NamibiaSustainableFinanceAlliance,BankofNamibiaandRMBNamibiasharpenfocusonsustainablefinance

Windhoek – Tuesday, 22 July 2026

The Namibia Sustainable Finance Alliance (NSFA), in collaboration with the Bank of Namibia and RMB Namibia, convened the first workshop in its planned Sustainable Finance Workshop Series on Monday, 20 July 2026. The engagement brought together representatives from the banking and non-banking financial sectors, development finance institutions and development partners to examine the principal constraints affecting the mobilisation and deployment of sustainable finance in Namibia.

The workshop focused specifically on climate finance, including finance for climate-change mitigation and adaptation, as well as biodiversity finance. While these areas are closely connected, they address distinct objectives: climate finance supports actions that reduce greenhouse-gas emissions or strengthen resilience to the physical effects of climate change, while biodiversity finance supports the conservation, sustainable use and restoration of ecosystems and species. Both form part of the broader sustainable finance agenda, which seeks to align financial decision-making with long-term environmental, social and governance outcomes.

The dialogue was structured as a practical exchange through which participating institutions could assess existing initiatives, identify barriers within their respective areas of responsibility and consider opportunities for cooperation. Particular attention was given to the conditions required to convert Namibia’s climate and biodiversity priorities into credible, investment-ready projects capable of attracting public, private and blended sources of capital.

The workshop followed an earlier curtain-raiser engagement that initiated a broader assessment of Namibia’s sustainable finance landscape. That discussion identified several recurring constraints, including fragmented and insufficient data, limited technical capacity, uncertainty regarding definitions and classification systems, weaknesses in the project-development pipeline, and the need for clearer incentives and more effective coordination between public institutions, regulators, financial institutions and development partners.

Since that initial engagement, Namibia’s sustainable finance agenda has continued to develop. Work is under way across several institutions to strengthen climate-risk management, improve access to international climate funds, develop common information and classification tools, and deepen Namibia’s participation in regional and international sustainable finance processes.

Delivering the opening address, Ms Leonie Dunn, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Namibia and Chairperson of the Namibia Sustainable Finance Alliance, emphasised that the mobilisation of sustainable finance requires more than the availability of capital. It depends equally on an enabling institutional and policy environment in which financial institutions can identify and assess material risks, evaluate opportunities, structure appropriate instruments and report transparently on the allocation and impact of capital.

“We have learned from the experience of other economies that our immediate priorities should include improving the measurement and disclosure of climate-related risks, as well as developing a common classification system in the form of a national taxonomy,” Deputy Governor Dunn said.

She noted that the Bank of Namibia is advancing a national diagnostic study to assess the availability, quality, consistency and accessibility of climate-related data. The Bank is also collaborating with the United Nations Development Programme on the development of a national sustainable finance taxonomy, which is expected to provide a common basis for identifying economic activities that contribute meaningfully to environmental and sustainability objectives.

The workshop benefited from a series of expert presentations that situated Namibia’s sustainable finance agenda within the wider global context, while also examining the country’s specific financing needs, constraints and opportunities.

Mr Brenton David, Environmental, Social and Climate Risk Manager at FNB Namibia delivered a presentation titled “Landscape of Climate Finance: The Past, the Present and the Future of the World’s Most Consequential Capital Market.” He traced the evolution of climate finance, highlighted the scale of Namibia’s financing requirements and underscored the need to mobilise both public and private capital for mitigation and adaptation.

Ms Louise Brown, Founder and Managing Director of Triple Capital presented on “Constraints and Opportunities for Climate Finance in Namibia.” She outlined the main barriers to investment, including limited concessional funding, policy constraints, infrastructure gaps, skills shortages and a weak pipeline of investment-ready projects, while highlighting opportunities in water, energy, resilient infrastructure, agriculture, biodiversity and green industry.

Ms Bernadette Shalumbu-Shivute, Sustainable Finance Specialist at the United Nations Development Programme delivered a presentation titled “Why Biodiversity Finance?”. She examined the economic and financial implications of nature loss and highlighted emerging instruments, including blended finance for nature, payments for ecosystem services and biodiversity credits.

The discussions highlighted Namibia’s strategic advantages, including its natural-resource endowment, relatively developed financial sector, established access to international climate funds and potential to link climate resilience with broader development objectives. Opportunities were identified in blended finance to de-risk private investment, adaptation finance to strengthen resilience and inclusion, climate-risk insurance for vulnerable sectors, carbon finance linked to rangeland restoration and green industry, and conservation-finance instruments such as payments for ecosystem services and biodiversity credits. Participants also noted the value of ongoing work on climate-risk regulation, institutional accreditation, a national taxonomy, climate-data diagnostics, adaptation planning and Namibia’s engagement in international sustainable finance processes.

Looking ahead, participants expressed the need for coordinated policy reform, clearer regulatory frameworks and the strategic use of limited public resources to unlock priority investments and support public goods. Development finance institutions were encouraged to expand concessional finance and technical assistance, while financial institutions were called upon to strengthen climate-risk assessment, disclosure and internal capacity. Regulators, in turn, have an important role in providing proportionate guidance, supporting consistent market practices and ensuring that international approaches are adapted to Namibia’s economic structure and development priorities.