Three decades of outward-oriented and orthodox economic policies have left sub-Saharan Africa with a deepening crisis of unemployment, underemployment and poverty. This article analyses the low labour absorption capacity in Africa’s enclave economies where a small, modern, formal capitalist sector exists alongside a larger traditional and informal sector. These sectors coexist in tenuous forms while the vast majority of the labour force is trapped in precapitalist modes of production. Using secondary data, the article outlines the continued marginalisation of sub-Saharan African countries in the global economy, pointing to a lack of diversification, the export of unprocessed natural resources and the continued importation of processed goods. This is exacerbated by low levels of intra-African trade and Africa’s infrastructure gaps, as well as stagnant foreign direct investment flows which have had minimal developmental impacts. Southern Africa will need developmental state interventions to break the limitation of the enclave economy.
Uploaded date: 05 July, 2024
Namibia is grappling with an unemployment crisis. The youth, women, and people living in rural areas and informal settlements are disproportionately affected by the scourge of unemployment. The profile of the unemployed is a portrayal of the country’s racist colonial and apartheid- induced inequalities. Viewing the unemployment crisis through a human rights lens holds great potential. To start with, the right to work is recognised in several international treaties. The right to work is inextricably linked to several other human rights, including the right to human dignity, the right to non-discrimination, and the right to life. Importantly, an expansive interpretation of the right to life reads into it a right to livelihood.
In Namibia, informality is widely used with reference to informal economies and informal settlements, which are fast overtaking formal urbanisation processes. Informal actors and practices are continually marginalised. As a result, few attempts are made to understand their everyday socio-spatial practices for what they are. Instead, the lack of compliance with the dominant colonial-modernist urban development paradigm is foregrounded. This paper is based on ethnographic research undertaken for my PhD thesis on the case study of Herero Mall, an informal market in central Katutura (Lühl, 2020). The research was framed by the question of how traders inhabit Herero Mall socially, spatially and economically, with the latter aspect forming the focus of this paper. I construct a notion of a popular economy that thrives on diversity, co- dependence and spatial innovation and thereby quilts inherited modernist urban fragments into a decolonising urbanism that works for the majority.
In 2012, the residents of Freedom Square in Gobabis, the capital of Omaheke Region in Namibia, embarked on a ten-year long process of in-situ upgrading, eventually becoming a pilot programme for the Flexible Land Tenure System (FLTS), a tenure security system designed for low-income communities. This study examines the impacts of that programme on social and economic livelihoods and also examines the programme through the lens of social justice. It is based on data gathered in the field from residents, municipal officials and NGO representatives
Namibia’s economic structures, centred around the extractive industries with very limited local manufacturing, were largely maintained after independence. The key sectors in terms of employment such as agriculture, fishing and forestry, accommodation and food services, wholesale and retail trade, and private households are characterised by high levels of informality and below-average wage levels. Namibia’s trade unions emerged in the 1980s, some of them with a strong focus on social movement unionism, combining struggles at the workplace with broader struggles for independence and democracy. After independence, the unions’ focus was narrowed within a tripartite social dialogue model which encompassed only formal sector workers at larger workplaces in the public and private sectors. Consequently, unions hardly managed to recruit informal and vulnerable workers whose numbers increased as a result of outsourcing and subcontracting
In this case study, we delve into the life of Ms Tomas, an urban informal trader operating in Hakahana, part of Katutura, Windhoek. Born in Engela Village in Ohangwena Region in northern Namibia and raised in Hakahana, Ms Tomas has a deep connection to the community and an intimate understanding of its socioeconomic dynamics. Like many residents, she turned to informal trading as a livelihood means due to formal job opportunities being so limited. Having completed Grade 12 at Jakob Marengo Secondary School in Katutura, Ms Tomas’s journey as an urban informal trader began with her pursuit of stable and well-paying jobs in the formal sector. Like many individuals, she aspired to secure formal employment that would provide financial stability and better opportunities for her family. However, Ms Tomas encountered challenges in realising this goal, with limited job prospects and fierce competition in the formal job market. Faced with the need
Magdalena Mwatilifange is a 29-year- old woman who lives in Okahandja park, a settlement located in Khomas Region, Namibia, about 10 km north of the capital city, Windhoek. She was born and raised in Onambome, the capital of Okalongo constituency in Omusati Region. She attended Sheetekela Combined School and completed her secondary education. She moved to Okahandja Park in search of better opportunities and a brighter future, but she soon realised that life in the settlement was not easy or comfortable. Informal Living Okahandja Park is one of the informal settlements that emerged in the 1990s as a result of rapid urbanisation and migration from rural areas. It has a population of about 30 000 people, most of whom live in shacks made of corrugated iron, wood and plastic. The settlement faces many challenges, such as lack of basic services, infrastructure, sanitation, and health care and education facilities. The residents of Okahandja Park depend on various sources of income, such as informal trading, casual labour, recycling, and
Increasingly, scholarship suggests that climate change amplifies gender inequalities, therefore affecting men and women differently. Although there is an understanding that Namibia’s changing climate patterns pose a threat to people’s livelihoods, no study has been carried out on how climate change-driven migration, gender inequality and urban poverty intersect. Considering rural Namibia’s extremely high vulnerability to climate change, this study explores the lived experience of climate change-induced migration of women in Windhoek’s informal settlements. A hybrid methodological approach was used in the review and analysis of existing literature on climate change, migration and urbanisation. The literature review was supplemented with face-to-face semi-structured interviews carried out with women participants with a migratory background residing in the informal settlements in Windhoek. A second set of interviews with rural women participants residing in the northern regions, where the impact of climate
The way diasporans practise conviviality and have continued to work and energise their stays abroad has been noted. What has less been observed in the literature is how these diasporans manage to maintain ties with spouses left behind. Using the case study of Guyu- Chelesa, a small irrigation community in south-eastern Zimbabwe, this paper examines how migrant husbands maintain connections with spouses who are struggling to survive in their absence. To investigate strategies used by migrant spouses to sustain their relationships, data was collected using key informant interviews. A light touch survey was also used to identify the range of information communication technologies used in maintaining spousal bonds. This paper observes that migrants and their spouses employ different platforms of information and communication technology in situations of prolonged separation. These platforms were critical in rejuvenating spousal relationships.
