Twinning is a concept developed by the European Union (EU) to foster institutional collaboration between the public administrations of EU Member States, such as Germany and other partner countries. Twinning projects bring together the experiences from the public sector from both European countries and recipient countries. The goal is to support beneficiary countries in developing modern and efficient administrations and organizations at central, regional and local level.

On May 13, the first EU Twinning Project in Sub-Saharan Africa started in Namibia. Dr. Thomas Zielke participated as project leader in the launch of the project “Providing Support to the Namibian Standards Institution”. Within two years, it aims to extend Namibia’s involvement in international trade. The €1.6 million project is jointly implemented by German and Swedish institutes for standardization, accreditation, metrology and conformity assessment, among others.

Together with Chie Wasserfall, CEO at the Namibian Standards Institution, Zielke introduced the EU Twinning Project in Windhoek. Moreover, he had the chance to meet Lucia Iipumbu, Minister of Industrialisation and Trade and Herbert Beck, German Ambassador in Namibia as well as Jeroboam Kakeke Shaanika, Acting Head of Department at the Namibian Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation. As candidate for Director Standardization at ITU, this was a great chance for him to gain important insights into the field of industrialization and standardization in Namibia.

Building bridges – with ITU and beyond.