Civil Society Sustainability Index – Namibia

On December 1, 2020, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) launched the latest Civil Society Sustainability Report for Namibia. How is civil society performing - what are the success stories and what are the constraints? Find out below.

Public protests and activism on the rise

The short paper prepared by the IPPR Namibia for the CSO Sustainability Index (2019) – covers issues facing Namibian civil society across seven dimensions: Legal Environment, Organisational Capacity, Financial Viability, Advocacy, Service Provision, Sectoral Infrastructure, and Public Image. The report is based on the comments and scores of a panel of civil society experts combined with desk research.

• Access the full paper on the IPPR website.
• View the IPPR Namibia – Civil Society Organisations Sustainability Index presentation.

Civil society fears taxing of commercial activities

[Extract from an article published by the Namibian Sun on December 3, 2020.]

Civil society organisations are concerned about the government’s intention to tax non-profit organisations as they are already struggling financially.
This was said by Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) Executive Director Graham Hopwood when he presented the 2019 Civil Society Organisation Sustainability Index.
Hopwood said the government through the Ministry of Finance in March 2018 proposed taxing any income that charities derive from commercial activities.
Hopwood stated that while taxing commercial activities makes sense on paper, in reality, it poses a serious challenge to the survival of civil society organisations.
“Civil society organisations have problems because general donor funding is going down, which is what they depend on for survival. They will have to look at other initiatives to get money for themselves”, he pointed out.
Hopwood noted that while civil society is not entirely against the taxing of their commercial activities, they want the government to consult them so they can discuss challenges that may result from such a tax. - Nampa

Access the full article on the Namibia Sun website.