Fighting for a better Namibia

Mariselle Stofberg







Inamuvulwa Willibard Munyama’s loveable and kind nature makes her an easy person to get to know and engage with, and greatly values the importance of respect.

“I am a very talkative, down-to-earth person who was brought up to respect people. If you surround yourself with people who are optimistic about life despite the odds, it feeds your own energy,” she says.

Munyama, also known as Ina and Tekla, was born in Windhoek, but most of her fondest childhood memories were created in Tsumeb, a place she refers to as paradise.

She has two children who give her every reason to wake up every day and face life.

“I have five sisters, a brother, a mother whom I refer to as an angel and my late father who I saw as a dynamic man filled with wisdom.”

She studied both accounting and finance coupled with marketing at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (Nust). While studying, she started working for the Social Marketing Association (SMA) and her focus was on Malaria and HIV/Aids in Namibia.

“Thereafter I was working for Bank Windhoek through their banking school. The journey was a long one, but I am grateful that while there, I discovered that I could impart knowledge to others.”

She continued her career at MTC, which was a dream come true for her.

“My training role has enabled me to visit all 14 regions of the country and that was always the best part about my job. The Central Procurement Board of Namibia (CPBN) was another career milestone that God opened for me. I had little knowledge about procurement matters, but when you are open to teaching and learning, you can learn a lot,” she says.

Moving to the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in 2019 was a different ball game altogether for Munyama.

New ball game

Being seconded to the partner institutio,m which is the National Planning Commission, was and remains an amazing journey for Munyama. “Every day of my life I read about my company and I have to keep abreast with the work of the partner institution, which remains critical for the type of work I do.”

Munyama never starts a day without God and always carries her Bible with her. “I have two kids whom I must prepare to go to school, which is always a fun madhouse, before proceeding to work. Getting to the office is the part I enjoy most because I have my own office space; a place where I pray before I start my day. I must say I have an awesome manager, because we start our day with a moment of spirituality, before we start on our ‘to-do-list’ for the day,” she adds.

Munyama works for GIZ but is assigned a seat at the partner institution, which is the National Planning Commission (NPC), under the Office of the President.

She currently serves as a technical advisor. “My work can be demanding, but I can very well withstand pressure. It’s a job that requires you to use your knowledge and experience, while ‘protocols’ must always be observed and thinking outside of the box is needed to do planning, organising, implementing, and budgeting. During the above, one needs to showcase skills such as people skills, interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence and social intelligence.”

Munyama works to push the UN development agenda through their sustainable development goals. “The role of our project within GIZ Namibia which is referred to as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Initiative has three fields of action. The first is policy coherence which aims to enable the NPC and its Secretariat to improve its instruments and processes for integrating Agenda 2030 national priorities into its planning and budgeting activities.”

The second is to reform the tax administration with the goal to prepare the setting up of a semi-autonomous revenue authority — now known as Namibia Revenue Authority (NamRA).

“This will allow Namibia to generate its own resources to finance the national implementation of Agenda 2030. The last is the monitoring of the implementation of Agenda 2030. This aims to empower the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) in its coordinating role as a collector of data. This, in turn, creates the prerequisites for establishing a national monitoring and review system for the national implementation of Agenda 2030.”

“What is worth mentioning is that Namibia has made major improvements in the fight against poverty and food hunger through the promotion of sustainable agricultural activities such as improving food security programmes and continuing to implement green scheme actions. It is fantastic to know that I am a part of this improvement and really shows we as a nation are moving forward,” she adds.

Munyama’s dream has always been to work towards the betterment of Namibia and its people.

“I celebrate the Almighty God for affording me this opportunity to work on a project that focuses on ending human suffering. I love my country and its people. We have a beautiful country rich with resources and a diverse culture. Right now, as Covid-19 has hit us so badly as a country, we need to adopt the SDGs Principles of Leaving No One Behind (LNOB) that promotes inclusivity,” she says.

Her favourite part of her work is her exposure to people. “Meeting people in line with my work is the most exciting part of this job. This job has taken me to places I could only imagine and provided me with the opportunity to meet new people I thought I would never ever meet and work on tough assignments for the betterment of Namibian people.”