After struggling to find a job following graduation, Julia Shilongo, a Marketing Management graduate, found purpose in the Uugongowamupanda Community Garden in the Oshana Region. Together with her sister, she grows cabbages, tomatoes, and butternuts to feed their families and sells to generate income. To further boost sustainability, Julia has also introduced poultry and pig farming."My vision now is to expand and supply major retailers like Freshco, AMTA, and U-save," says Julia.Thanks to UNDP in Namibia and funding from the Government of Japan, the garden now has solar-powered pumps, drawing water from the Omusati canal, along with water tanks, shade nets, and storage facilities. This support strengthens food security, economic growth, and resilience for rural farmers, proving that community-driven solutions can transform lives in NamibiaKind regards,, filtered_html

Veronika Misisi (35) is a smallholder farmer in the Kavango West Region of Namibia who participates in the World Food Programme’s (WFP) home-grown school feeding programme at the Mbandu Murangi Primary School. Veronika is one of 41 smallholder farmers from Kavango West region that are part of the home grown school feeding programme. Veronika sells her Mutete (Hibiscus Robella) to supplement meals at the school which uses locally grown produce from smallholder farmers to provide the children nutritious mid-day meals. Before joining the programme, Veronikastruggled to sell her produce and but now the school buys her produce at a fair price, allowing her to support her family, pay school fees, and buy seeds for the next season. This year, she expects to harvest over 14 bags (20kg per bag) of Mutete, a significant improvement from her previous yield of 5 bags. The programme has not only provided a livelihood opportunity for Veronika but also ensured that children at her local school nutritious meals.WFP’s home-grown school feeding programme has transformed lives in this community. By connecting smallholder farmers like Veronika to schools, it creates a sustainable market, smallfarmers earn consistent income, and children receive healthy food. Veronika will now start training other women in her village to grow different crops and join her, believing that together they can grow more food and sell it to other regions. For Veronika, the programme is more than just a source of income it’s a lifeline to a brighter future for her family and her community., filtered_html

IntroductionLet me begin by thanking Olatoun Gabi-Williams, initiator of the African Perspectives Series, Founder, Borders Literature for all Nations, UN SDG Book Club African Chapter Publicist and Management Committee Member, for availing us this much needed platform that enables us to share details about the Network of Book Clubs and Reading Culture Promoters (NBRP) in Nigeria. This article will be written from the perspective of NBRP’s potential to contribute to the realization of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, UNSDGs.About NBRPNBRP emerged on the Nigerian national readership promotions scene in February 2023 with the following stated aims and objectives:To bring together book clubs and reading promotion organizations in Nigeria for shared readership advocacy.To serve as a platform to encourage more Nigerians to read.To collectively project and present the interest of book clubs and reading promotion organizations in the book chain.To cooperate with other organizations in the book trade with a view to forging more beneficial relationships and partnerships between readers and the rest of the book chain actors.Achievements So Far and Gains Recorded Awareness creation: Book clubs matter We believe that our most significant contribution to the reading and books ecosystem so far, is our helping to register in the minds of more and more swathes of the Nigerian population as well as in the public consciousness, that book clubs exist here and that they are needed for achieving critical national development goals. The nation’s population should patronize and use them.While this has been done through various platforms, media and engagements over the years, the peak of our awareness-raising activities has been our Lagos Book Walk activity undertaken to flag off the tenure of Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial and culture capital, as the Nigerian National Book City 2023. The Lagos Book Walk took place on April 27, 2023, and included among other activities and schedules, the presentation of the 10-point Lagos Book Charter: Suggestions for Improving the Reading Culture in Lagos to officials of the State Government. The document was the product of extensive consultations among stakeholders in the books and reading ecosystem that comprised publishers, authors, booksellers, librarians, authors and reading promoters. Walking the Collaboration pathOne of NBRP’s tracks to achieving its goals is walking the collaboration path. This is based on a simple reasoning that book clubs as aggregate assemblies of readers do not exist as completely autonomous islands unto themselves. They need books produced by other stakeholders and they equally need reading spaces.Our collaboration initiatives have therefore seen us join with other book ecosystem players like the Nigerian Publishers Association, the Booksellers