Rössing Foundation, Kayec and Cosdec are the three vocational skills schools training young people in building maintenance, sewing, cooking, and Internet Technology.

Many local authorities for the Oshana and Oshikoto regions are seated in the town, e.g. the Ministry of Education and Police.

Ondangwa was an important transit point for Owambo contract workers going to or coming from the copper- and lead-mining town of Tsumeb, 270 kilometres (170 mi) southeast.

The passenger train Omugulugwombashe Star traveled once a week back and forth between Windhoek and Ondangwa before it broke down due to climatic conditions.

Ondangwa is situated amidst the dramatic scenery of the Kaoko and Damara regions, in the vicinity of Etosha National Park.

The relatively pristine state of much of the local culture in the surrounding areas is balanced by the bustling markets and vibrant urban life of the town centre.

For visitors, Ondangwa town has a variety of accommodation options, from camp sites to a range of hotels.

Informal markets sell a variety of products including traditional clothes and local street food such as dried caterpillars and meat dishes.

[12] Current challenges faced include the growing demand for housing due to rapid urbanisation, as well unemployment.

It has also declared the aim of making the local government "an engine for sustainable development" in the region, and joined ICLEI in 2013.

The Independent Patriots for Change (IPC), an opposition party formed in August 2020, obtained 1,744 votes and gained three seats.

Before Ondangwa was founded, the Finns had experienced a string of setbacks in the territories of other Ovambo tribes, i.e. in the kingdoms of Uukwambi, Ongadjera in the west and Oukwanyama in the north, and circumstances dictated that their work had to be concentrated in Ondonga.

In August 1889 the Finns received news that Nehale was planning to kill them and to plunder the mission stations in his realm.

[20] When August Hänninen arrived in Ovamboland in 1904, Ondangwa became for a short time the most important place of health care there.

August Pettinen reported that in 1905, when many kinds of epidemics ravaged Ovamboland, some 7,000 visits by patients had been made in Ondangwa.

Circa 40 Ondonga men were killed in this conflict, and as a result of the affair, two other brothers, also in line for the throne, had to go into exile.

When the British took over South West Africa during World War I, they also came to Ovamboland and in 1915 chose Ondangwa as the location of their administration.

[24] In 1945, towards the end of World War II, the South African government sent an Organizer of Native Education to Northern Namibia, to oversee school work in Ovamboland and Kavango.

[25] Due to its strategic airport, Ondangwa became an important staging area for the South African Defence Force during its campaigns in neighbouring Angola.

Local road and rail links were also improved by authorities to facilitate the rapid movement of military vehicles.