Development, fight against poverty cannot be a one man show – Nandi-Ndaitwah

Musa Zimunya

WINDHOEK, DEC. 4 – The fight against the scourge of poverty is the responsibility of  public and private sectors, civil society and individuals in order to “save our youths who are without jobs and to give them hope for future that will ensure that there are job opportunities in the market,” according to Deputy Prime Minister Netumbo  Nandi-Ndaitwah.

In a speech read on her behalf by former Namibian Ambassador in Cuba Jerobeam Shaanika, Nandi-Ndaitwah, also Minister of International Relations and Cooperation (MIRCO), said this during the
two-day National Stakeholders’ Consultative Meeting on the Draft National Youth Policy III here yesterday.

What is of equal importance, she said, was to understand that “development is not and cannot be a one person show as this fight needs all of us.”

The Minister noted that although resources remained very scarce for distribution, youth development requires collective minds, time, as well as the aforementioned scarce resources in order to find clear and sustainable solutions to the challenges that young people encounter on daily basis.

“Scarce resources demand financial prudence, action-oriented goals and systematic planning that I have earlier alluded to in order to ensure that our set goals are achievable. It is on those premises that you (stakeholders) must formulate policies that are quantifiable, realistic and measurable. We must therefore move away from hypotheses and wishful thinking when formulating policies that are aiming to the accomplishment of set goals,” she said.

Nandi-Ndaitwah said it was high-time stakeholders looked to the future and map out policies and strategies as roadmaps that would propel the youth to a distant future.

Turning to challenges, she reiterated that it was important the youth took centre-stage to frankly debate, deliberate and discuss critical issues regardless of political background, race, colour or creed.

“Do keep in mind, that these issues cut across tribal, cultural, racial and gender, but form part of one common denominator, which is youth.”

She noted the prevalence of enormous external and internal challenges such as global economic crisis, lack of housing/land; no access to water or electricity supply; unemployment; under-employment; gender discrimination especially infringement on women’s rights; poverty among others, and urged that these challenges not to be used as an excuse to de-rail or undermine progression.

“But still, all those must not prevent us from coming up with what we think are implementable policies and strategies. All what we need is to understand the environment in which we live and be able formulate our policies and strategies based on those realities.”

The Minister called for deliberations to formulate policy that encourages young people – the catalysts in any economy – to take vocational education and training seriously, amongst other interventions.

“This will help them to acquire the competencies needed in the development of our country. It is a fact that all over the world, countries that are highly developed have been developed by vocational trained personalities.”

Nandi-Ndaitwah called for stakeholders to maintain a positive attitude, as negativity had the potential to carve out an abyss that would consume the nation.

“In order to complement each other, I am always of the opinion that negative attitudes do not build or bring development to any country, and I appeal to all of us to fully support the efforts of the central government towards political and socio-economic development. We must therefore do away with negative energy and embrace positive energy at all times. And I want young people to take this sentiments very serious as growing with negative energy shall have detrimental effect on your whole life.” – musa@namibiadailynews.info