The Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) is expected to develop and adopt comprehensive positions on agricultural, urban and ancestral land at its policy conference scheduled for next week.

The party’s Secretary General Manuel Ngaringombe during a media briefing here on Wednesday said the policy conference will take place from 18 to 22 October 2021 at Otjiwarongo.

He said it will be attended by about 100 delegates selected from both within and outside the movement based on their unique skills and expertise, who are expected to provide direction on the positions on the land issues, which will include the red line.

“It is expected that the policy conference will produce a tangible and workable fiscal policy, and address issues of structural inequality in the economy and contradictions in the labour market in as far as unemployment and working conditions are concerned. The policy conference is further expected to guide the movement in terms of its position on basic and higher education, and the complex dynamics involving funding and accessibility to education,” said Ngaringombe.

The conference will further discuss accessibility to healthcare, issues related to climate change and the environment and will also produce the movement’s position on issues relating to LGBTQI+ rights, abortion and gender as well as crafting the movement’s stance on major international conflicts, such as Western Sahara and Israel-Palestine, he said.

It will also review, analyse and scrutinise the party’s performance in the 2019 Presidential and National Assembly elections and the 2020 regional and local authority elections.

“Delegates will be expected to robustly and honestly reflect on the current state and electoral performance of the movement, which will in turn birth the strategic plan of the PDM for 2021 to 2025,” stated Ngaringombe.

The party, he said remains confident that it will emerge much more refined and renewed after the conference. Therefore, the resolutions adopted must respond best to contemporary social, economic and political dynamics, to aid the movement to remain relevant in an ever-transforming political and social environment.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency