Funding cuts disrupt Namibia’s sustainable development monitoring

Namibia’s ability to monitor progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is under serious strain following the withdrawal of key international funding. The 2025 Sustainable Development Goals Report, compiled by the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) and the United Nations, highlights that the termination of critical donor support — including USAID’s long-standing backing of the Demographic and Health Survey — has left significant data gaps in health, gender, poverty, and education.

Without these regular surveys, Namibia risks flying blind on essential indicators needed to track development progress by the 2030 SDG deadline. The report further reveals that only 55% of SDG indicators can currently be monitored in Sub-Saharan Africa due to financial and technical constraints.

Namibia has historically relied on external partners to fund surveys, monitoring tools, and statistical infrastructure. But recent global funding cuts — compounded by the end of COVID-19 emergency financing — have forced agencies to scale down their activities.

Map of the coverage of the Demographic and Health Surveys project

Experts warn that this trend could compromise national development planning and international reporting obligations for vulnerable groups like women, youth, and rural communities.

Despite the challenges, the report urged Sub-Saharan African countries, such as Namibia, to prioritise domestic investment in data systems and explore new partnerships to rebuild capacity. “We cannot afford to leave progress to chance,” the report concludes.

The annual progress report on the Sustainable Development Goals — the SDG Report 2025 — was launched on Monday, 14 July by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed, and UN DESA’s Under-Secretary-General Li Junhua. 

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