Research Articles (DE)

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Namibia: The KAS democracy report 2009
([s.l], 2009) Du Pisani, Andre; Lindeke, William A.
Transcending state-centrism
(Lap Lambert Acad., 2009) Blaauw, Lesley
The end of the Cold War and the downfall of apartheid compelled SACU and SADC to recast their objectives and purpose. For SACU this meant changing from an organisation dominated by South Africa to a fully-fledged inter-state one Disconcertedly, however, about the reforms undertook by SACU, is that the disposition of member states remain important in determining the content and scope of regionalism. SADC, on the other hand, has also not sufficiently reform itself to achieve the ambitious goals it set-out for itself. Moreover, while SADC has since its inception in 1992 set-out to involve non-state actors in its regional integration efforts, limited institutional reform in 2000 and beyond, and elites at the forefront of institutional restructuring make it difficult for non-state actors to contribute to sustainable regional integration. The contention here is that that sustainable regionalist orders are best built by recognising that beyond the geometry of state-sovereignty, civil society organisations with a regional focus and the ordinary people of the region also contribute to regioness and as such to the re-conceptualisation of regional community in southern Africa.
Revisiting the South African aggregate import demand
([s.l], 2012) Ziramba, Emmanuel
This paper examines the long run and short run relationship between South African aggregate imports and expenditure components and the price of imports relative to the price of domestic substitutes (RP) using the bounds test approach. Annual data for the period 1970-2009 are used. The final demand expenditure variable is disaggregated into final consumption expenditure (FCE), investment expenditure (EIG) and exports expenditure (EX). The use of a disaggregated demand variable, as opposed to a single demand variable, is justified by the possibility that each final demand component may have different import contents. The major findings are; first, aggregate import demand is co-integrated with its determinants, second, different components of final demand expenditure have different impacts on aggregate import demand in both the short and long-run periods.
Assessment of factors to receiving food aid in the Caprivi region of Namibia: A factor analysis approach
(Academic Journals, 2012) Nyambe, Jacob M.; Belete, A.
Now than ever before, rural communities in the Caprivi region of Namibia are relying more on food aid. This shows that something has gone wrong with their sources of livelihood. This paper seeks to reveal the factors that predispose one to receive food aid. A sample size of 253 respondents was randomly selected from Kabbe, Katima Rural and Linyanti Constituencies. The three constituencies constitute the flood plains. Factor analysis was used to empirically identify patterns of relationships among observed factors. The results obtained show that five factor components, namely, capacity to farm, climate risk awareness, household economic status, past economic opportunities, and household labour with eigenvalues of ≥ 1 are invaluable to eligibility to food aid. These factors have proven to be responsible for about 68% of the total variance and are thus, vital for predisposing rural households to receiving food aid in the study area. By addressing and taking measures on the variables of the factor components that expose households to food aid, rural households in the study area would most likely stay away from relying on food aid.
Long-run price and income elasticities of the Namibia aggregate electricity demand
(Scholarly Resource Centre Limited., 2012) Ziramba, Emmanuel; Kavezeri, Kasnath J.
This paper estimates the short-run and long-run price and income elasticities of aggregate electricity demand in Namibia over the period 1993q1 to 2010q1. We make use of the bounds testing approach to cointegration within an autoregressive distributed framework, Our empirical results suggest that electricity demand is income elastic, but price inelastic in the long-run.
Revisiting the South African aggregate import demand : A view from expenditure components
(University of Stellenbosch, 2012) Ziramba, Emmanuel
This paper examines the long run and short run relationship between South African aggregate imports and expenditure components and the price of imports relative to the price of domestic substitutes (RP) using the bounds test approach. Annual data for the period 1970-2009 are used. The final demand expenditure variable is disaggregated into final consumption expenditure (FCE), investment expenditure (EIG) and exports expenditure (EX). The use of a disaggregated demand variable, as opposed to a single demand variable, is justified by the possibility that each final demand component may have different import contents. The major findings are; first, aggregate import demand is co-integrated with its determinants, second, different components of final demand expenditure have different impacts on aggregate import demand in both the short and long-run periods.
