Transport, Mobility, Logistics

ContextThe transport system is of great importance for the Namibian economy. It is the foundation for development in the country, giving the population access to their workplaces, markets, and social and health care facilities.The Ministry of Works and Transport (MWT) is the custodian of transportation in Namibia. The Ministry however, it is not fully able to carry out its task of steering the sector or to adapt key strategic documents, laws and regulations. Local and regional public transport is also not sufficiently developed.The fourth and fifth National Development Plans define Namibia’s transformation into a regional Logistics Hub for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) as a key priority. In order to achieve this, proper and effective logistical systems and procedures within the public and private sector are necessary to facilitate trade, cross-border logistics and safe transportation to establish an easier business environment.The two universities in the country do not yet have the resources they need to offer fully fledged teaching and research programmes in civil engineering, including meeting the demand for engineers in the public, private and academic sectors.ObjectivePublic sector stakeholders working in the field of transport, mobility and logistics provide a sufficient number of high-quality services.ApproachTo expand sustainable transport, the project is providing advice to MWT, the City of Windhoek and regional and municipal authorities in the northern regions under the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development on preparing and implementing measures as part of local sustainable transport master plans.For stakeholders in the logistics sector, the project is providing advice towards the successful implementation of priority projects and programmes proposed in the Master Plan for Logistics and fostering capacity building within public and private sector institutions.In the field of tertiary education, the project is continuing to support the establishment of the engineering faculty, train teaching staff and hold lectures.The project’s central partner organisations are the Ministry of Works and Transport. The project also works together with the country’s two universities, the University of Namibia and the Namibian University of Science and Technology. The project also cooperates with KfW Development Bank.ResultsIn cooperation with MWT, the project has produced a transport sector plan that provides a modern policy framework for the transport sector as a whole, covering all kinds of transport and overarching topics. The Namibian Transport Policy was approved by the Namibian Cabinet in 2018.The project played a crucial role in the development of the Sustainable Urban Transport Master Plan (SUTMP) for the City of Windhoek. The SUTMP won an award from the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) and received an honourable mention in the Sustainable Transport Awards 2017. Since early 2016, the City of Windhoek has been running 26 modern local buses on a new bus network within the city, and new lines were added in mid-2016. In the area of non-motorised mobility; the partners have developed and finalised a non-motorised strategy for the City of Windhoek which has been approved by the City of Windhoek Council. As a second pilot, a Sustainable Transport Master Plan for the central northern regions has been approved by the Namibian Cabinet in 2019.Within the two years of supporting the WBCG and MWT with the implementation of the Logistics master plan, an institutional framework has been established. In addition to this framework the project has supported the responsible organisations to create working groups and in various strategic projects. Moreover, the first ever State of Logistics report that has been rolled-out for Namibia, which is a great accomplishment.The University of Namibia and the Namibian University of Science and Technology have developed Bachelor’s and Master’s degree courses in civil engineering, which have now been accredited.

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