Our Thoughts

This is our space to share with you new ideas, innovations, actions and other exciting things that are happening around the world. Sometimes, its also a space to share some more serious thoughts about news events and leadership decisions being made that affect us all. We hope it inspires you, motivates you or even mobilises you for action!

Two must-reads for the start of the year

I am very excited to share with you in this Weekly the recent launch of two books by colleagues of mine. The first book is by Desta Mebratu and Mark...

New Decade, New Leaders?

It is no secret that we have begun the near year with our world in turmoil.A colleague much more senior, intelligent and experienced than myself recently shared this sentiment: "I...

World Scientists Warning of a Climate Emergency

Scientists have a moral obligation - it is part of their job actually - to clearly warn humanity of any catastrophic threat and to tell it like it is. On...

UN Keynote on Sustainability and the Anthropocene (by Patrick Keys)

A new friend and acquaintance of mine, Dr Patrick Keys, who works at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, recently gave a Keynote address to the 2nd Committee of the General Assembly...

Launch of new children's book: Ellie and the Desert

Myself and Hage Mukwendje (illustrator) are pleased to announce that (finally!) we have finished and are launching the children's book "Ellie and the Desert", which has been a labour of...

What is Love?

I have written many times before about Dana Meadows, one of the best system dynamics modellers in the world, and a person who has inspired many of us in our...

How dare you? A Message for our Leaders

Many of us despair in the current system, knowing how close we are to collapse. Every unnecessary single-use plastic item, every flight in Europe that is cheaper than the train,...

Seven ideas for the G7 (by Amanda Janoo)

[Image source: https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1167396/g7-2019-date-when-is-g7-summit-who-is-in-g7-uk-usa-france-germany-eu-news]The G7 took place a few weeks ago in Biarritz, France. The seven "leading" world countries came together to talk about the global economy. The Global Wellbeing Alliance,...

Stories and feelings from recent travels: Sudan, Mexico, Ethiopia, China and Vietnam

For this weekly, after having been quiet for a few weeks, I thought to ramble on without purpose about a few thoughts and feelings conjured up from my recent travels....

Industrial Corridors as a Backbone of Namibia's Development (by Detlof von Oertzen and Justine Braby)

After my last weekly, one of my readers emailed me and asked me to give a concrete example of how development in Namibia could be equitable, and socially and environmentally...

Growth and development are not synonyms

I submitted this piece the other day to the High Level Panel on the Economy as a point of departure for a discussion around what kind of growth we should...

What kind of Namibia do we want?

The High Level Panel on the Economy (HLPE) was commissioned in March of 2019 by the Office of the President with the main aim to advise on bold, practical solutions...

Timber...or living forests?

My language is vastly unable to express how I feel about what we, humans, are doing to our home, our fellow Earthlings. The depth, the sadness, the anxiety, the depression - these...

Risking the rise of authoritarianism in Namibia

In 1948, Costa Rica disbanded their army because their Defense Minister at the time proposed the idea to spend more on education and health. They have never looked back. Ranked...

The kind of businesses we should be supporting: an example from e-waste

The picture you see above is from Agbogloshie. You may have heard of it. A roughly 4 square kilometer scrapyard in the heart of Accra, Ghana, where electronic waste is...

Some thoughts on Namibia's Annual Budget

Namibia's Minister of Finance Calle Schlettwein released the annual budget last week. It is no secret that we are in a difficult financial position. The past few years we have...

Let's talk water...again

Almost every day for the last month we have stared at the cloudy skies with hope that they will break and deliver us with much needed rain. They group, grow,...

Lines in the Mind, Not in the World (by Dana Meadows)

For the new week, I thought I would share with you two stories and pieces of wisdom. One is Dana Meadow's passage from the 'Global Citizen' column written on 24...

Growing and spreading the Games for the SDGs

As most of you know, Progress Namibia started and has been leading the "Games for the SDGs" series, which has been running since the end 2016, and has been funded...

The necessity of unlearning in education

Have you ever heard of unlearning? Our world views, our mental models, are shaped by our education, but also by our personal experiences, opportunities, communities, cultures, societies and psyches. These are increasingly in...