Accountability and democracy
(Idasa., 2012) Blaauw, Lesley
The interface of foreign relations and economic cooperation
(Gamsberg Macmillan., 2012) Blaauw, Lesley
Determinants of farmers’ decisions to cultivate crops in the Caprivi region of Namibia: A logistics analysis
(2012) Nyambe, Jacob M.; Belete, A.
Annually, rural farmers in the Caprivi region are faced with making difficult choices of whether or not to cultivate their crop fields. The choice farmers make is influenced by the presence of wild animals, climate risk factors, and prospects of future food aid-rollouts. This study investigates key identified determinants to rural farmers’ decisions to cultivate their crop fields amidst the three mentioned influencers. Using a structured questionnaire, 253 respondents were interviewed on a face to face basis. Random sampling was used in selecting the respondents. The respondents resided in the flood plains where they had access to food aid for a period of 5 years. The central livelihood strategy for the respondents is agriculture. A logistics model was used to analyze the data. The results revealed that the household food bill, age of the head of the household, and the value and availability of food aid were essential determinants of a rural farmer’s decision to cultivate his/her crop field. It also came out that rolling out food aid to rural farmers for a period of ≤ 5 years has little effect on their crop production commitments. A longer period may become a disincentive to crop farming in favor of food aid.
Two Southern African rock art sites as indicators of ancient migratory routes
([s.l], 2012) Van Rooyen, Piet
A recently rediscovered rock art site at Farm Hornkranz-South in the Khomas Hochland of Namibia presents a close resemblance to the Fallen Rock site at Bushman's Kloof in the Cederberg of South Africa. This discovery may well point to early San migration up the river systems from the Western Cape via Namaqualand and the Orange River to the interior of Namibia. If a migration hypothesis can be archeologically expounded by means of, for instance, pot shards, lithic assemblage, or by linguistics, then the same should be possible by means of rock paintings, especially in the case of ones so convincingly similar as those from the two sites under consideration. It may here be productive to analyse the two sets of paintings, not only in terms of age, placement, symbolism and orientation, but also in terms of artistic style and aesthetics, in order to explore a cultural (art-historical) connection. Although the aesthetic approach may not solve the symbolic problems of ancient rock art, it may well be of use in indicating relatedness between artistic styles, and time/space. Traces of a cultural relationship, as evidenced through styles of art, would then necessitate a closer look at river systems as possible arteries for migration in pre-Historic southern Africa.
Historical dictionary of Namibia
(Tte Scarecrow Press Inc., 2012) Tonchi, Victoria L.
Assessing climate risk to improve incomes of rural farming households in the Caprivi region, Namibia
(2013) Nyambe, Jacob M.; Belete, A.
While the scientific world blames the severity of climate risk factors on climate change, the assessment of its effects on a rural household remains understudied. The objective of this study is to assess climate risk factors on rural households that practices small-scale agriculture with the aim of improving the incomes of farming households. The paper used cross-sectional data from a sample of 253 respondents who represented households that were based in the flood prone areas of the Caprivi region. Invoking a multivariate regression model revealed that climate risk factors especially flood exacerbates the opportunity cost for obtaining a good harvest and thus exposed farming households to income risk and food insecurity. In view of these findings, old age pension and retirement annuities, the value of livestock and that of food aid proved vital to the income and food security needs of rural households in the study area. Investing in early warning systems and publicizing likely climate risk scenarios may be helpful to rural households in preparing to secure their income sources and thus reducing chances of hunger.
Agriculture and manufacturing sector growth in Namibia during the period 1981 to 2012: A granger causality test
(2014) Siboleka, Milner; Nyambe, Jacob M.; Osterkamp, Rigmar
Namibia became independent in 1990. Since then, the democratic government has pursued various development policy tools to empower Namibians economically. The 4th National Development Plan identified four strategic economic growth enhancing activities, namely agriculture, manufacturing, logistics and tourism. Agriculture remains the largest employer while manufacturing, logistics and tourism are growing, but slowly. This paper is premised on investigating whether or not there is a causal and long term relationship between agriculture and manufacturing sector growth over the period 1981-2012. Ascertaining the direction of the relationship is part of the objectives. Analytical methods that were used include unit root, correlation test and a Granger Causality model. With the use of time series data, the results confirmed stationarity of the data. With 31 observations, no causal relationships were established between agriculture and manufacturing in Namibia. Appropriate policy interventions are required to influence how the two sectors should benefit from each other. Such holds potential for both sustained employment creation opportunities and economic growth in Namibia.
