Political Economy and Structural Change: The case of Namibia at Independence

The political economy of structural change and liberation in Namibia in the initial post-independence period is not typical of other sub-Saharan African states, but the problems confronting Namibian decision takers will be only too similar to those of other governments in the region. Major challenges will include the need for fundamental structural change, severe resource limitations, potential fragility of the political base and need to influence the social impact of policies as a precondition for decisions to be effective economically and viable politically. What approaches will be feasible is dependent on political economic as well as structural and resource constraint parameters. This paper addresses the question of structural change in Namibia on independence within the context of a SWAPO directed political economy of transition. It covers the period from the present to the first two years of independence and identifies some major priorities for both resource and policy.