Celebrating the Queen’s Birthday in Namibia

Thank you to all of you who joined us for our fantastic Queen’s Birthday Party in Windhoek yesterday.

We were delighted to welcome to our traditional British garden party Namibian Speaker Professor Peter Katjavivi and eight government ministers (ranging from Environment & Tourism, to Mines & Energy, Defence, Higher Education, Sport and Poverty Eradication), in addition to special guests from the UK, including Baroness Lynda Chalker, who was in town for our big event.

It was a wonderful illustration of the depth and breadth of our strong UK-Namibian ties and a chance to celebrate the range of our commercial, educational, security/defence and historic links.

It was also a bittersweet occasion, being my fourth and final Queen’s Birthday Party in Windhoek. I am set to leave the Land of the Brave in August, at the end of my four year posting here, and return to a new job in the FCO in London.

I therefore want to share a few extracts from my speech yesterday with a wider audience than those who were able to attend and I hope to have a chance to say goodbye to more people in person before we leave:

During our time in Namibia, we have made many friends, shared many wonderful experiences and, in less than two months, will be taking away many warm memories of my years spent strengthening UK-Namibian relations.

It has been a tremendous honour to be my country’s representative to the Republic of Namibia and it has been a great privilege to work with so many of you to achieve our shared goals of strengthening partnerships, co-operations and friendships.

I came to Namibia determined:
– To work hard to identify shared interests and create the momentum to build close links to help deliver both UK and Namibian interests

– To be as creative as possible in generating a positive impact for the UK despite our limited resources

– To always think about what we can do, rather than what we can’t

– To build up our people to people links and reach out to a wide range of contacts and the British community at large.

So, during my time here, I have made a real effort to travel the length and breadth of this stunning country and meet as many people as possible. This has really helped open my eyes to both the challenges and opportunities present here.

I am particularly proud of achieving a marked increase in our commercial and trade support work in Namibia – and the formation of the first British Business Group to the country.

I am proud of establishing the Consular Correspondents network – staffed by a terrific team of enthusiastic British nationals here – which helps look after the needs of wider British community spread across this vast country.

I am proud of our continued UK support for education and English language training through the British Council’s Connecting Classrooms programme and specialist teacher development training; as well as the provision of our specialist Peace Keeping English Programme to Namibian Defence Force officers, and British Council exam services.

I am proud of UK support to help with the introduction of modern community policing models in Namibia and our work with a number of amazing local NGOs tackling human rights issues, including gender based violence and baby dumping.

And, I am proud of our ongoing support for Namibia’s conservation activities, for working with tireless organisations, like Save the Rhino Trust, on tackling the Illegal Wildlife Trade, and strengthening local responses to the scourge of poaching.

Now, I could not have delivered any of these terrific services without the energetic support of my local and regional staff. As many of you know, I am the sole British diplomat serving in the High Commission in Windhoek – but I am supported by a tremendous team of dedicated Namibians, who help me run ambitious chancery and consular services.

I won’t embarrass individual members by singling them out – but want to thank them all for their hard work, creativity, patience, generosity of spirit and kindness. We have achieved some incredible results together and it has been a privilege to lead you. Thank you.

Our work in Namibia is also supported by colleagues from our regional hub Posts in South Africa – and am pleased to welcome my fully accredited deputy based in Cape Town, Ed Roman, who is with us today. Thank you for being here.

Now, in addition to my wonderful staff and colleagues, there is another key member of the UK in Namibia family, who deserves very special thanks today – my husband Barry Young. Thank you Barry for being my rock during this extraordinary adventure, thank you for your support, your encouragement and for always doing the school run. I couldn’t have done it without you.

And thank you to my children for understanding why I couldn’t always do the bedtime story each night. I hope you will forgive me one day.

Whilst in this vein, I would also like to thank some key members of our British Business Group who have generously helped to sponsor today’s event and allowed us to showcase some great British products – including the fabulous Jaguar F-type in the drive. So a really big thank you to Shell, Tullow Oil, Weatherly Mining Namibia and Chariot Enigma for sponsoring the refreshments, entertainment and flowers, and to Novel Motors for sourcing the vehicle. Thank you.

Now I can’t end without at least one mention of another great British export – and that is rugby. I am proud to tell you that today marks 100 days until the kick off of the Rugby World Cup being hosted in England and Wales this year from 18 September to 1 November. Special congratulations to the Namibian Rugby Union and Welwitschias for qualifying for the tournament. Best of luck to all the teams taking part in the tournament in the UK.

And, lastly, thank you to all of you, our friends, for sharing this special day with us and for helping to make this posting so special over the last four years. We hope to see many of you in London, where we are heading back to in August.

Thank you.