How social media has been used to fuel propaganda

Back in the day, the radio, much like social media today, was revolutionary because it allowed information to be transmitted quickly and uniformly to vast populations. Unfortunately, it was often used to...

Will technology save us from collapse?

"There are no limits to growth because there are no limits to human innovation." I am sure you have all heard this statement in a variety of forms before. The...

Plastic. Let's talk.

[Image Source: https://sciencing.com/raw-materials-plastic-bottles-5747796.html]I have written about plastic before. Plastic and water. Plastic shopping bags. This time, I want to share a little something about why plastic is harmful to our health, and...

Wisdom from Dana Meadows: Places to intervene in a system

I had a few ideas about this Monday's Weekly. The top contender was a critical piece about Rachid Sardarov, the Russian billionaire land "owner" in Namibia implicated in the Panama Papers, with the...

What kind of tourism do we want for our country?

[Image Source: https://www.indietraveller.co/overtourism-what-can-travelers-do/]Two years ago my partner and I visited Barcelona, Venice, Rome, and other 'touristy' places. While we had a good time, I was shocked to discover how negative an effect tourism...

Risking human existence for a few years of profit

[Image Source: www.polyp.org.uk]So I have been trying to fly less, and when I do fly, I try and fly as direct as possible. You would think that this would be cheaper given...

Updates and decisions: Land reform in Namibia - A Paper to the Land Conference

[Image Source: Tweeted by Integrated Land Management Institute of Namibia, Namibia University of Science and Technology. http://ilmi.nust.na/]Many of you may have read the Weekly yesterday morning (see below). I had...

The role of education and learning in sustainability

[Vala Ragnarsdottir, Emelia Arthur, Maja Göpel and Justine Braby at the Balaton Meeting 2018. Source: via Vala Ragnarsdottir]Coming back from my yearly meeting with the amazing and inspiring people from...

If we could all think in systems, we could build a better world

[Image source: Source: https://medium.com/disruptive-design/tools-for-systems-thinkers-the-6-fundamental-concepts-of-systems-thinking-379cdac3dc6a]Most of us recognize the insurmountable challenges that are facing human civilisation. We also recognize that there is a need to (rapidly) transition to sustainable, resilient societies....

Why neoliberalism needs to be replaced, urgently

[Image Source: Source: www.polyp.org.uk]A(nother, albeit old, but still) great article by George Monbiot that has to be shared this Monday morning. Financial crises, environmental disaster and the rise of authoritarianism....

The solar cooking and sustainability workshop at NaDEET (by Reinhold Mangundu)

It’s inspiring to know that many people and organisations are increasingly taking initiative to conserve and protect our environment. Today various efforts are in place to ensure we achieve...

Small steps to improving life at Sonder Water through pallet furniture

In June 2018, the For Progress Namibia Project started with its pallet project for the residents of the Sonder Water community. Sonder Water is a relatively small unknown area...

Forget 'sustainable', let's move to 'regenerative' development

Image source: https://www.bioversityinternational.org/news/deta...We abuse the land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see the land as a community to which we belong, we...

Changing the way mobile phones are made

Image: Miners in DRC showing minerals after two days in the mine pit. Source: Fairphone, https://www.fairphone.com/en/The mobile industry is a good example of how products are produced unsustainably and often...

Fuel prices are increasing: could this be a good thing?

The fuel prices are going up, and everyone is in high distress. Of course, in our current system, increasing fuel prices will inevitably increase the prices of goods and services, and have...

Fixing our economy will also mean fixing the food system

Image Source: http://www.earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/3281I read a recent article by Otto Scharmer that inspired me to share with you a synthesis. We all know that the price we pay for food (and many other things)...

Two innovative ways to deal with food waste

When we speak about global hunger and ending it, often the solution that is focused on is amping up industrial and large-scale agriculture (the very same agriculture that brought us...

Talking in circles on Universal Basic Income in Namibia

[Picture Source: https://torontotoollibrary.com/will-universal-basic-income-be-the-poverty-reduction-strategy-we-need/]I am convinced that the BIG [Basic Income Grant] is not only able to eradicate destitution, hunger and malnutrition, but that it lays a strong foundation for economic...

Economic transformation requires a change in worldviews

Cartoon Source: http://www.polyp.org.uk/cartoons.htmlReading a great book written by colleague and friend Maja Göpel called the Great Mindshift: How a New Economic Paradigm and Sustainability Transformations go Hand in Hand. I think...