Is there a casual relationship between lending interest rate and credit availability to households in Namibia?
(2015) Kalumbu, Sakaria A.; Nyambe, Jacob M.
This study purposed to answer the question of whether or not there exist a causal relationship between the lending interest rate and credit volume available to households in Namibia. Analytical methods of unit root, Johansen cointegration, Granger-causality and the impulse response function were all used for estimation. The study period is the year 2000 to 2012 using panel data. Lending rate and credit stock available proved to be significant but with an inexistence of a long-run relationship between them. There is a one directional causal relationship between lending interest rate and credit available to households in Namibia which runs from credit availability to lending interest rate. Having also found a positive relationship between credit availability and lending interest rate in Namibia, lending rate should be sustained at a slightly higher level in order for the economy to keep prices stable.
Investigating the impact of FDI on economic growth in Zambia: 1980-2012
(2015) Mawila, Eugene; Nyambe, Jacob M.
This study was conceived to investigate the impact of foreign direct investment on economic growth in Zambia. Data used was obtained from the World Bank’s world development indicators for the period 1980 to 2012. A unit root test was used to determine whether or not the data was stationary. The Johansen cointegration test was then used to test for cointegration. Additionally the Granger causality procedure was used to test the direction of causality between foreign direct investment and economic growth. It was revealed that all the independent variables were non-stationary in level form but were all found to be stationary after first differencing them. Further, the variables were integrated of order one, I (1) and also that there existed a long run relationship among the variables for the period 1980 to 2012. In the same manner, the results showed that FDI does not granger cause economic growth in Zambia . Therefore, unless the Government of the Republic of Zambia considers reforming its existing policies, foreign direct investments will not serve as the prelude for desired economic growth.
Investigating the determinants of foreign direct investments in Namibia
(2016) Dembo, Jones S.; Nyambe, Jacob M.
Foreign direct investments are a challenge to attract, good to host and worse to see leaving. It is in line with this view that an investigation of the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Namibia was launched through this study. Data points used are for 1984 to 2014. The unit root, cointegration test and the bounds testing approach based on the Autoregressive Distributed Lag framework were all employed. As a consequence to the outcome, the Error Correction Model became necessary and was used. The short run and long run scenarios were captured and yielded that in the short run, a depreciation of the Namibian dollar was found to positively impact on the receipts of FDI. Inflation and GDP growth were found to impact positively on FDI in the short and long run scenarios. Though statistically insignificant, population growth was found to be a positive driver while exchange rate was negatively related to FDI in a short-run. An existence of a long run relationship among the variables was also confirmed. As for the long run, population growth was negatively impacting on the attraction of FDI. With the Namibian dollar pegged to the South African Rand at 1:1, inflation was seen to have a positive impact on FDI in both periods. A positive sign for inflation is not necessarily a doubtful finding in the short-run period, considering that the opposite of it can be serious on the economy. Therefore, the government should use inflation targeting policies and other macroeconomic measures that are suitable to the needs of the country. Appropriate fiscal and monetary measures are needed for stimulating economic growth at a rate that surpasses the rate of population growth, because due to the resultant effect of a high population on FDI in the long run and subsequently on economic growth.
Macroeconomic determinats of commercial banks' liquidity in Namibia
(2016) Sheefeni, Johannes P.; Nyambe, Jacob M.
Searching for new ways remains a primary concern among scholars. In this paper the macroeconomic determinants of commercial banks’ liquidity in Namibia were considered and analysed. The unit root, bound test for cointegration and error correction model were employed using quarterly data covering the period 2001 to 2014. The results revealed that real gross domestic product is the main determinant of commercial banks’ liquidity in Namibia. It was also found that monetary policy rate is positively related to banks’ liquidity though statistically insignificant. On the contrary, the results revealed a negative relationship between inflation and commercial banks’ liquidity
Testing the applicability of a privatization model on state owned enterprises in Namibia
(2018) Kabuku, Astro Katama; Nyambe, Jacob M.
