Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1698146967729.pdf (Namibia)
REPUBLIC OF NAMIBIA MINISTRY OF URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT MOTIVATION SPEECH BY ERASTUS UUTONI, MP MINISTER 2021/2022 FINANCIAL YEAR BUDGET ALLOCATION VOTE 17 NATIONAL ASSEMBLY Hon.

Chairperson of the Whole House Committee Hon.


Members I stand before you to introduce, motivate and seek your support for the Budget Allocation to Vote 17 totalling One Billion, Six Hundred and Thirteen Million, Nine Hundred and Twenty Five Thousand Namibia Dollar (N$ 1,613,925,000) This year’s allocation represents a 3% reduction from the last year budget allocation of One Billion Seven Hundred and Thirteen Million, One Hundred and Sixty- One Thousand Namibia Dollar N$ 1 713 161 000.
One Billion, Thirty three Million, Eight Hundred and Seven Thousand, Namibia Dollar (N$1,033,807,000) is the Operational Budget and the Development Budget is Five Hundred and Eighty Million, One Hundred and Eighteen- Thousand Namibia Dollar (N$ 580,118,000).

Hon.

Chairperson of the Whole House Committee Hon.

Members I will now present the allocation of the 2021/2022 budget per Programme.
PROGRAMME ONE: REGIONAL AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND TRADITIONAL AUTHORITIES A budgetary allocation of Eight Hundred and Ninth Four Million, Seven Hundred and Six Thousand, Seven Hundred and fifty Six Namibia Dollar (N$ 894,706,756) is subsidy and will go towards supporting and enhancing the operational and service delivery capacity of Regional Councils and Local Authorities as well as recognised Traditional Authorities.
The allocation will be used to carry out the following activity:  Development of an Urban Land Reform and Programme Hon.

Chairperson of the Whole House Committee, Honourable Members Our next Programme is Decentralisation.
PROGRAMME TWO: ENHANCEMENT OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN DEVELOPMENT PLANNING AND DECISION MAKING (DECENTRALISATION) 2 Despite resources and capacity challenges at various levels, the Government remains committed to the decentralisation of decision-making and service delivery to the local and grassroots levels.
A budgetary allocation of Twelve Million, One Hundred and sixteen (N$ Thousand Namibia, Five Hundred and Twenty-One Dollar 12,116,521) has been made to fund activities related to the decentralisation of additional functions to RCs.
During the 2019/20 financial year the ministry recorded the following achievements under this programme:  The MURD facilitated the process of decentralising the functions of Primary Health Care and related functions under the Ministry of the Health and Social Services, which have since been gazetted.
 The MURD facilitated the process of decentralising the functions of Social Pensions (Old Age grants, disability grants and Funeral Befits under the Ministry of Gender Equality, Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare, which have also been gazetted.
Specific we will pursue the following current and new activities:  We will continue the work started towards the decentralisation of further functions with Ministries of Sport, Youth and National Service; Agriculture, Water and Land Reform; Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment Creation.
 Commission a review and impact of decentralisation process that has thus far taken place in the country, and we will also develop the Decentralisation Implementation Action Plan to better guide the process going forward,  Work on the amendment of the Regional Councils Act, 1992 (Act 22 of 1992) with special focus on the part dealing with Human Resources  We will also, together with the National Council, push the finalisation of the Regional and Constituency Development Fund Bill.
Honourable Chairperson of the Whole House Committee Honourable Members Let me move on to the next Programme.

PROGRAMME THREE: SUPPORT TO HABITAT AND HOUSING DEVELOPMENT 3 The allocation to this Programme during the 2019/2020 financial year together with the contribution of other partners such as NHE, the GIPF, SDFN and private sector, the Ministry and Local Authorities were able to service 2,846 plots and to construct 1,179 new houses.
This year an amount of Five Hundred and Ten Million, Four Hundred Fifty-Four Thousand Namibia, One Hundred and six Dollar (N$ 510, 454, 106) is earmarked for this Programme, which consists of various interventions by the Government that are aimed at ensuring the availability of basic municipal infrastructure and services as well as the provision of housing in the country.
This allocation makes up a large percentage of our Development Budget and will go towards funding ongoing interventions on urban and regional planning, land servicing and support to housing development initiatives that are carried out by the Ministry, Regional Councils and Local Authorities.

Our interventions on land delivery will largely focus on increasing tenure security and the provision of basic municipal services as well as low-cost housing especially in informal settlements.
We will do this following insitu, flexible and incremental approaches such as the Flexible Land Tenure System as well as pre-allocation of land, which is planned but may still have to be serviced or is only partially serviced.

As part of our ongoing efforts to scale up the provision of affordable housing, allocations in the amounts of N$5 million and N$10 million have made for the National Housing Enterprise (NHE) and the Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia (SDFN) respectively.
The major activities to be carried out under this Programme are:  Review our National Housing Policy;  Scale up the delivery of much needed serviced land through partnership between and with LAs, public and private sector partnership as well as community initiatives such as Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia (SDFN);  The formulation of a National Informal Settlement Upgrading Strategy;  Upgrading and formalisation of informal settlements;  Finalise the completion and allocation of commenced-but-uncompleted houses under the MHDP, and support other viable housing delivery, and  To scale-up Community-led Total Sanitation (CLTS).
4 PROGRAMME FOUR: RURAL DEVELOPMENT In line with our commitment towards improving the livelihood of our people residing in rural areas, a budget amount of Seventy-eight Million, Eight Hundred and eighty-Two Thousand, Thirty-Two Namibia Dollar (N$ 78,882 032) is earmarked for our ongoing Rural Development initiatives.
The specific interventions to be funded with the allocation are:  A N$10 million allocation implemented through RCs; to support rural sanitation initiatives  An allocation of N$8 million to support self-help income and employment generating initiatives by rural communities;  Another N$8 million allocation to support appropriate technology the operational Rural through development for rural communities Development Centres;  A N$28 million allocation to finance ongoing work at six (6) rural development centers that are under construction, namely at Rupara in Kavango West Region, Masokotwane in Zambezi Region, Eembaxu in Ohangwena Region, Ogongo in Omusati Region, Snyfontein in //Kharas Region and Gibeon in Hardap Region.
Hon.

Chairperson of the whole House Committee Hon.

Members In order to ensure policy oversight as well as financial, technical and administrative support to the four core functional areas and programmes of the Ministry, an allocation in the amount of One Hundred and Seventeen Million, Seven Hundred and Sixty-Five Thousand, Five Hundred and Eighty-Five Namibia Dollar (N$ 117,765, 585) has been made for this purpose.

Hon.

Chairperson of the whole House Committee Hon.


Members Let me take this opportunity to thank the Minister of Finance and Director General: National Planning Commission and their teams for their continued support and resource allocation towards urban and rural development amidst various competing demands and challenges.

5 Hon.

Chairperson of the whole House Committee Hon.


Members I now submit Vote 17 in the amount of One Billion, Six Hundred and Thirteen Million, Nine Hundred and Twenty Five Thousand, Namibia Dollar (N$ 1,613,925,000), for consideration and approval of this August House.

And I thank you.

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