Poverty minister calls for development of innovative and implementable plans

Lusia Lukas

MARIENTAL, MARCH 27 – As the Ministry of Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare hosts the Ministerial Annual Planning and Review Workshop in Mariental, Minister Zephania Kameeta reiterated the need to live up to expectations set out by President Geingob for a poverty free Namibia by 2025.

“We need to develop innovative and implementable plans. Let us be creative when crafting our programmes and activities. We have been called upon to explore wealth-redistribution strategies to arrest poverty, it is therefore important for the Ministry of Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare to have strategies and advocate for mechanisms that will ensure that the endowmwnts of thi s country filters to the poorest of the poor,” he said.

He explained that the Ministerial Strategic Plan was developed to guide the actions and priorities of the Ministry over a five year period, adding that Strategic planning and review processes are crucial components of the Government’s Performance Management System and should help each staff member to understand and recognize their contribution to the strategic intent of the Ministry and increase the performance of the Ministry as per the aspirations of Namibia’s Vision 2030, National Development Plan (NDP5), The Harambee Prosperity Plan and most importantly the Ministerial Blueprint on wealth-redistribution and poverty eradication.

According to Bishop Kameeta, the Ministerial Strategic Plan was established to guide the actions and priorities of the Ministry over a five year period,
from the years 2017/2018 – 2021/2022 and has been aligned to key Government short and long term development plans. The Ministry has since its inception in 2015 engaged in various processes to ensure the execution of the mandate of the Ministry, which is to initiate, implement and coordinate national programmes to eradicate poverty and reduce inequality.

Due to the cross-cutting nature of poverty and the need for a multi-sectoral approach for its eradication, the Ministry has designed plans and strategies to incorporate the coordinating role of the Ministry.

The minister urged to the workshop participants to uphold and value empathy.
“Ask yourself at the end of this workshop whether what you have set yourself to do will impact the life of the poorest of the poor in this country and whether collectively we are going to ensure that through planning, our people are freed from abject poverty.”

By the end of the workshop, each staff member will sign a performance agreement, and Kameeta was optimistic about the implications.

“This is indeed commendable and it is my hope that our perfromances will be measured against the direct impact our activities will have in the improvement of the standard of living of our people. I am therefore pleased that our colleagues from the Office of the Prime Minister are present here to guide this process.”

The workshop began on March 25 and will end on March 29.