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Rural Empowerment Through Skill Development: A Study of Omaheke and Omusati Region of Namibia

N. O. Ama* and C. J. Mahindi**

Abstract

1. INTRODUCTION

Namibia has a large land area and a small population. The 2001 population census puts Namibia's population at 1,826,854, with women constituting the larger figure of 936,718 (or 51%) while men numbering 890,136 (or 49%) (Census Office, National Planning Commission Report 2002). The country’s population annual growth rate for the period 1991-2001 was about 2.6%. The average national population density is 1.7 persons per square kilometre but this varies widely from region to region due to environmental and historical factors (CSO 1994).

Approximately, 72% of the population live in rural areas while the remaining 28% is found in urban areas. The rural population consists of 52% females and 48% males, whereas the urban population is 49% females and 51.5 % males (Republic of Namibia 1999). This skewness in the population distribution between urban and rural areas is attributable to the migration of men to urban areas in search of employment, leaving the women in the rural areas with the responsibility of taking care of the children and the elderly (Republic of Namibia 1997, 16). The rural women also participate actively in agriculture and in the maintenance of the homesteads while the men are away in urban areas. It is estimated that 39% of the households in Namibia are female-headed because of this migration (CSO 1994: 7, 10).

Namibia is divided into thirteen administrative regions, namely: Omusati, Ohangwena, Oshana, Okavango, Oshikoto, Caprivi, Kunene, Hardap, Omaheke, Erongo, Khomas, Otjonzondjupa, and Karas. The highest population density is recorded in the Oshana region with twenty-six persons per square kilometre, followed by Ohangwena which has a density of 17.9 persons per square kilometre. In contrast, Khomas has 4.4 persons per square kilometre as against 0.6, 0.5, and 0.4 for Hardap, Kunene and Karas, respectively (CSO 1994).

It is well known that subsistence agriculture, which includes crop production and livestock keeping, is the most common occupation of Namibians. Such crops as millet, maize and sorghum are grown while livestock, such as goats, sheep, cattle and donkeys are kept. Subsistence agriculture is practised mainly in the northern, and to a lesser extent, in the central-eastern regions. The aridity of the southern, eastern and western regions makes the practice of agriculture difficult.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Rural Development (MA WRD) has mounted several agricultural programmes targeting women at the community level. The programmes aim at developing and intensifying extension services in agriculture through information/communication and advisory services. Training workshops are given to agricultural extension officers to enable them to bring about gender awareness and acquire gender analysis skills (Republic of Namibia 1999). Despite the aforementioned efforts to boost agriculture in Namibia, the majority of the rural population live in abject poverty. No doubt, Namibians possess certain skills which, if discovered and developed, could empower them economically. This is crucial since most of the land in Namibia is arid; hence agriculture can hardly be practised.

The Ministry of Women Affairs and Child Welfare has supported a number of projects in the rural areas in order to boost the productive lives and economic base of the rural people, particularly women. Such projects have failed to achieve their objectives owing to lack of administrative, management and technical skills; lack of market, capital, commitment on the part of some participants; lack of feasibility studies before citing of projects; and too many (or sometimes too few) participants in the projects (Republic of Namibia 1998: 7-8).

It is in the light of the foregoing that this paper, which arose from a study conducted in the Omusati and Omaheke regions of Namibia, provides some information on the available skills which the rural population in Namibia possess. It is hoped that the information provided in this paper will assist the government, parastatals, NGOs, U.N. organizations, and other bodies interested in rural development initiatives in their planning of development intervention programmes.

The paper is presented in five sections. Following the introductory section, Section Two describes the methodology adopted and provides details of the choice of study areas, sampling techniques, the research instruments and their administration. Section Three presents the findings from the two regions covered in the study. The fourth section gives a summary of the focus group discussions, while the last section presents conclusions and recommendations and the implications of this study for the management of technological skills for rural development.

2. METHODOLOGY

2.1. Population and Study Areas

For the purposes of the study, the country was divided into two zones, namely: (a) northern Namibia comprising: Omusati, Oshana, Ohangwena, Oshikoto, Okavango and Caprivi regions; and (b) central and southern Namibia comprising: Kunene, Otjozondjupa, Erongo, Khomas, Omaheke, Hardap and Karas regions. As the focus of the study was on rural population, the most rural regions of the country were considered. Thus, Omusati (from the Northern zone) and Omaheke (from the central and southern zone) were selected for the study. Both regions are hundred percent rural (CSO, 1994). The population under study was, therefore, all households in the Omusati and Omaheke regions.

2.2 Sample Size and Design: A sample size of 500 households (that is, 1.2% of all households) was selected from a total population of 40,382 households in the two regions. This sample size is slightly higher than that recommended by Krejcie and Morgan (1970), which is 381, allowing a 5% error, but was chosen to ensure an adequate coverage of the target population. This sample size was allocated to the two regions in proportion to their population of households. This proportional allocation assigned 382 households to Omusati region and 118 to Omaheke region. Because of the sparse population distribution, the method of cluster sampling was adopted in selecting the areas to be covered in the study from the two regions. The method of cluster sampling is appropriate where the population is scattered over a large geographical area and application of simple random sampling procedure may be too costly to reach all desired sampling units. Using a simple random sample two clusters (areas) (Outapi and Anamulenge divisions) from Omusati region and four areas (Otjozondjima, Okozonnje, Omao-Zonjanda, Epukiro and Oruvize) from Omaheke region were selected for the study. The allocated sample sizes of 382 households from Omusati region and 118 households from Omaheke region were randomly selected from the list of all the households in these regions.