The GDP Trap - and the possibilities to get out

[Image Source: Ida Kubiszewski et al, “Beyond GDP: Measuring and Achieving Global Genuine Progress,” Ecological Economics, 93, (2013).] Those who follow the Weekly will no doubt have seen versions of this story before....

National clean-up campaign sees some great activities come to life

President Hage Geingob called on all Namibians to stand together on Africa Day in turning up for a national clean-up campaign in their respective areas. Since I was in Swakopmund for the weekend,...

Ramblings and shared thoughts on land redistribution in Namibia

"A conference on the land suggested that those who have plenty of land they should sell it to the government. And we tried to get the land from them, but...

White privilege and racism is blocking Namibia's progress

Image Source: Facebook user Emanu - Satir & IllustrationIf you have not noticed that anger is bubbling in this country, then you have not been paying attention. There are two...

The Namibian Environmental Education Network meets for their annual conference

The Namibian Environmental Education Network (NEEN), a network of environmental educators in Namibia, just had their conference over the past weekend (3-6 May 2018) at the Otjikoto Nature Reserve Environmental...

Introducing the WE-All: The Wellbeing Economy Alliance

What a better way to introduce to all of you the Wellbeing Economy Alliance than through a webinar where Katherine Trebeck, one of the great champions in this field, explains...

Biomimicry as a transformative paradigm (Guest Author: Gamelihle Sibanda)

[Image Credit: Toktokkie harvests water from fog in the Namib Desert. Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/483644447462282492/]A friend of mine recently published a great article on biomimicry in Solutions Journal. I thought it a good idea...

Come on! Capitalism, short-termism, population and the destruction of our planet

The book 'Come On! Capitalism, Short-termism, Population and the Destruction of the Planet - A Report to the Cub of Rome' is a read that we encourage for everyone. Pope...

Learning from the Philosophy of Water

Listening to Raymond Tang's Ted Talk the other day and was inspired to share the lessons he learnt from the ancient Chines philosophy of the Tao Te Ching. The poem he read...

Mapping biodiversity in Namibia through Citizen Science

What is citizen science you say? It is a wonderful concept that has been gaining popularity in recent years which is basically the collection of data by members of the public, usually in...

Namibia footing a climate change bill of N$400 billion in coming years

Remember the Paris Agreement? The one the USA pulled out of? Each country should come up with their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC). Namibia has done hers, and the implementation of our plan...

#itsup2us: A message to bring us together for Namibian Independence Day

Featured image credit: The Namibian, www.namibian.com.naYes, we should celebrate independence. After all, Namibian mothers and fathers had to fight for all of us to be free and equal. But...

It's not only about the honey, bee

Ever thought about the role of bees in the food that you eat? Bees have played their part in either pollinating the vegetables and fruits we eat directly, or pollinating...

Namibia looking at developing environment statistics for national planning

Today a workshop gears off to discuss the implementation of environment statistics in Namibia. After the workshop, bilateral consultations will take place to complete the Environment Statistics Assessment for the...

The 'big push' transforming the world's energy systems (Guest Author: Alan AtKisson)

As I’m sure you have noticed, renewable energy is taking the world by storm, driven by rapidly falling prices. Ever wonder how that happened?In 2009, I authored a concept paper...

A few thoughts on Sustainable Tourism

Namibia prides itself on sustainable tourism. In fact, many of our lodges declare that their operations are sustainable. Namibia, thanks to a few pioneers some years ago, even has ...

Namibians make meaning of a good life and progress

“Transformation is our watchword. At this moment in time, we are called to lead and act with courage. We are called to embrace change. Change in our societies. Change in...

We are sucking the oxygen out of our oceans

To state the obvious, oxygen is fundamental to life. Carbon emissions (thats on us) have increased atmospheric carbon dioxide by more than 40% since pre-industrial times. While oxygen is decreasing...

Lessons from a year of playing 'Games for the SDGs'

For our first news item of the new year, we thought we would share our 2017 experiences with running the series 'Games for the SDGs'. In 2017, Progress Namibia, together...

Managing our pilchard quotas: job losses for three years, or job losses forever?