Access to the internet and digital technologies is increasingly recognised as a human right for all citizens, not just a preserve of the elite or privileged strata of society. It is a necessity in today’s digital economy, with an estimated 70% of new value created over the coming decade expected to be based on digitally-enabled platform business models (World Economic Forum, 2023). Sustainable and inclusive deve- lopment demands that technological development be inclusive and socially just. It is a lever to access employment, public services, productive assets, financial services, skills and education, and enable entrepreneurial ventures and income-generating activities. In other words, it grants access to public goods and is the basis of livelihoods. Inclusive access to information and communication technology (ICT) and the digital platforms and services it underpins can improve the quality of life and livelihoods of all citizens, including the youth, women and girls, people with disabilities, and other systemically excluded groups. The United Nations (UN) Sus- tainable Development Goal (SDG) 9: “Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation” (UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, n.d.) entails significantly increasing access to ICT and providing universal and affordable access to the internet. ICT serves as a catalyst for inclusive and sustainable development, while ensuring universal access to the internet unlocks the transformative potential of ICTs for all citizens.
This case study examines the experiences of Albertina (not her real name), a communal farmer in Namibia’s Ohangwena Region, as she navigates the challenges and opportunities of agricultural practices and family livelihoods in a communal setting. It explores her background, the nature of her farming activities, the obstacles she faces, and the innovative strategies she employs to achieve sustainable agriculture. Subsistence farming Albertina, who is 34, and her husband Shiwedha, 47, are communal farmers in the village of Ohalushi, Ohangwena Region. Although the region is known for mixed farming, the family only grows crops, as they do not have cattle. They own five chickens. They are totally dependent on rain-fed agriculture as they do not have the irrigation infrastructure or water for irrigation. They grow crops like mahangu (millet) and beans which they fertilise with cattle manure
Mining is seen as the backbone of the Namibian economy and has shaped its structure since German colonial rule. Not much has changed since then. Namibia remains an exporter of raw materials, and over 88% of mining operations in the country are owned and controlled by foreign companies (Nambinga, 2021). In recent years mining has increasingly encroached upon the small patches of land reserved for indigenous black Namibians after their ancestral lands were dispossessed during the 1904–1908 genocide. The South African colonial administration took over the territory under a League of Nations mandate in 1920 and intensified this dispossession to resettle their own impoverished white farmers in the territory.
A worldwide hydrogen hype has started. The champagne of the energy transition – that’s what enthusiasts like to call green hydrogen (GH2) because it is rare, and expensive. Others call it the magic weapon for the decarbonisation of our planet, the saviour of the climate. GH2 is also being called the energy source that will usher in a new industrial revolution. But scientists warn that GH2 may not be the silver bullet that will solve all climate problems.
Everyone is talking about green hydrogen. Since the invasion of Ukraine, at the latest, the search for the “green gold” has been dominated by debates around energy security, diversification and the imminent decarbonisation of Europe and especially Germany. However, domestic production of green hydrogen would hardly be sufficient to produce the needed quantities from renewable sources, given the small amount of land available in densely populated countries. Furthermore, the strategic urge to remain a traditional hub of steel production and the automotive industry means that a combination of deindustrialisation and decarbonisation is not considered an asset, but rather a no-go. This has resulted in drastically increased interest in producing green hydrogen in remote places and importing it from there,
In June 2023, Andy Gheorghiu, a Germany-based but internationally operating campaigner and consultant for climate/environmental protection and energy policy travelled to Namibia, where he met members of the local Economic and Social Justice Trust in the capital Windhoek. While visiting the township of Katutura, he witnessed the harsh economic reality of a post- apartheid democracy, but also identified its substantial transformative potential
Namibia was South Africa’s testing ground for its ambitious apartheid dreams. South Africa’s colonial connection with Namibia, then the mandated territory of South West Africa, is today often either ignored or dismissed, even by historians of apartheid. The Namibian-born and bred anthropologist Robert J. (Rob) Gordon’s latest book aims to redress this fault by demonstrating the significance of colonised Namibia for the development of apartheid. The narrative revolves around the role of so-called ‘native’ experts.
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