Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1698938812000.pdf (Namibia)
REPUBLIC OF NAMIBIA MINISTRY OF URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT VOTE 17 MOTIVATION SPEECH BUDGET FOR THE 2016/2017 FINANCIAL YEAR BY SOPHIA SHANINGWA, MP MINISTER OF URBAN AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, 220d MARCH 2016 1 Hon.

Chairperson Hon.

Members of this August House, of the Whole House Committee I stand before you to motivate the budget allocation to Vote 17, the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development, for the financial year 2016/2017.
Honourable Chairperson Honourable Members, of the whole House Committee The Budget allocation to Vote 17 for the financial year 2016/2017 to N$ 2,808,922,000 (Two Billion, Eight Hundred and Twenty Two Thousand Namibian Dollars).

The allocation represents a reduction of 10% in comparison to the budget allocation during the previous the financial year.
The allocation is broken down into N$2,079,783,000 (Two Billion and Seventy Nine Million, Seven Hundred for Operational and Eighty Three Thousand Namibian Dollars) Budget and N$ 729,139,000 (Seven Hundred and Twenty Nine Million, One Hundred and Thirty Nine Thousand Namibian Dollars) and Eight Million, Nine Hundred for the Development Budget.

amounts The activities of the Ministry are grouped under and the budgetary allocation for the fiscal year 2016/2017 is divided among these programmes.
I will now present the allocations per programme.

five (5) main programmes, The Programmes that the Budget covers are: 1.

Rural Development 2.

Support to Planning, Infrastructure, and Housing Development 3.

Decentralization (Enhancement of Public Participation) 4.

Coordination of Regional Councils, Local Authorities and Traditional Authorities Affairs 5.
Policy Supervision and Support Services PROGRAMME ONE: RURAL DEVELOPMENT A budget of N$ 89,157,000 Thousand Namibia Dollars) has been allocated to our Rural Development Programme.
(Eighty Nine Million, One Hundred and Fifty Seven The focus of our Rural Development Programme is on reducing rural poverty and improving the livelihood of our people who reside in rural areas by empowering rural and initiating self-help development communities projects that will enable them to take charge of their own development and to improve their well-being.
in taking advantage of opportunities This Programme declaration of an all-out war against poverty, and I seek the support of this August House for the budgetary allocation to this programme in the amount ofN$89,157,000.
IS III line with our President's 2 Honourable Chairperson Honourable Members of the whole House Committee PROGRAMME TWO: SUPPORT TO PLANNING, INFRASTRUCTURE AND HOUSING DEVELOPMENT N$ 1,452,395,000 (One Billion, Four Hundred and Fifty Two Million, Three Hundred and Ninety Five Thousand Namibia Dollars); that are aimed at This Programme consists of the various interventions by the Government supporting and boosting the development and availability of housing, basic infrastructure and services as well as ensuring proper and sustainable urban and regional planning and development in the country.
including resource constraint, we remain steadfast Despite known challenges, in our resolve to address the backlog in the development and availability of serviced land and affordable housing and basic services to our people, especially the ultra-low and low income groups.
In this regard, we will use the budget allocation to continue our housing delivery interventions under the Mass Housing Development Programme and the Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia as well as support to Regional Councils and Local Authorities to maintain and increase the delivery of serviced land and provision of basic infrastructure and services at the grassroots level.

(NHE) remains the The Namibia Housing Enterprise Government in provision of housing products to a section of our population.
As such, I wish to thank the Minister and staff of the Ministry of Finance for the budgetary allocation of N$lOO million in the 2016/2017 fiscal year for the recapitalization of the NHE with a view to strengthen its balance sheet and enable it to source external funding to sustain its operations.