Some of you probably already know that a few weeks ago, Namibian Cabinet decided to set a zero quota for pilchards and sardines for the period from January 2018 until...

Namibian Journal of Environment Launched

Last week, the Namibian Chamber of Environment, the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, and the Namibia University of Science and Technology launched the Namibian Journal of Environment. The journal is...

Thoughts from the Wellbeing Economy Festival

As you know from last week's story, the whole For Progress Namibia Project team attended and participated at the WE-Festival last week in Pretoria. It brought together roughly 80 people...

Kicking off at the WE-Africa Network Meeting: We need a new system

This week the For Progress Namibia team finds itself getting ready for the Wellbeing Economy Festival, which will bring together some leading minds like Bob Costanza, Lorenzo Fioramonti, Katherine Trebeck,...

World Scientists' Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice

I was going to write about something else this week, when this extremely important news came out and I cannot think of anything more important than to share this. About...

Namibian Education for Sustainable Development Policy is underway

After a month away seeing the consequences of ocean acidification on coral reefs (a very depressing sight and all the more reason to encourage all of us sustainable practitioners to...

Universities as a catalyst for global change

How important are universities in advancing sustainability, and in fact, the Sustainable Development Goals? Very. In Namibia, there are some (albeit slow) moves to integrate sustainability into the overall curriculum...

The Power of Advertising in Shaping Our Aspirations

When it comes to our value system, advertising must be the most dangerous form of manipulation of past and present generations. Our economic growth model argues that supply is based...

Namibia's Sustainable Development Awards 2017

Last Thursday (21 September 2017), the Sustainable Development Awards were announced at a gala event in Windhoek. The initiative was coordinated through the Environmental Investment Fund of Namibia, the Sustainable...

Life shapes and preserves life on our Planet

Travelling on the train towards Czech Republic, I would like to share a thought with all of you on your Tuesday morning. The air we breathe, the water we drink...

Stories from Sweden: Pushing the sustainability agenda

On my way out of Sweden today on the train to Copenhagen, passing the rolling forests and red painted wooden houses of the countryside. So naturally, I will decide to...

Tackling Framing Effects of Dominant Knowledge Systems in Transformations

And we find ourselves this week in Stockholm, Sweden, representing our work on For Progress Namibia at the Resilience Conference, Research Frontiers for Global Sustainability. Justine, together with other members...

Plastic Bags. Let's stop.

You drive anywhere close to a town in Namibia, and you will undoubtedly see non-biodegradable polythene bags stuck to a bush, or blowing across our desert landscape. Did you know...

Global Transformation starts with I

'The story of industrial civilization tells us that limitless economic growth, advanced technology and material affluence are the pathways to prosperity. But as we reflect on the world today, it...

Namibia's Policy for Education for Sustainable Development is Coming Together (by Reinhold Mangundu)

People are not entirely sensitized and empowered to play a role in protecting our environment. If we all take responsibility in shifting our own behaviour, we will be able to...

Seven ways to Think Like a 21st Century Economist

This morning, I was inspired by a tweet shared by Kate Raworth, an economist who wrote the book 'Doughnut Economics: Seven ways to think like a 21st century economist'. Her...

Let's talk about Real Economic Transformation in Africa

This week, acclaimed author and political economist Lorenzo Fioramonti is joining us in Windhoek. Progress Namibia has organised various platforms for him, including meetings and interviews with media, politicians, and...

What is a Blue Economy?

Our fifth National Development Plan has recently been launched and through it we aim to achieve inclusive, sustainable and equitable growth. Well, there is not such thing as 'sustainable growth', but if we...

Trump Fails the World

Progress Namibia was asked to contribute to developing a civil society response from Namibia to Donald Trump pulling out of the Paris Agreement. This is what we put together: President...

As Trump smacks the climate, world must do better (Guest Author: Lorenzo Fioramonti)

As Donald Trump’s America drops out of the Paris Agreement, it’s high time to ask whether conventional approaches to sustainable development are enough to deal with the multiple crises facing...

Towards wellbeing indicators in Africa: A Case Study from Namibia

Some of the work from our project 'For Progress Namibia' has been published in the leading popular academic journal Solutions. With the upcoming meeting of the Wellbeing Economy Africa Lab taking place next...

