The Environmental Investment Fund of Namibia (EIF) has launched the Urban Agriculture Grant e-voucher card issuance and terminal roll-out in Mariental.
The launch is part of the four regions identified to benefit from the Urban Agriculture Grant e-voucher card Issuance and terminal roll-out under the project titled “Strengthening Namibia food systems to recover from emergencies and disease-related shocks through the Build Back Better (BBB) programme”.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Land Reform (MAWLR) – in partnership with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and Environmental Investment Fund of Namibia, as a Responsible Party – launched the Urban Agriculture concept- Build Back Better (BBB) Program with financial support from the Japanese Government.
The Build Back Better programme aims to improve the production of nutritious, high-value produce such as vegetables and fruits to address nutritional deficiencies affecting urban and peri-urban households.
The initiative is being implemented in collaboration with the Windhoek Municipality (Khomas Region), Swakopmund Municipality (Erongo Region), Rundu Town Council (Kavango East Region) and the Daweb Constituency (Maltahohe) of the Hardap Region.
The rollout in the Hardap region will cover Maltahohe (Daweb Constituency), Mariental (Mariental Constituency), Gibeon District, and 14 beneficiaries have been identified to benefit from the project titled “Strengthening Namibia food systems to recover from emergencies and disease-related shocks through the Build Back Better (BBB) programme.
The e-voucher system terminal set-up in the 4 participating regions and issuance of the card to the beneficiaries, Environmental Investment Fund of Namibia will use the same platform to issue Grant contracts to the beneficiaries.
“This Urban agriculture e-voucher system is a means to make accessibility of services to Urban Farmers much easier as this is a digitalized service and additionally improve livelihoods of small-scale farmers under urban and peri urban areas through income,” said Karl Mutani Aribeb, EIF’s Chief Operations Officer.
The rollout programme has benefited 56 beneficiaries, of which 13 are from Windhoek Municipality (Khomas Region), 13 from the Swakopmund Municipality (Erongo Region), 17 from Rundu Town Council (Kavango East Region) and 13 from the Daweb Constituency (Maltahohe) of the Hardap Region respectively.
The e-voucher system allows the selected beneficiaries to access goods and services from specific selected retailers through the system. There are selected retailers in the various towns that beneficiaries will procure from for the different goods they may require towards the successful implementation of their various projects.
The urban agriculture programme is funded to the tune of N$2 million, which translates to N$500 000 dollars per local authority identified under the programme.
