Consolidating Democracy

Since independence in 1990, Namibia has consolidated its democratic institutions. Altogether, nine elections took place, which were all considered to be substantially free and fair, despite serious problems that marred the counting process of the parliamentary elections of 2004.

The constitution which provides for basic human and political rights is fiercely respected, an independent judiciary upholds the rule of law and a free press is playing an important watchdog role. On the other hand Namibia is sometimes described as a “democracy without democrats”, which points to deficits in the political culture and a lack of political tolerance.

Consolidating democratic institutions and building a democratic culture is an ongoing and never-ending task, not only in Namibia. Everywhere, democracy is in permanent danger of being eroded by authoritarianism, manipulation of public opinion, ethnic and other forms of clientelism, lack of transparency and accountability, weak checks and balances, bad governance and corruption. Supporting democrats, strengthening democratic institutions and promoting democratic ideas and ideals is a core function of FES.

As an attempt to strengthen democratic checks and balances, FES Namibia is co-operating with both houses of Parliament and individual committees in the training of Parliamentarians on a wide range of issues with a view to empower MPs with the required knowledge and skills to play their legislative and oversight roles responsibly and effectively. FES also supports endeavours of the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) to improve on some aspects of electoral democracy.

Namibia’s decentralisation policy has gone a long way in replacing racially-based apartheid structures through a new system of local and regional authorities. This has widened the scope for citizen’s political participation and has brought government closer to the people. However, due to inexperience and ineptitude, many decentralised structures are not functioning well. In some local authorities this has even reached crisis proportions. As a long-standing partner of the Ministry of Regional and Local Government, FES Namibia is supporting efforts to address these problems through targeted capacity-building for local councillors, in particular. Legal aspects are dealt with in an FES-sponsored Training Manual for Local Authority Councillors.

Gender equality is an essential element of true democracy. Women must be empowered to play the role in the political and social life, which is rightfully theirs. For more than ten years now, the Foundation has been cooperating with the Namibian Elected Women‘s Forum (NEWF), a lobby network of all - currently more than 150 - female councillors and parliamentarians on the local, regional and national level. For these female deputies, FES is offering regular opportunities for capacity building, exchange of experience and networking through conferences and seminars. As of late, aspects and instruments of gender mainstreaming have become the centre of training and debate. Another partner in that field is the SWAPO Party Women‘s Council (SPWC), the women‘s wing of the ruling party.

Political parties play a central role in politics. Democratic politics need political parties whose leaders, officials, and members understand democracy and act as democratic politicians inside and outside their own political parties. In a society that comes out of a protracted and bitter armed struggle this requires nothing less than a change of mindset which can only come with time. FES has been in discussions with the ruling party on a training initiative in that regard. (Read more on the political party system in Namibia (in German only)….)

Other initiatives to strengthen the democratic culture are targeting the youth. Since 2007 FES has started a Youth Leadership Development Programme (YLDP) mainly, for members of political youth organisation Together with the National Youth Council of Namibia, FES is organising an Annual Political Youth Forum.