The great kidnapping of water by plastic

The other day I was having an interesting conversation with a friend in Nairobi. We were, at the time, complaining about the use of plastic bottles in a workshop that speaks about...

Serving society rather than growth: Business in a wellbeing economy (by Lorenzo Fioramonti and Justine Braby)

One day an African fisherman had an American visitor join him on his small fishing boat. As they gently cruised the Atlantic ocean surface, the American visitor watched him catching...

The FRACTAL LAB: a learning experience for me (by Reinhold Mangundu)

In the beginning of March, I attended the Future Resilience for African Cities and Lands (FRACTAL) project workshop at the beautiful Heja Lodge in Windhoek Namibia. The learning lab aimed at advancing...

What type of growth do we want? Stories from Bhutan and India

When you travel around Bhutan, a small country squeezed in by the Himalayas on one side, and the two giants India and China on the other, you immediately see small colourful flags on...

You can't have an economy without ecosystems

I was inspired the other day by the words of Phoebe Barnard and Lorenzo Fioramonti who co-wrote an article in The Conversation about how it makes sense that ecosystem restoration...

Justine visits Governance Innovation Centre to talk about future of Africa

Justine Braby met with colleagues of the WE-Africa Lab at the Center for the Study of Governance Innovation at the University of Pretoria this week to discuss work towards transforming...

Envisioning sustainable neighbourhoods with the Physically Active Youth (PAY) (by Reinhold Mangundu)

Our Reinhold Mangundu has been volunteer teaching youngsters at the Physically Active Youth Centre in Katutura on sustainability. Here is what he had to say about his first few sessions:...

The Privilege Walk: A first of the 'Games for the SDGs'

Progress Namibia, along with partners Hanns Seidel Foundation (Think Namibia), Namibian Youth Coalition on Climate Change, National Youth Council, and the Namibia University of Science and Technology, hosted the first of what...

Why We Should Value Trust First

Those of you who have been reading our Weekly regularly might remember the work we are doing on moving towards a wellbeing economy. As part of this we have developed some indicators...

The Spinach King of South Africa

For some of you this story might be old news. But this is for those of you have not yet been inspired by the Spinach King, and Dan The Director,...

Envisioning a Sustainable World

I have had two experiences now in the past three months where I am participating in a working session with some really bright people and we are tasked with the following hypothetical...

Water Scarcity Dominates Our Agendas

Windhoek, and the northern regions (our bread basket), have at last been getting some rain. And there has been much jubilation on social media. But this should not take away from the...

The Economy for the 99%

The new Oxfam Briefing Paper (An Economy for the 99%) is out. The briefing paper was launched during the World Economic Forum last week. Some of you might remember last year's paper that...

The Ecopolis: The Future of City-Living

Have you ever critically thought about Windhoek (or any other city or town you live in), and if you are happy the way it has been planned, built, and lived in? Where...

What is Education for? (by David Orr)

We were reminded the other day by the very powerful essay (it was a speech given to graduating students in 1991) by David Orr, that has become quite famous over...

Our love and hate relationship with the word 'Sustainability'

As we embark on a new year, we must seize the opportunity to look at our methods and term uses when we are communicating for systems change. In many circles over the...

The World Should End (sort of)

Below is a poem. Well, this is not actually (strictly) a poem. It is a song (sort of). Written and rapped by Prince EA. I found it quite powerful. Obviously the song...

Why every graduating student should understand systems thinking, sustainability and the sustainable development goals

Recently, I have been in many discussions about how to mainstream sustainability and the sustainable development goals into university curriculum frameworks. After doing some research and speaking to a whole bunch of very...

Building Wellbeing Economies in Africa

Economic instability, social inequality, poverty and depletion of our natural capital (the base of our survival) make it necessary to call into question the conventional development paradigm based on the exploitation of nature,...

Creating a Circular Economy using Flies (Guest Author: Toivo Thomas)

Modern society produces enormous volumes of organic waste on a daily basis stemming from agriculture, breweries, food industries, as well animal manure. This waste is then accumulated and dumped in landfills, burnt, or...

Youth Power against Climate Change

Climate change poses major challenges for society. However, in Africa we are at cross-roads in our development. We could copy the same destructive development path used thus far, or use...

