Minister of Gender Equality and Child Welfare Emma Kantema has warned that Namibia’s near-equal split between urban and rural populations poses material economic risks, as persistent gender disparities continue to constrain productivity, labour participation and economic resilience.
Kantema said that while the population is now almost evenly divided, with roughly 50% living in urban areas and 50% in rural areas, access to economic opportunities, services and investment readiness remains highly uneven, particularly for women in rural communities.
She said rural women face compounded constraints, including limited access to finance, markets, infrastructure and formal employment. These challenges, she noted, weaken household income stability and undermine broader economic resilience during periods of economic stress and downturns.
“Rural women face compounded challenges, including fewer economic opportunities, limited access to services and greater vulnerability to shocks and disasters such as flooding, fires, disease outbreaks and infrastructure disruption,” Kantema said.
“When shocks occur, women and girls are often the most affected, walking longer distances to access water, managing increased household responsibilities and struggling to sustain their families with resources that diminish daily.”
Kantema said recent national crises have underscored the unequal impact of economic and environmental shocks across the rural-urban divide. She cited the 2023 to 2025 drought, which left an estimated 1.4 million Namibians facing food insecurity.
According to the minister, women and girls were disproportionately affected during this period due to their social and economic roles within households and communities.
She said labour market data further reflects the divide, noting that women account for 51.2% of Namibia’s working-age population but only 41.9% participate in the labour market, compared with 51.1% participation among men.
“Our rural-urban divide tells a gendered story,” Kantema said. “Women constitute the majority of subsistence farmers and informal traders, yet they often lack access to land, credit and climate information. In times of economic shocks, women are the first to lose income and the last to recover, despite being our greatest untapped resource in building resilience.”
Kantema said government is responding through policy and programme interventions aimed at strengthening gender-responsive resilience. These include the National Gender Equality and Equity Policy for 2025 to 2035 and the expansion of social protection systems.
She said the measures are intended to address structural inequalities across the rural-urban divide and ensure women are better positioned to withstand future economic and climate-related shocks.