Association of Nigeria, the Association of Nigerian Authors, the Nigerian Copyright Commission and the Chartered Institute of Professional Printers of Nigeria in organizing the annual Nigerian International Book Fair. It has also seen us signing MOUs with agencies and organisations like the National Library of Nigeria, the Nigerian Library Association and the Committee for Relevant Art, CORA, in relation to setting up book clubs in libraries countrywide and undertaking joint book advocacy engagements.No blind walking: The imperative of data-gatheringBefore we got into the field, one of our biggest concerns was not wanting to play the wild card. We saw that we were working in a field where for various constricting reasons, guesses and assumptions were being generally used in place of statistics and we decided to do something about it. This is why one of our first public projects was a commitment to data gathering. The result was the Preliminary Survey on the State of Reading Infrastructure in Nigeria that was presented to stakeholders at the Nigerian International Book Fair in 2022. We also conducted a second survey on the reading habits of Nigerians in the Lagos area.Sustaining, energizing, populating book clubs and building more functional capacity within NBRPThis is one area where we have pushed quite hard, deploying a combination of virtual and physical tools. It began with our Whatsapp platform where almost on a daily basis, we share beneficial information, opportunities regarding book clubs, reading promotions trends and allied matters. We also have our quarterly training sessions designed to help our members and affiliates upscale their methods while also encouraging the setting up of new book clubs in cities and schools countrywide. Our last major activity in this regard was the formal induction of some 22 new clubs on the sidelines of the 61st National Conference and AGM of the Nigerian Library Association that took place in Akure, Ondo State in July 2023. Notably, one of the newly set up clubs was that of the National Library branch in Akure. The yearly AGM and Conference of NBRP is another much valued capacity building forum. Countrywide outreachAs part of our deliberate effort to ensure that the reading promotions train impacts different spaces and strata across Nigeria, we have a rotational Nigerian National Book Clubs City scheme that encourages the concentration of our work within a given city/state per year. The beneficiary city is chosen in a bid process that peaks during the Annual General Meeting and Conference of NBRP and upon being declared successful, the successful city is supported to carry out reading promotions activities within its broader state area for at least one calendar year. Uyo/Akwa Ibom enjoyed this grace in 2021 and 2022. Lagos is the current beneficiary and Yenagoa/Bayelsa has already being chosen as Nigerian National Book Clubs City 2024. The 2025 Host City is to be chosen during the 2023 NBRP AGM and Conference in Lagos in September, 2023. NBRP and the SDGsThe work we do at the Network of Book Clubs and Reading Culture Promoters in Nigeria fits in very well with the themes and objectives expressed in SDG 8 – Decent Work and Economic Growth. This goal calls attention to the imperative of sustained, inclusive sustainable economic growth and full, productive employment and decent work for all. In addition, we are persuaded that it strongly resonates with SDG 4 - Inclusive, Equitable & Quality Education. This is more so as this goal advocates the promotion of lifelong learning opportunities for all.Through encouraging a culture of foundational grounding in literacy and the reading enterprise; through continued supplemental reading during formal school engagements; through imbibing and practicing life-long reading as a continuing engagement for all of the population, NBRP is helping to ensure the nurturing of a population of people primed to be a net-contributor to national wealth creation in a replenishable, continually value-adding chain all through the span of their lives.Richard Mammah – Career Profile  Richard Mammah is an experienced editor and manager with a demonstrated history of working in the books and publishing industry. He possesses skills in writing, publishing, advertising, editing and media relations. He is a strong business development professional with a B.A and M.A in English and Literary Studies from University of Calabar, Nigeria. Since February 2020, he has been the President of the Network of Book Clubs and Reading Promoters in Nigeria (NBRP). NBRP was founded in February 2020 as a non-profit to develop, promote and sustain a reading culture in Nigeria and to serve as an umbrella organization for Book Clubs in the country. He currently serves as the President of the elected Executive Council that runs the affairs of the organization. The council’s achievements include:●     Launch of 774 Book Clubs and Libraries Project, a campaign to ensure the emergence of at least one book club and a properly equipped library per local council area in Nigeria.●     National Book Club City project where a city in the country that has an active NBRP presence gets to be garlanded to serve as the focal point for reading promotions initiatives countrywide. Uyo was the pioneer holder of the status for 2021 and 2022.  