What do we want out of COP 22? (Guest Author: Reinhold Mangundu)

Climate change is a global phenomenon experienced by all countries in the world, regardless of the level of development each country possesses. This has prompted urgent efforts of joint actions...

Reinhold Mangundu visits Marrakesh for Young Africa Leaders Summit and COP22

Today we said good-bye to Reinhold Mangundu at the airport as he was on his way to Marrakesh, Morocco to join the dialogue for young ecologists called The Inner Dimensions of...

Playing the World Climate Game

On Friday last week the Namibian Youth Coalition on Climate Change teamed up with the National Youth Council, Hanns Seidel Foundation's Climate Project (Think Namibia), the Namibian University of Science and Technology and...

Measuring Progress - How should we do it?

In Africa, we are working hard at 'progressing'. But what do we mean by progress? A happy, healthy, resilient society? Or growing our economy as fast as we can? Are the two synonymous?...

Dealing with Migration: Two Faces of the Same Coin (Guest Author: Omnia Abbas)

In the span of one month, between September and October 2016, I've participated in two events related to migration. In one, in Hungary, the majority of the participants were Western academics and policy...

Our NUST has built the first Namibian Solar Taxi

Africa is facing rapid urbanization, and if we look at Namibia, our public transport needs a lot of work. Currently, 50% of us take taxis to get around. Cars, generally,...

Are the SDGs winning?

It has been one year since the Sustainable Development Goals were agreed to by 195 countries at the United Nations. Our ambitious goals for global development that is sustainable, resilient and inclusive. Has...

Why don't we care about climate change?

I am sure those of us who work in and feel the urgency and reality of climate change have often wondered why, despite our scientific understanding of climate change and...

Katutura East Discusses a Well-being Economy

With the new era of Sustainable Development Goals and our Harambee Prosperity Plan, Namibia needs to embark on a new and innovative way of measuring progress in Namibia. A well-being economy looks at...

The Assumptions We Make

As I ride the train in Austria on my way to the yearly Balaton Meeting in Hungary, I think of humanity as I peer out at the rolling hills. In the early...

Next stop...Oranjemund.

Ever wondered what goes on in that little town on the south coast called Oranjemund? No? Me either.I am sure, though, that it immediately conjured up Namdeb and the diamond...

Will Harambee bring Prosperity to Namibians?

Our Young Professional Trainee, Reinhold, recently wrote a review on the Harambee Prosperity Plan and its implementation with the backdrop of our previous development plans. Enjoy the read!Namibia has certain plans...

Southern Africa Regional Workshop on Climate Research Partnership Concludes

A two days’ workshop on climate change research and development organized by Climate Research for Development (CR4D) in Africa came to a conclusion with delegates agreeing to pursue focused climate research in Agriculture....

Mainstreaming climate science into Africa's development

Progress Namibia Associate, Mr Ezilon Kasoka, is on his way to Gaborone to represent Dr Justine Braby at the Southern Africa Regional Workshop for the Climate Research for Development (CR4D)...

For Progress Namibia presents wellbeing results to Shandumbala

The Shandumbala community workshop is a workshop that was conducted at the multipurpose centre on the 16th of April 2016 with the citizens of Shandumbala (a suburb in Katutura, Windhoek). It was...

Stiglitz visits Namibia to advise our Government

Working on our 'For Progress Namibia' project for a few years now, which you can read more about here, we are delighted that our President Hage Geingob's A-Team enlisted Joseph...

GDP and Well-being: Toward more holistic measures of Namibia's progress

As part of our 'For Progress Namibia' Project that is partnered with #livesmatter, we have at last published our study on well-being indicators - towards more holistic measures of Namibia's...

An Economy for the 1%

We are living in a world which encourages productivity and efficiency in the name of economic growth. But on the back-end, our economic system also often encourages profit over life...

Is Littering Really Such a Big Deal?

If you have ever thought 'if I just toss a bit of plastic, what harm does it really do? I mean really? ', then this is a picture sequence for...

HUMAN, a film by Yann-Arthus Bertrand

Someone shared with us the recently released "Human", a beautiful film by Yann-Arthus Bertrand that was directed by a variety of different people in multiple countries. Essentially, it is a...