Oshikoto cements ties with Norwegian council
OMUTHIYA - A cooperation agreement signed between the Oshikoto regional council and the Norwegian county council of Innlandet in 2015, was this week cemented with the visit of a five-member delegation to the region.
Yesterday, the two regional councils signed a memorandum of understanding to renew their relationship.
The Kuku Gwakalilo cultural dance group from Oshikoto entertained the visitors as they arrived at the Okashana Rural Development Centre (ORDC),wheretheceremony took place. The event was attended by the Innlandet delegation and management from the Oshikoto Regional Council.
“We are pleased to be here for the renewal of the memorandum; we have an agreement with the Oshikoto region since 2015,” said Mona Stormoen, a councillor from the Innlandet county council and head of delegation from Norway. She emphasised the council’s commitment towards the partnership, and urged all stakeholders to place strategic communication at the centre of all collaborations during the implementation of the agreement.
Oshikoto’s chief regional officer Christella Mwenyo said the first memorandum of understanding was signed in March 2015 and ended in 2020, with the focus on education. As a result, in 2018, Innlandet donated N$100 000 to the directorate of education, which was utilised in purchasing textbooks for schools in the region.
The two councils had an opportunity to share and learn best practices from each other for the improvement of effective service delivery to the community, amongst them the master plan for the regional council, which requires a participatory approach.
The participants raised questions on budgetary allocations and how it is done in Norway, and it was clearly stated that resources are shared according to statistics, like the higher the population, the higher the budget.
Subsequently, several notable achievements were reached from the previous memorandum of understanding on education. One such achievement was a group of 60 teachers from the Oshikoto region visiting Norway on an exchange programme, while others went to pursue their studies in the Scandinavian country.
Another achievement from the same agreement was the ‘Read in Café’ project for the grade 9 learners from various schools in the region which was aimed at promoting the culture of reading as well as aid the fight against teenage pregnancies amongst school-going girls in the region.
Thecurrentmemorandum will support the already existing agreement in the areas of capacity-building, sharing and learning of best practices, regional and local authority development planning, the promotion of cultures, learning support, public health as well as investing in diverse sectors of Namibian society.
Previously, the memorandum of understanding was only on education, but will now be broadened to include public health as well.
The MoU will focus more on culture, as the Innlandet county council is currently also supporting the Tsumeb Cultural Village. The Norwegian delegation feels that museums are not only meant for tourists, but serve as an important aspect for locals, especially children, so that they know their culture.
In the same vein, mental health issues were also at the centre of discussions, where the counterpart shared that mental health and stigmatisation is also happening in Norway, but they run campaigns in schools to raise awareness.
The delegation then visited the Omuthiya Music Museum, and on Wednesday checked the Mahangu Papermaking project at Onankali, which is funded by the Oshikoto regional council, the Historic Nakambale Museum in Olukonda, and also visited the king’s palace.