2.3 Research Instruments and their Administration

The research instruments used in the study were a questionnaire, semi-structured questions and tape recorder. Trained research assistants administered the questionnaire to each adult member of the sampled households. At least one person (male or female) was interviewed from each selected household.

The questionnaire elicited responses on a wide range of issues, including demographic characteristics; main occupation; technical skills possessed; usage or otherwise of those skills; reasons for not using the skills; mode of acquisition and the extent of sustainability of the skills.

Research assistants who were undergraduate students at the University of Namibia and indigenous to the respective regions were engaged in the data collection. The students had previous experience in conducting surveys and could speak the local languages. This was necessary to avoid the use of interpreters during the interviews, increase familiarity and facilitate interaction with the respondents. The assistants were familiarized with the content of the questionnaire and were subsequently trained on how to administer. The survey was conducted simultaneously in the two regions. One principal researcher supervised the research assistants in the each region.

In addition to the questionnaire, focus group discussions were used as additional sources of data in both regions. The Ministry of Women Affairs and Child Welfare in Namibia assigned two of their Regional Liaison Officers (Gender Section), one from each region, to assist with the data collection. The officers in consultation with the counsellors in each region identified a participant in the focus group discussion from each division in the regions. In the Omaheke region, there were nineteen participants; and thirteen participants from the Omusati region were involved in the discussions. Only one focus group discussion session could be held in each region because of the time constraint. The sessions lasted for approximately two and a half hours in each region and were very informal. The moderator introduced himself and the Liaison Officers to the participants at the beginning of the session and each participant was given a chance to introduce herself/himself. The participants were allowed to use the language in which they could express themselves best. The Regional Liaison Officers were very helpful in facilitating the interpretations of the discussions to and from English, particularly in the Omusati region where the discussions were conducted in Ovambo. However, in the Omaheke region, the discussions were in English since every participant was comfortable with the language. In both regions, the discussions were tape-recorded and the Regional Liaison Officers took notes during the discussions.

3. FINDINGS

3.1 Demographic Characteristics of the Studied Groups

Altogether 510 persons were interviewed in the Omusati region and 195 in the Omaheke region. Some of the questions required the respondents to give multiple answers. In such cases, the total recorded responses were more than the number of individuals interviewed. Where a respondent did not answer a particular question, it was treated as either 'Not Stated' if the respondent was expected to have answered the question, or ‘Not Applicable’ if the question did not apply to the respondent.

Over half of the respondents (53.1%) interviewed in Omusati were aged 20-39; whereas 21.2% were aged 40-45 and 17.1% were sixty years and above. Only 7.8% were aged below twenty. About 59% (59.4%) were females, 34.7% were males, while 5.9% did not specify their gender. However, in the Omaheke region, out of 195 persons interviewed about 53% (52.8%) were males while 46.7% were females. Of these respondents, 51.3% were aged between twenty and thirty-nine, and 25.7% and 20% were aged 40-59, and sixty years and above respectively (see Table 1).

With regards to educational status, 26.1% of the respondents from the Omaheke region and 23.1% from the Omusati region had never attended school while the corresponding percentages that attended primary school were 36.4% and 37.6% respectively. About 32% (31.7%) of the respondents from the Omaheke region and 27.7% from Omusati region had secondary education while the corresponding percentages that had post-secondary education were only 2.1% and 2.8 % respectively. (See Table 2)

Table 1: Respondents classified by region, gender and age

Table 2: Respondents classified by highest educational level, region and gender

3.2 Main Occupation of the Studied Areas

The respondents were asked to specify their main occupation that is, the most important job they do to earn their living. Their responses are shown in Table 3 below. The table shows that unemployment was quite high among the respondents in the Omusati region, 50.6%, compared with the 1998 national estimate of 35%, and 21.6% in the Omaheke region (The WORLD FACT BOOK 2004: available at http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/wa.html. The main occupation in the Omaheke region was farming. About 43% (42.6%) of the respondents from the Omaheke region were involved in farming while only 4.7% were farmers from the Omusati region. Other main occupations in both regions were shop keeping (8.5% in Omusati), home care (8.7% in Omaheke), teaching (4.3% in Omusati and 2.6% in Omaheke regions), and sewing (2.4% in Omusati and 3.1% in Omaheke regions).

