As with other countries in the Southern Africa region, Namibia is home to the San peoples. An estimated 38,000 San live in Namibia. Although linguistically and culturally heterogeneous, the San are collectively distinguished from other minorities by a shared history. Their traditional reliance on hunting and gathering as the primary mode of subsistence, their socio-economic marginalization in the countries they live and the dispossession of their lands form the basis for an emerging collective San identity in the region.
Through the PRO 169 and IP/LED projects, the ILO is supporting indigenous peoples to foster sustainable economic and employment development programmes through Local Economic Development (LED) initiatives.
The ILO received an invitation from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister to assess the socio-economic situation of the San peoples with the view to subsequently support the government’s San Development Programme. The project aims to contribute to poverty reduction and development of the local economies of San communities through an integrated approach, addressing rights at work, employment and enterprise creation and social protection at national and local levels. At the local level the project strategy is based on the ILO’s approach to local economic development as a framework for the creation of decent work through interventions generating employment, skills, enterprise and social protection mechanisms. Also with a view of respect for indigenous peoples’ culture and own perceptions of poverty.