While more needs to be done to alleviate poverty in Namibia, Speaker of the National Assembly Peter Katjavivi has said the country is slowly, but surely, winning the fight against poverty and underdevelopment.
According to a media statement issued on Wednesday Katjavivi, while addressing an online seminar organised and hosted by the National People’s Congress of China and attended by parliamentarians from Liberia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, said Namibia has made great strides in the war against poverty.
He highlighted that between 2001 and 2011, Namibia recorded a 41 per cent reduction in absolute poverty, while severe poverty was reduced from 23 per cent to 15.8 per cent during the same period.
Katjavivi’s remarks on poverty come a few days after Namibia National Panning Commissioner, Obeth Kandjoze launched a report on Namibia’s Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), which highlighted that 43.3 per cent of the total population in Namibia lives in multitude poverty. The report pointed to food security and child malnutrition as major contributors to the country’s poverty situation. Kandjoze had said the advent of COVID-19 has worsened the poverty situation among poor and disadvantaged populations in the country.
Katjavivi emphasised the need for lawmakers to use their mandate of empowering people as they have the power to use their legislative oversight to improve people’s livelihoods.
He said there is great expectation for parliamentarians to lead key policy interventions that will allow for socio-economic growth.
“This event provides us with an opportunity to strengthen the already existing excellent relations between our parliamentary institutions and countries. The COVID 19 pandemic has had an immense effect not only on the health sector, but overall global efforts to create sustainable growth and foster socio-economic development,” noted Katjavivi.
He stated that Namibian MPs have been making serious interventions aimed at managing the already limited resources, particularly in the current economic climate.
“During our recent budget debate, we took drastic steps in the curbing of public expenditure while making considerable fiscal efforts to accelerate growth through State intervention. This is necessary in the current economic climate, which requires innovative thinking to design policies that will lead us towards a sustainable growth trajectory,” he said.
Source: Namibia press Agency