Some percentages of the respondents had masonry and brick making as their major occupation (3.1% and 3.7% from Omusati region, respectively). Only 1% of the respondents from the Omaheke region indicated that brick-laying was their main occupation. There were more men (27.7%) involved in farming than women (14.9%) in the Omaheke region, while more women (2.4 %) than men (2.0%) were farmers in the Omusti region . The other main occupations for the women were shop keeping (6.3% in Omusati), home care (8.2 % in Omaheke and 1.4% in Omusati) and sewing (2.2% in Omusati and 3.1% in Omaheke).

Table 4: Respondents classified by main skills possessed, region and gender

3.3 Main Skills Possessed

The respondents were further asked to indicate their main skill (that is, the skill they used most of the time). The responses have been summarized in Table 4 below. Basket-making and brick-making were top in the list of technical skills possessed by the respondents from Omusati region and represented 26.1% and 12.2% respectively. The main technical skill possessed by respondents in the Omaheke region was sewing (13.8%, i.e., women, 13.3%; men, 0.5%), while only 8.8% (women, 7.5%; men, 0.6%) had this skill in the Omusati region. Other main skills possessed by the respondents were gardening (6.1% in Omusati and 10.3% in Omaheke region), hairdressing (10% in Omusati, 4.6% in Omaheke), masonry (7.3% in Omusati), farming and fence-making (5.6% for each in Omaheke region). Basket-making was predominantly women’s skill (21.2% in Omusati region).

Other women’s skills included sewing (13.3% in Omusati, 7.5% in Omaheke), hairdressing (7.8% in Omusati and 4.1% in Omaheke), gardening (6.7% in Omaheke and 3.9% in Omusati), and pot-making (4.5% in Omusati). Men were more skilled than women in masonry (6.3% in Omusati), bricklaying (8.4% in Omusati), fence-making and farming in Omaheke (5.6% and 4.6%, respectively) and leather work (4.1% in Omaheke).

Table 5: Respondents classified by mode of acquisition of skills, region and gender

3.4: Mode of Acquisition of Skills

The respondents were asked to indicate how they acquired the skills they had. Their responses are shown in Table 5 below.

The information in Table 5 shows that a little over half of the respondents in Omusati (51.5%) and 28.7% of those from the Omaheke region had acquired their skills by merely developing interest in them and keeping trying them until they were able to use them; whereas 30% of respondents from Omusati region and 43.1% of those from the Omaheke region had acquired their skills from parents or guardians. Only 15.7% from the Omusati region (9.6%, women and 4.9%, men) and 17.9% (8.2%, women and 9.7%, men) from the Omaheke region had formal training in the skills. Other ways of acquiring skills were on-the-job training (0.6%) and learning from community members (0.2%). The women’s main sources of skill acquisition were through development of interest in the skill (29.0% in Omusati and 13.8% in Omaheke regions) and through their parents/guardians (20.0% in Omusati and 22.6% in Omaheke regions). The corresponding percentages for men for skill acquisition through development of interest in the skill were, 20.2% in Omusati and 14.9% in Omaheke regions; and through apprenticeship from parents/guardians, 7.6% in Omusati and 20.0% in Omaheke regions.

3.5 Utilization of Skills

A skill becomes useful only when it is utilized in some trade or business enterprise. Such an enterprise could create employment opportunity for the unemployed or training opportunity for other people who desire to learn the skill. The respondents were, therefore, asked if they had utilized their skill in starting any trade or some income generating activity. The responses are summarized in Table 6. It can be seen that 40.3% of the respondents from Omusati and 50.3% from Omaheke regions actually utilized their skills in starting some trade or income generating activities (Table 6). Whereas more women (21.6%) than men (16.9%) in the Omusati region were utilizing the skills they had acquired, in the Omaheke region the reverse was the case (men, 30.3% and women, 19.5%). The results further indicate that many of the respondents were not utilizing their skills (54% from Omusati region and 43.6 % from Omaheke region).

Due to the high percentage of non-utilization of the acquired skills by the respondents, it became necessary to find out the reason. The responses given by the participants are discussed in Section 3.6. However, the utilization of skill was further classified by the mode of acquisition of the skill, location and gender as in Table 7 to show which group of participants was utilizing its acquired skills more than others. For instance, it might be of interest to know whether those who acquired their skill through formal training were using their skills more than those who had theirs through apprenticeship. Such information might be important for intervention programmes geared towards assisting rural people in the development of possessed skills.

Table 6: Respondents classified by utilization of skill, region and gender

Table 7 shows that all the respondents (100%) who acquired their skills on the job in the Omusati region were utilizing their skill, while only 50% of the same group from the Omaheke region was actually using their skills. It is possible that while on the job, this group might have saved some incomes which were ploughed back into starting some trade immediately after the training. Regarding utilizing skills, 56% of the respondents from Omusati region and 60% from Omaheke region, who had formal training, were also able to do so. Generally, more men than women from the Omaheke region were utilizing their skills, whereas in Omusati region this trend was found only among those who just developed interest in the skill or acquired their skills while on the job. Of the respondents who had formal training in their skills from the Omusati region, more women (35%) than men (21.3%) were utilizing their skills. None of the respondents that acquired their skill from community/family members in the Omusati region were utilizing their skills, while 40% of this group from the Omaheke region was actually utilizing their skills.