By Pennina Shilongo
A few years ago, if someone had asked the average Namibian about diplomacy, most would probably have thought of ambassadors, international conferences, and world leaders shaking hands in distant capitals. But that has long changed.
Diplomacy is no longer only about managing political relationships between countries. It has evolved into a powerful tool for economic development and actively securing foreign direct investment (FDI), opening new export markets for domestic businesses, and negotiating trade agreements.
When a foreign company invests into an energy project, diplomacy is involved. When Namibia negotiates access to international markets for its products, diplomacy is involved.
When development partners provide funding for infrastructure, education, or agricultural initiatives, diplomacy is involved. Even the conversations surrounding oil discoveries off our coast are, in many ways, a reflection of diplomacy at work.
So how do we know whether our diplomacy is actually working?
As someone who has spent years of my career working in development programmes, one lesson has remained constant. What gets measured gets managed. In development work, we are constantly asked to demonstrate results.
Did a project achieve its objectives? How many people benefited? What changed as a result of the intervention? We develop indicators, track progress, and evaluate impact, and not because measurement is an administrative box to tick, but because it helps us understand whether our efforts are making a meaningful difference.
This same principle should apply to diplomacy. Over the past few years, our country has attracted growing international attention. Namibia has become a country of significant interest to investors, foreign governments, and development partners alike. However, attracting attention is not the same as achieving development.
Announcements of investment commitments make headlines, yes, but what happens afterwards? What is the economic value realised here? How many jobs are actually created, and what is the quality of the jobs that have been created? How much local value is added? How many Namibian businesses are competitively integrated into regional and global supply chains? What skills are transferred to local workers?
How much revenue ultimately contributes to national development priorities? These are the questions that truly matter because the objective of investments is to generate economic and developmental outcomes that improve the lives of Namibians.
Results Based-Diplomacy
So if economic competitiveness shapes national prosperity, it makes perfect sense for economic outcomes to form a central part of how success is assessed. This is why it may be time for Namibia to fundamentally rethink how it measures the success of its diplomatic missions abroad. Imagine, for a moment, if every embassy and high commission operated with a clear, results-driven scorecard. If beyond their traditional political and consular functions, missions are actually assessed on indicators.
And more importantly, that these indicators focus not only on activity, but on tangible outcomes. For example, it is one thing to facilitate discussions with potential investors. It is another to track how many of those engagements result in investments that create jobs and stimulate local economic activity.
It is valuable to promote Namibia as an investment destination, but it is far more valuable to understand the long-term economic impact and realise economic value from those promotional efforts.
At the heart of the political economy lies the understanding that politics and economics are joint by the hip. Decisions made in political arenas often have economic consequences, just as economic realities frequently shape political priorities.
Economic diplomacy is a natural extension of this reality. Through this lens, diplomacy and development are not separate pursuits. They are part of the same story. Hence, the need for deliberate, strategic link between diplomatic activity and development outcomes.
Diplomacy should be results based and should create economic value, in line with Namibia’s national development agenda, because essentially, modern diplomacy is about aligning a country’s foreign policy directly with its domestic prosperity.
Pennina is an economic diplomacy specialist and a development professional. She writes in her personal capacity. She can be reached at natjie.shilongo@gmail.com