Namibia has several State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) some of which are sustainable while others are state-revenue draining. This study was conceived to explore the factors that lead to success and failure of SOEs in Namibia to attempt to develop a privatisation model that could serve as a pilot model for future privatization efforts within the Namibian context. In Namibia, SOEs are faced with a myriad of challenges ranging from politically motivated appointment of poorly skilled boards, lack of monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, ineffective performance management systems, high remuneration for executives which is not paralleled to productivity of the SOEs, corruption, unsustainable debts, burdensome expenditures, financial mismanagement and poor financial performance. Within the Namibian context, SOEs are classified into four categories, namely regulatory enterprises, service rendering enterprises, general enterprises, and economic and productive enterprises. The economic and productive SOEs were selected by their potential for selfsustainability. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data from 31 respondents who occupied management positions within the various departments from the 12 economic and productive SOEs. An Exploratory Factor Analysis model was applied for analytical purposes using a Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 23. The results of this study have several implications for Namibia in the sense that the privatisation model identified the factors attributable to the private sector as follow: service experience, organisational learning and operational efficiency. The study also identified the following factors with attributes to the public sector: poor corporate governance, low levels of risk management and lack of enterprise sustainability. Reform initiatives in the form of privatisation would, therefore, lead to an improvement in sound corporate governance, improve risk management and enterprise sustainability.
Analyzing the agricultural livelihood strategic components in the Zambezi region, Namibia
(2018) Nyambe, Jacob M.; Belete, A.
While urban dwelling is increasingly becoming common across the world, in Namibia, the population settlement pattern is skewed towards rural areas and so is the case for the Zambezi region. The main livelihood strategy is agriculture, which is subsistence in nature and practiced on communal land. This paper investigates changes in the agricultural livelihood strategy in the rural Zambezi. The work is premised around the hypothesis that the agricultural livelihood strategy has improved since 2002 to 2008. Parametric sampling approach in the form of stratified sampling technique based on environmental systems of being flood prone was used to yield a sample size of 253 respondents. SPSS was used in analyzing the data and in the process conventional descriptive statistics and a Chi-Square method were applied. The results show that households with members who were between 5 to 6 in number owned more land than households with more or few members. The majority of respondents are between the ages 36 to 60 years of age. Of the total respondents, 61% were married. The majority of respondents in the category of those with no education at all making up 35% are women. At Junior and Secondary education levels, women dominate men. Male respondents (at 5%) slightly outclass women respondents in terms of having attended tertiary education. Furthermore, the findings proved otherwise in favour of the alternative hypothesis that changes to the livelihoods have occurred but in an adverse manner. The declining livestock numbers from 53% to 47% of the total cattle numbers and crop harvests among the marginalized households require some long-term policy interventions. Introducing small irrigation projects for rural farming households holds potential for increased crop outputs when there is inadequate rainfall. Other than opting for sustainable livelihoods, anything less is unlikely to be inappropriate for a rural farming household in the Zambezi region.
Illicit financial flows, theft and gold smuggling in Africa
(2019) Grynberg, Roman; Nyambe, Jacob M.; Singopo, Fwasa
The article reviews recent research and controversies surrounding the quantification of illicit financial flows (IFF) in the gold mining sector in Africa. It is argued that the methodology and data used in the quantification of the most frequently analysed technique, i.e., export undervaluation, is flawed not only because of the recognized weakness of the international trade data, but also because it focuses only on one aspect of IFF, and does not attempt to address issues pertaining to actual under measurement or misspecification of volumes. It is argued that estimates of tax evasion activities can only be determined through forensic economic and accounting techniques, and not through macro-economic or trade data. The last section considers the increased evidence of gold smuggling to the UAE from various African countries, some of which produce no gold of any significance, but appear to export in very large volumes; and at unit import values well below world market prices.

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