run by the Special Projects Division in the Office of the Prime Minister which was mandated by Cabinet to ensure that the formerly marginalized ethnic minorities in Namibia are fully integrated in the mainstream economy. The Programme mainly focuses on resettlement, sustainable livelihood support programmes, education, land and income-generating initiatives for formerly marginalized communities. The San Development Programme has been expanded to include other ethnic minorities such as the Ovatue and Ovatjimba. The Government has set up an InterSectoral Task Force to formulate policy guidelines for Educationally Marginalized Children (EMC), to coordinate the activities of Ministries, NGOs, and other stakeholders regarding EMC, in order to promote access to education for formerly marginalized communities. In this regard, a policy document entitled “National options for educationally marginalized children” was formulated and adopted by Government in 1998. EMC include children from the San community, the Ovahimba community and children in various urban centers. The Government, through the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement acquired land in both communal (five projects) and commercial areas (four projects) where some San Communities have been resettled. Four of the nine projects, translate into about 18,600 ha of land acquired in the commercial area with 358 families being resettled. Three of the five projects in communal areas with a size of 18,333 ha, are allocated to 281 San families, while the other farms were allocated to 313 families. In order to ensure that the Ovahimba children get access to education, the Ministry introduced mobile school units. Co-operation between the Ministry of Education and the Namibia Association of Norway made it possible to start the mobile school units for the Ovahimba community in Kunene Region. This intervention is aimed at providing access to education to the Ovahimba children without uprooting their traditional way of nomadic life. xv. Accelerate establishment of an independent body to cater for the protection of the environment; IN RESPONSE The Ombudsman is an independent office established in terms of the Namibian Constitution, and in terms of Article 91(c) of the Namibian Constitution one of its four main functions, is the protection of the environment. In this regard, the Ombudsman investigates complaints on the over-utilization of living natural resources (such as plants and animals); the irrational exploitation of nonrenewable resources (such as diamonds or natural gas), the degradation and - 12 -