[{"bbox": [96, 152, 1136, 340], "category": "Text", "text": "can significantly contribute to national governance system strengthening. It is assumed that the strengthening of some key institutions can contribute to an overall enhanced governance performance, an improved enabling environment for Civil Society and the Private Sector and better public service delivery supporting progress in a whole range of SDGs, improving the well-being of Namibian men and women in all their diversity in the mid to long run. The action will seek to create synergies and complementarities with ongoing and future EU funded programmes under the MIP (e.g.in the area of Foundational Skills, Inclusive Green Growth and Good Governance) both also with Thematic and Regional programmes."}, {"bbox": [96, 364, 848, 392], "category": "Text", "text": "This action may potentially contribute to a TEI, if a TEI materialises in the future."}, {"bbox": [85, 405, 341, 436], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 2.2 Problem Analysis"}, {"bbox": [96, 452, 1136, 716], "category": "Text", "text": "Namibia overall has a very **advanced legislative framework** for the protection of human rights and is signatory of most international and regional conventions on the matter, including on Gender Equality and Eliminating Violence against Women and Children. Namibia is also one of the few African countries that have adopted a National Human Rights Action Plan and is also participating on a voluntary basis in the African Peer Review Mechanism. On paper, the protection of political freedoms and socio-economic and human rights is guaranteed. Namibia also has also developed a second national anti-corruption strategy through a broad and consultative process which is up to international standards, which in most parts responds to the requirements under UNCAC. However, implementation and enforcement of the respective policies and action plans are **significantly lagging behind Namibia's ambitions**, for various reasons, ranging from lack of financial and technically adequate human resources and lack of coordination."}, {"bbox": [96, 743, 1136, 1302], "category": "Text", "text": "**Anti-Corruption:** While Namibia may suffer from less corruption compared to other countries in the Southern African region, corruption remains common and can be considered as endemic – both in the public and private sector, and at various levels. White collar crimes are predominantly found in Namibia, according to the Global Corruption Index.¹⁶ The country's **public procurement sector** is particularly susceptible to corruption due to a whole range of reasons ranging from the monopoly of state-owned companies (parastatals), embezzlement, conflict of interest and the lack of access to information. Despite a reform of the public procurement system, procurement processes are obscured by lack of transparency, lack of provision and access to information. While the natural resource sector is particularly relevant in terms of potential national economic losses, many other pertinent issues with regard to access to information, transparency and accountability also need to be addressed in a comprehensive manner. The Anti-Corruption Act is Namibia's primary anti-corruption law, covering passive and active bribery, attempted corruption, extortion and other offenses. A range of legislation covers other corruption offences¹⁷, however, despite a strong framework for curbing corruption, a strong political discourse to counter corruption and high pressure from civil society, enforcement of legislation is weak and inconsistent- at best. Namibia's state bureaucracy is inefficient and bloated, politically motivated appointments, as well as doubling of civil servants combined with mis-management, corruption, most notably in the area of natural resources and at local and regional government level with regards to access to public services. The proclaimed installation of ‘robotst governance structures’ and ‘improved systems, processes and institutions’ has not yielded real tangible improvements during the past years.¹⁸ Assets and interest declaration systems do not function effectively in the public sector and are not enforced leading to a stong disenchantment with political office holders. The ACC of Namibia serves as a coordinating secretariat of the national efforts to combat corruption. It is mandated to receive or initiate and investigate allegations of corrupt practices, to take measures for the prevention"}, {"bbox": [85, 1331, 524, 1356], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁶ https://risk-indexes.com/white-collar-crimes-map/"}, {"bbox": [85, 1355, 1144, 1476], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁷ Prevention of Organised Crime Act, 2003 (Act No. 29 of 2004); Financial Intelligence Act, 2012 (Act No. 13 of 2012); The Criminal Procedure Act, 2004 (Act No. 25 of 2004); Banking Institutions Act, 1998 (Act No. 2 of 1998); Exchange Control Regulations, 1961 (GN R.1112 of 1961); The Public Service Act, 1995 (Act No. 13 of 1995); Namibia Financial Institutions Supervisory Authority Act, 2001 (Act No. 3 of 2001); Companies Act, 2004 (Act No. 28 of 2004); Regional Councils Act (Act No. 22 of 1992) and Local Authorities Act (Act No. 23 of 1992);"}, {"bbox": [85, 1476, 1144, 1646], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁸ https://ippr.org.na/publication/namibian-governance-report-2015-20/. Some legislation is passed with extensive delays in parliament and then falls short of being operationalised, so happened with the Access to Information Bill, highly relevant to enhancing transparency and accountability of public and private institutions. In the case of the Whistleblower protection act, the inaction of the Ministry of Communication and Information in operationalising it, led local civil society organisations to launch their own Whistleblower protection platform, with the support of the US Embassy in Windhoek. The objective of the “Integrity Namibia” project is to establish a sustainable National Anti-Corruption Network operating across civil society, private sector, the media, traditional authorities, faith-based organisations and other non-state actors."}, {"bbox": [1038, 1681, 1144, 1706], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 7 of 29"}]