Kavango East youth centre reborn as climate action hub

Maurice Kambukwe

A youth facility that began before Independence as a place for camps, singing and dancing competitions has been relaunched as a climate-smart agriculture training centre for young people in Kavango East region.

Boniface Kahare, Deputy Director in the Office of the Governor, who represented Kavango East Governor Julius Hamunyera Hambyuka, officially launched the Linus Shashipapo Climate Change Action Centre in Shinyungwe, in the Ndiyona Constituency, this past Friday. It is one of two such centres being set up under the “Resilience Building as Climate Change Adaptation in Drought-Struck South-Western African Communities (ADSWAC) project, in partnership with the Ministry of Education, Innovation, Youth, Sports, Arts and Culture.

During a Ministry site visit in August, the project had already reached 52 beneficiaries. Twenty-five of them were young people who were collectively managing more than 100 small-scale demonstration farmer plots.

In a keynote address delivered on her behalf by Paulus Nghikembua, Deputy Executive Director: Lifelong Learning, Arts and Culture, Minister of Education, Innovation, Youth, Sports, Arts and Culture, Dr Sanet Steenkamp said the centre was much more than a physical facility.

“Today we are not simply opening a building or a garden. We are opening a door to opportunity,” the minister said in her address.

Community ownership

ADSWAC, short for “Resilience Building as Climate Change Adaptation in Drought-Struck South-Western African Communities”, is a regional project implemented in Angola and Namibia. The Adaptation Fund funds it, with the Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS) as the implementing entity and DAPP Namibia as the national executing entity in Namibia.

In Namibia, the project works directly with 40 Producer Organisations, 40 Water User Associations and 20 schools running the Green School Programme in the Kavango East and Kavango West regions. A second centre is planned for Kavango West.

DAPP Namibia Managing Director Alfred Besa said the centre reflects the project’s community-centred approach.

“Communities are not merely beneficiaries but active participants in planning, implementing, and sustaining project activities,” Besa said.

Besa said the centre will serve as a platform for climate awareness, education and capacity-building, bringing communities, schools, government institutions and partners together. “Let it become a centre of knowledge, learning, innovation, and practical action,” Besa said.

A site with a long history

The site was identified as a youth development centre in the 1980s and named after the late Hompa Linus Shashipapo of the VaGciriku Tribe. After Independence, efforts were made to restore it. In 2004, the traditional leadership was approached about setting up a youth office in Ndiyona, and land was made available for sport, culture,
tourism, agriculture and other community projects.

In recent years, the centre has offered training, workshops, short courses, Wi-Fi and cultural programmes. The climate partnership came later. DAPP Namibia first approached the Linus Shashipapo Youth Office in June 2023, and the two signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2025.

From training to enterprise

The minister urged participants to look beyond farming for the household.

“Let us encourage the development of youth-led agricultural enterprises and cooperatives that can produce for markets,” she said, calling for links with schools, training centres, hostels, local markets, and private-sector buyers.

The centre’s success would be measured by how many young people could say: “I acquired a skill here; I established an enterprise here. I created employment here, and I am earning an income because of what I learned here.” The address said climate change is no longer a distant environmental issue. It affects communities, food systems, water resources and livelihoods. “Young people must be equipped “not only to adapt to climate change, but also to become agents of climate action”, she said.

From farms to markets

In the speech Kahare delivered on his behalf, Governor Hambyuka said the centre should be judged by what happens “tomorrow, next year and five years from now”, not by the launch ceremony.

The governor wants produce from young farmers to reach established markets, including schools and hostels, keeping economic value within our communities. He told young farmers to start small.

“A small demonstration plot can become a commercial farm, a small enterprise can become a larger business, an idea can become an innovation, and an innovation can become an industry,” the speech said.

The minister cautioned that opening a facility is not the end of development, but the beginning, and asked what would happen inside the centre after the launch. How many young people would be trained, how many enterprises established, and how many jobs and income opportunities created?

The address called for a strong monitoring and documentation system to track beneficiary numbers, skills acquired, production, enterprises and income generated. The minister also asked that the centre stay inclusive, with meaningful participation by young women, rural youth, young people with disabilities, and unemployed and out-of-school youth.

“No young person should feel that this Centre is not meant for them,” the address said. If it succeeds, the minister said, the model could be adapted for other parts of the country, and the Ministry wants to link the centre to other youth agricultural initiatives. Speaking directly to local youth, the address said: “This Centre belongs to you.”

The address focused on the National Youth Policy III (2020–2030) and the Sixth National Development Plan.

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