Our Work

HIV awareness campaigns inform children about prevention and treatment

Mary Jordan/USAID

Education

USAID began supporting education in Namibia in 1991.  Since that time, Namibia has made important strides toward bringing children from deprived demographic groups into the formal education system.  USAID assisted the Ministry of Education to accelerate educational reform in northern Namibia, one of the country's poorest and most densely populated regions. USAID assistance also strengthened the Directorate of National Examinations and Assessment and established national standardized achievement test tools for Grades 5 and 7.

Today, USAID continues to provide scholarships to Namibian primary school students through the Ambassadors' Girls' Scholarship Program. In a partnership with the private sector, each child who completes Grade 7 with USAID support will be sponsored by Standard Bank Namibia through Grade 12.

Health

Through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the United States has provided over $600 million to Namibia since 2004 to respond to one of the world’s worst HIV epidemics and one of the world’s highest tuberculosis case rates.  USAID’s programs focus on providing care, support and treatment to people living with HIV/AIDS, orphans, and vulnerable children. Programs also seek to prevent new HIV infections by supporting social and behavior change, medical male circumcision, HIV counseling and testing services, prevention services, and the national tuberculosis program.

USAID has worked with the Government of Namibia to provide antiretroviral therapy to over 98,000 HIV-positive people, and over 7,500 HIV-positive pregnant women have received services to reduce the risk of transmitting HIV to their children.  Nearly a quarter of a million people have received HIV testing and counseling services, and USAID psychosocial care and educational support programs have reached up to 75,000 orphans and vulnerable children.

USAID has also assisted the Government of Namibia in scaling up the provision of child welfare grants.

Namibia HIV country profile

Working in Crisis and Conflict

In 2011, record-setting seasonal floods in the north affected 134,000 Namibians.  Many lost their homes, crops, livestock, and livelihoods.  USAID supported the recovery by funding several organizations, including:

• The Namibia Red Cross Society to distribute commodities to those in relocation camps.
• The International Organization for Migration to strengthen camp coordination and management.
• The International Federation of the Red Cross for logistics, warehousing, and distribution.
• The World Food Program for support in managing, reporting, and planning food assistance.
• Elephant Energy for the distribution of solar-powered lights and cell phone chargers for communal and protection purposes.