MCA Namibia creates fund to help conservancies

A FUND that will provide money to 31 rural conservancies was launched in Windhoek yesterday.

The Conservancy Development Support Grant Fund (CDSGF) was set up by the Millennium Challenge Account – Namibia (MCA Namibia) and its goal is to direct a bigger share of tourism income to formerly disadvantaged Namibians who are members of communal conservancies.Dr Fanuel Demas of MCA Namibia said conservancies face many challenges such as an inability to attract private investors.This, he said, is due to a lack of money to market themselves. The CDSGF has made N$62 million available to eligible conservancies.Demas said the Grant Fund is targeting 31 conservancies to make it easier for investors to assist them to become financially self-sustainable.Areas that the fund seeks to give money to range from marketing services, partial financing of tourism joint ventures, game translocation, human-wildlife conflict mitigation and small tourism enterprise activities.The #Khaodi //Hoas conservancy in Kunene, Muduva Nyangana in Kavango, Mashi conservancy in Caprivi, Sheya Shuushona conservancy in Omusati and King Nehale conservancy in Oshikoto are among the 31 conservancies targeted by the grant fund. The CDSGF was launched by the permanent secretary of Environment and Tourism, Dr Kalumbi Shangula, on behalf of Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah.Shangula said the application process for grant funding will be a competitive one and will require evidence of broader participation in the conservancy’s decision-making process by conservancy members.’Preference will be given to applications that demonstrate more bottom-up accountability and where shares of the benefits are going to households to alleviate poverty or are invested in additional community-sponsored projects rather than for administration and management,’ said Shangula.He said the fund presents yet another opportunity for the private sector to form or strengthen joint ventures with communal conservancies.Uplifting the rural communities, he said, is a deliberate goal which Government is committed to. ‘We need to work together with vigour and determination to achieve our developmental goals as articulated in the National Development Plans and our road map to prosperity, Vision 2030,’ he said.The Conservancy Development Support Services will help conservancies with the preparation of the grant applications and the implementation of approved grants.