerated land delivery and youth calling to be allocated land to drive Namibia’s economic development. “On the other hand, our national interest is to promote women, marginalized people, and vulnerable groups’ empowerment and to continue the quest of integrating veterans into a productive society. In some communities, we witness overcrowding of livestock and land degradation—hence there is a need to relieve pressure from such communities and to avoid land degradation. There was a collective belief that if the above aspects are improved in the policy, the land reform program will deliver the desired results,” the governor said.
She added that by the end of the workshop, stakeholders will align government’s criteria to cater to dispossessed communities, youth, women, marginalized groups, generational farm workers, and large communal farmers, etc.
“This is the aspiration of the 2nd National Land Conference. The approved National Resettlement Policy of 2023 means that the Resettlement Criteria currently used to select prospective beneficiaries of resettlement farms is no longer speaking to the revised Policy. The policy and criteria lacked support for dispossessed communities in terms of land allocation. Transparency of land allocation was also put to question. Vulnerable groups, youth, veterans need to be given special consideration in land allocation. The process was attacked for selecting the wrong beneficiaries, hence perceived poor productivity on resettlement farms,” McLeod-Katjirua said.
She added that the consultations on the draft Resettlement Criteria give stakeholders an opportunity to bring about change in areas of government’s operations and work that require review to align the current Criteria with the approved National Resettlement Policy of 2023.
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