As the line-Minister, is more than I know the company's the allocation, but little is better than nothing.
funding requirement an important instrument of The provision of housing is not only the responsibility of the Government, but also the private sector through Public Private Partnership and the community itself.
As such, Ministry has been working with and support community-based organisation such as the Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia (SDFN) whose members are people in the ultra- low and low income groups and that are involved in the construction and delivery of affordable housing for these needy and often less serviced market segment.
We will continue our financial support to the Federation during the 2016/2017 financial year in the amount ofN$7 million .. Honourable Chairperson Honourable Members, of the whole House Committee 3 PROGRAMME THREE (DECENTRALISATION): ENHANCEMENT OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION, N$ 8,988,000 (Eight Million, Nine Hundred and Eighty Eight Thousand Namibia Dollars); Honourable Chairperson Honourable Members of the whole House Committee and to We will utilise the budgetary allocation to continue our existing imtiatives in which implement new programmes decision making and service delivery are brought closer to the people as well as for local communities to participate in the processes of planning, identifying and prioritizing their development needs.
that are aimed at enhancing the environment While the process of decentralisation may be slow in pace, I wish to take this opportunity to commend those Ministries that have either already decentralised the functions that have been identified for decentralisation and those who have made significant progress in this regard.

These are the Ministries of Education, Arts and Culture and Works and Transport as well as Land Reform and Information and Communication Technology.
During 2016/2017, we will continue the work that we have started with the Ministries of Gender Equality and Child Welfare; Land Reform; Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare; Youth, Sport and National Service; and Agriculture, Water and Forestry, with a view to accelerate the decentralisation process of decentralising their identified functions.
We will also continue our effort to build and enhance the capacity of the Constituency Development Committees to effective perform their regional development planning role as well as for Regional Councils and Local Authorities to properly take on and manage the decentralised functions.
COORDINATION OF REGIONAL COUNCILS, LOCAL AUTHORITIES AND TRADITIONAL AUTHORITIES AFFAIRS PROGRAMME FOUR: Honourable Chairperson Honourable Members, of the whole House Committee I am seeking the support of this August House for a budget allocation in the amount of N$ 1,122,917,000 and Twenty Two Million, Nine Hundred and Seventeen Thousand Namibia Dollars for our Regional Councils, Local and Traditional Authorities Coordination (One Billion, One Hundred Programme.
We will use the budgetary allocation to this Programme to enhance the governance and service delivery capacity of these sub-national government structures as well as support to and recognized Traditional Authorities roles.
developmental to perform their administrative community During the corning financial year, we plan to undertake the following activities under this Programme: 4 • Strengthening the governance capacity of local authorities, especially the village councils and small or struggling towns as well as their capacity to effectively respond to fire disasters;; • Budgetary allocations related to governance, cornrnunalland; to local authorities to them to meet operational expenses for loss of the valuation, compensation of homesteads • Assistance to Local Authorities and Regional Councils implementing their Local and Regional Economic Development strategies, with the aim of creating and enhancing environment investment, business and economic growth; in formulating and (LRED) plans and for private • Support Traditional Leaders; and to traditional authorities' Community Trust Funds and the Council of PROGRAMME 5: POLICY SUPERVISION AND SUPPORT SERVICES Hon.
Chairperson Hon.

Members of the whole House Committee I am seeking the support amount of N$ 135,465,000 (One Hundred and Sixty Five Thousand Supervision and Support Services.

Namibia Dollars) of this August House for the budgetary allocation in the and Thirty Five Million, Four Hundred Policy last Programme: to our to the other four The purpose of this programme is to provide administrative programmes of the Ministry.
The activities under this programme are Policy Supervision; Support Services; andjo support the activities of Regional Governors.

support Hon.

Chairperson Hon.

Members of the whole House Committee In conclusion, I wish to take this opportunity to renew my appreciation to my two Deputy Ministers and my staff for their support to me and for their loyalty, hard-work and shared commitment to service.
We are equally grateful to the Ministers of Finance and Economic PlanninglNational Planning Commission and their staff for the effort that they have made in the face of to find resources to allocate to Ministry of urban and Rural Development limited resources and competing needs.

that our sector deals with some of the I admit pressing issues in the country - access to serviced urban land, housing, regional and local authority governance, and Traditional Authorities.
Finally, I now request this August House to support and approve the budget allocation to Vote 17 for the 201612017 Financial Year in the amount of N$ 2,808,922,000 (Two and Twenty Two Thousand Billion, Eight Hundred Namibia Dollars).

and Eight Million, Nine Hundred I THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION AND SUPPORT, AND SO I SUBMIT HON.

CHAIRPERSON 5