sustainability

The categorisation of Namibia as an upper middle-income country has left many orphanages, charities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in a state of limbo as donors have gradually withdrawn financial assistance.
 
This has in turn compelled some organisations to shut their operations, as there no funds to sustain them, leaving vulnerable children and orphans stranded with no place to call home.
 

According to Lahja Nashuuta, ever since the World Bank elevated Namibia to the upper middle income country status, majority of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the country have been struggling to remain afloat as donor funds dry up.

Nashuuta states that since the reclassification of Namibia from the lower-income country to upper–middle income country in July 2009, donors have redirected their funding to country that are classified as more poorer than Namibia, leaving local NGOs in financial squeeze.

Malawi has almost 500 non-governmental organisations - most of which are funded by international donors - but many of these organisations do not work closely with local communities, so when they leave, projects collapse.
 
After working in the Mulanje district for 15 years, World Vision stopped facilitating a project that provided vulnerable children with school materials and basic healthcare, and the local community with low-cost maize.
 

Human Settlements Minister, Lindiwe Sisulu, has reiterated that government is building RDP houses for South African citizens and not just for foreign nationals.

Sisulu says housing in South Africa has caused many problems over the years and this been worsened by foreign nationals coming into South Africa and buying RDP houses that are meant for South African citizens at a fraction of the price.

Leading by example, the regional director of education in the Kgatleng District in Botswana, Sir Wonder Masebola, has pledged P5 000 towards the building of five classroom blocks at the Mochudi Resource Centre for the Blind (MRCB).

Masebola notes that the centre’s appeal to the Diamond Trading Company (DTC) Botswana bore fruit when the company donated over P1 million.

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) plans to raise R10 million in November 2014 to keep the organisation afloat, the organisation is relying on public donations, hoping big funders will then follow.

Mark Heywood, one of TAC’s directors states that, “The TAC thinks there is a red light over the country's response to the HIV epidemic," following recent statistics released by the Human Sciences Research Council, which show that in 767 people died each day in South Africa from AIDS related illnesses in 2012, 280,000 in a year.