Lagos took over the status of National Book Club City on April 23rd 2023. The Network of Book Clubs and Reading Promoters (NBRP) is a partner of the UN SDG Book Club Africa ABOUT THE AFRICAN PERSPECTIVES SERIESThe African Perspective Series was launched at the 2022 Nigeria International Book Fair with the first set of commissioned papers written and presented by authors of the UN SDG Book Club African Chapter. The objective of African Perspectives is to have African authors contribute to the global conversation around development challenges afflicting the African continent and to publish these important papers in the SDG Book Club blog hosted in the Stories section of the UN Namibia site. In this way, our authors’ ideas about the way forward for African development, can reach the widest possible interested audience. The African Perspectives Series is an initiative and property of Borders Literature for all Nations , filtered_html

 “I am so happy to receive cash assistance. I prefer cash because it allows me to fund my other projects like school fees. I also plan to use some of the money to start a business,” said Nfuny from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), who fled his country due to war in 2019.As prolonged drought in Namibia continues, the livelihoods of refugees and asylum-seekers in the Osire refugee settlement are severely impacted, with subsistence farming, which many depend on, becoming increasingly difficult. Rising temperatures in the country that frequently surpass 40 degrees and irregular rainfall have made it harder for them to grow the crops and sustain their livelihoods. Food insecurity in the Osire settlement has worsened protection risks such as gender-based violence and exploitation, particularly towards women and children. According to the Joint Assessment Mission report conducted by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency and World Food Programme in 2021, half of the population assessed have poor food consumption with majority being female headed households, further increasing their vulnerability. Global financial uncertainty, funding cuts and rising inflation has further exacerbated the situation, making essential resources out of reach for many. Over the years, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has been providing food and other essential needs such as in-kind assistance. Early this year, UNHCR, in collaboration with the government, launched Cash-Based Interventions (CBI), allowing beneficiaries to buy food and other essential needs for their families from the market. Facilitated by the service provider, Mobile Telecommunications Company Namibia, through its mobile money service, this approach is a significant step towards improving financial inclusion for refugees and asylum-seekers in Namibia, benefitting around 6,000 individuals and over 1,000 households in the Osire settlement. The CBI initiative further aligns with key UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and underpinned by the principles of “Leaving No One Behind,” leveraging efforts to end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture (SDG 2), reduce inequalities (SDG 10), build stronger communities (SDG 11) and encourages teamwork (SDG 17) by bringing together the government and partners to support refugees at the Osire resettlement. “Offering cash assistance instead of in-kind aid will empower refugees and asylum-seekers to make their own choices about what they need most,” said Gloria Ekuyoa, CBI Officer at UNHCR. “This will not only enhance their self-reliance but also stimulate the local economy and strengthen social cohesion. With cash, some would be able to invest or start small business, paving the way for a more sustainable future.”  “In the midst of declining resources due to changing in geopolitical and economic landscapes, sustainable approaches have to be realised to keep service provisions to refugees and asylum-seekers,” said Fillemon Haindongo, Acting Country Director at Society for Family Health, a partner of UNHCR. “Thus, the Cash-Based Incentives (CBI) is one of such modalities that aims not only to provide for their livelihoods but also to build self-reliance among FDPs. The CBI is faster and much more convenient to manage,” he added. Although UNHCR works closely with the government of Namibia on various protection initiatives, the country’s settlement policy limits refugees' access to job and financial markets and their chances of self-sufficiency, with many struggling to access national services outside of Osire settlement. Namibia has recently seen an increase in new arrivals due to the ongoing conflicts in the DRC. Since February 2025, over 80 new refugees have been received at the Osire refugee settlement, worsening an already critical situation and further straining resources. UNHCR has only 40% of the resources needed for CBI assistance. As part of the CBI, UNHCR is also supporting around 885 refugees and asylum-seekers from 266 households in Botswana, enabling them to meet their immediate food and non-food needs.While the launch of CBI programme is a positive step towards addressing the immediate needs of refugee in both Namibia and Botswana, the cash assistance sustained funding is crucial to ensure long-term self-reliance. , filtered_html