Basic income grant transforms settlement.

The monthly grant of NS100 to residents of the Otjivero settlement in Omitara area, central Namibia, has turned their misfortunes into a better life. An assessment done six months after the implementation of the pilot project found that malnutrition among children under the age of five in the Otjivero settlement dropped, small enterprises sprang up, more parents paid school fees for their children, while people living with HIV and Aids can take their anti-retroviral drugs regularly because they have food on the table.

Basic nutrition

The Basic Income Grant (BIG) Pilot Project Assessment Report, which contains these findings, was launched in October 2008. When the households were surveyed in November last year just before the onset of the grant, 70 percent of the residents said they did not always have sufficient food to eat while 30 percent said they lacked sufficient food on a daily basis. Reverend Claudia Haarmann, co-director of the Desk for Social Development at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia (ELCRN), said that six months after the grant was implemented, the situation changed substantially, with only 12 percent of the households reporting shortage of food and 60 percent (an increase from 20 percent) of the households reporting never experiencing food shortages.

The number of malnourished children dropped from 42 percent to 17 percent. The malnutrition rate was much higher than the national average, which is 24 percent according to the human development report of 2007.

An enabling grant

The assessment shows that the grant has had a major impact on the residents' income. Reverend Dirk Haarmann, co-director of the ELCRN Desk for Social Development, said the increase in residents' income enabled them to spend money on food and other provisions, repay their debts and remittances to others as well as afford transport, clothing, housing, health care and stationery for their school-going children.

The level of reported crime, especially poverty-related crime dropped by over 20 percent since the introduction of the grant. Herbert Jauch, researcher at the Labour Research and Resource Institute, said the main crimes were poaching firewood on private farms, which are related to poverty and lack of employment and have been reduced with the advent of BIG. He said BIG is not a handout but an enabling grant and it is going to be criminal not to support a BIG for Namibia.

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Speaking at the launch of the report, ELCRN Bishop Kameeta said the grant enables people to take destiny into their own hands--just like manna to the Israelites in the Bible enabled them to continue with their journey to the Promised Land. He said the BIG pilot project challenges the way poverty is tackled. "Should the BIG pilot project not rather be a challenge to us and our traditional approaches to development and economic empowerment? For me, it is a new way of thinking and acting. We as a nation cannot wait to address poverty head-on," he said.

The BIG coalition

The BIG coalition comprises the Council of Churches in Namibia, the umbrella body of non-governmental organisations NANGOF, Aids organisations under NANASO, the National Union of Namibian Workers, the Legal Assistance Centre and the Labour Resource and Research Institute. It is spearheaded by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia. Through the pilot project, the BIG coalition wants to demonstrate that the project is feasible. The pilot project ends in December 2009.

This story is reprinted with permission from New Era, 6 October 2008. It has been shortened.