When the Sustainable Wildlife Management (SWM) programme started in 2021, Namibia was coming out of its third devastating drought in eight years. Today, we are in our fourth, highlighting the need to support food security and promote wildlife conservation simultaneously - the main objective of the SWM programme. The SWM programme is a global initiative involving 15 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries, funded by the European Union with co-funding from the French Global Environment Facility. The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) is the lead implementing agency globally, working with local partners in each target country and the relevant national government institutions. In Namibia, this four-year initiative involves 13 community-based organisations, including 12 communal conservancies and the Kyaramaçan Association in Bwabwata National Park. It aims to strengthen community-led efforts to reconcile the conservation of wild species with food security while at the same time improving local livelihoods in the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA). The programme is also being implemented in Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, as well as other KAZA member states (Angola will be included in the programme starting next year).