A delegation from the International Labour Organization (ILO), which is in the country to assess the country’s preparedness to collaborate with the United Nations (UN) in the Global Acceleration program, held a briefing with stakeholders in the capital on Wednesday.

The briefing took place at the Ministry of Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment Creation (MILREC) and was attended by the United Nations Country Team (UNCT) and various social partners.

The ILO engaged the workers, employers, the informal sector and civic society.

Speaking at the event, Sangheon Lee, the Deputy Director Employment Policy Department at ILO said Namibia is affected by high poverty, economic inequalities, unemployment rate, especially among women and the youth, inadequate social protection and weak implementation and institutional capacities.

“This gap can be corrected by addressing the elements of shortage of jobs and social protection to improve the living standards. This should be done well to avoid the risk of making things worse for everyone,” Lee said.

He said the UN Secretary-General views the Global Acceleration transitions as key vehicles to address jobs shortage and social protections as all UN agencies will work together to eliminate the above issues.

He said these issues are not only for the MILREC alone but for all ministries to achieve sustainable victory.

Speaking at the same event, the Secretary General of the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW), Job Munairo said such projects should not be dictated to the workers by ILO and Government but must involve the workers to participate hands-on.

Some of the challenges mentioned by Munairo included: “Monitoring the project by having monitoring fillers to allow Namibians to see that we are executing the programme as planned, being clear about whether the money is put through the Ministry of Finance and the issue of value addition.”

He said that the only thing that would save the country would be to add value to Namibian products locally, instead of exporting them overseas.

Another element mentioned at the briefing was the poor level of education in Namibia, according to the secretary general of Namibia National Teachers Union (NANTU), Liode Shaanika.

“The government does not offer quality vocational programmes at schools and for teacher training, especially when it comes to information technology training,” Shaanika said.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency