asked Her Majesty's Government:

What technical assistance they will offer to the Government of Namibia to ensure that land reform is achieved peacefully. [HL2680]

UK policy on middle income countries prioritises 10 per cent of our bilateral aid to large middle income countries with a high proportion of poor people; highly indebted middle income countries; and middle income countries that are vulnerable to falling back to low income status. Namibia currently falls into none of these so DfID no longer operates a bilateral programme in Namibia.

DfID is providing short-term funding of £300,000 through the UNDP to assist the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) to establish a regional land reform technical support facility. This facility has recently started to operate. Its main focus is to provide technical support to member states that are implementing land and agrarian reforms. Namibia as a SADC member will be eligible for support from this facility.

The EC in Namibia has also allocated €34 million for rural development, including land reform, in Namibia under the ninth European Development Fund (EDF9) which covers the period 2003-07. The UK share of this is 12.7 per cent. This support is likely to be continued under the EDF 10 which is expected to be finalised in 2007.