Namibia

LOCATED IN SOUTHERN Africa and bordering on the south Atlantic, the Republic of Namibia has an abundance of natural resources that include diamonds, copper, uranium, gold, zinc, tin, silver, and tungsten, as well as suspected deposits of coal, oil, and iron ore. Mining accounts for one-fifth of Namibia's Gross Domestic Product. Namibia is the fourth largest exporter of nonfuel minerals in Africa and the fifth largest producer of uranium.

The World Bank classifies Namibia as a lower-mid-dle-income nation. Despite its potential wealth, half of Namibia's population lives below the poverty line and 35 percent are unemployed. Some 55.8 percent subsist on less than $2 a day, and 34.9 percent survive on less than $1 a day. Three-fourths of Namibians who experience extreme poverty live in rural areas that are dependent on subsistence agriculture for survival.

Vast inequalities exist among the people, with the poorest 20 percent holding only 1.4 percent of the country's wealth and the richest 20 percent sharing 78.7 percent of the country's resources. Namibia is ranked 70.7 on the Gini Index of Human Inequality. Less than one percent of Namibia's land is suitable for agriculture, and the country has no permanent crops. Nevertheless 47 percent of the population are involved in subsistence agriculture. Periodic droughts make the lack of freshwater resources even more severe, causing Namibia to import approximately half of its cereal requirements. Namibian life expectancy is 43.93 years, and the median age is 19.79. Almost 39 percent of the population are under the age of 14, and 3.6 percent are over 65. Namibians have a 52.3 percent chance of not surviving until the age of 40.

Overall, Namibia suffers from many of the same problems that affect less affluent African countries, including low life expectancy, excessive mortality and death rates, low population and growth rates, and an out-of-control HIV/AIDS epidemic. In 2003 the prevalence rate for this disease reached 21.3 percent, and 210,000 Namibians were living with the disease and 16,000 had died.

Namibians also suffer from a high risk of food-and waterborne diseases that are common among the poorest countries of sub-Saharan Africa. Namibians are vulnerable to such diseases because 23 percent lack access to safe water and 59 percent lack access to adequate sanitation, Namibia has only 29 physicians for every 100,000 residents, and some 10 to 20 percent of the [Page 740]population lack access to affordable lifesaving drugs. Infant mortality rates are high at 48.98 deaths for every 1,000 live births, but this rate is a decline from the 1990 rate of 65.

Among children under 5 years of age, deaths per 1,000 dropped from 84 in 1990 to 67 in 2002. Nearly one-fourth of all Namibian children are malnourished, as are 26 percent of children under the age of 5. Approximately 15 percent of all infants experience low birth weight, and five percent of children under 5 are severely malnourished. About 24 percent of this group suffer from moderate to severe stunting, and nine percent experience moderate to severe wasting.

Namibia has improved rates of infant immunizations against some diseases but fallen behind in others. Between 1992 and 2003, DPT immunizations for infants rose from 38 to 83 percent and polio immunizations increased from 79 to 82 percent. During that same period, however, infant immunization rates against measles declined from 77 to 68 percent and tuberculosis immunizations fell from 77 to 70 percent. In 2003, 70 percent of children between the ages of 12 and 23 months were immunized against measles and 82 percent were immunized against DPT3.

...