The Kavango West Regional Council will need an estimated N$2.2 billion for development and N$160 million for operational costs to fund its 2025-2030 strategic plan.

The budget figures were shared during the launch of the plan at Nkurenkuru.

According to the presentation, the plan prioritises resources, improves coordination and collaboration, guides sustainable growth, provides a policy and decision-making framework, measures progress, attracts investment, and enhances quality of life.

Director of Planning and Development Services for the Kavango West Regional Council, Egidius Nambara, shared that the strategic plan will align the region's work with national priorities.

"Having identified these issues, we have now come up with our focus areas based on the issues that we have identified, or what we call 'strategic pillars'. There are four of them that we have identified or we have drafted. The first one is infrastructure development. The second one is socio-economic transformation. The third one is operational excellence, and the fourth is equitable access to quality education."

Nambara added that the plan will focus on addressing key strategic issues, namely inadequate ICT and physical infrastructure; limited access to serviced land, housing and sanitation; poor organisational culture and governance; limited budget; limited access to potable water; disaster unpreparedness; high poverty rates; high unemployment; and slow progress on settlement proclamation.

Chairperson of the Kavango West Regional Council, Fillipus Tenga, emphasised that fulfilling the strategic plan will require collective responsibility.

"So therefore, administrators, directors from different sectors, and private sectors in the Kavango West region, on their own, cannot achieve these objectives, but we need your help, and that is why we are here; that is why we have called you so that we can work together, so that we can go in one direction with the overall aim of making an impact on our customers, and those are the communities. Our communities must feel the development."

Tenga called on the people of Kavango West to submit innovative ideas and work closely with the council.