JOBLESS Namibians rarely benefit from job creation initiatives brought in by international organisations which only benefit a select few, unionist Mahongora Kavihuha told the International Labour Organisation (ILO) yesterday.
Kavihuha said before discussing new measures to boost job creation, the ILO needs to look at and address the rampant institutionalised corruption in the country. He said the country's public institutions are corrupt to the core. "We have institutionalised corruption, which influences two main aspects: redistribution and priorities. We end up having the wrong priorities, because people feel the need to steal from whatever system or project that is brought in," Kavihuha said.
He was speaking at an ILO meeting with labour and trade unions in Windhoek yesterday. An ILO mission is in Windhoek until Friday to assess the country's readiness for the United Nations Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for Just Transitions.
The initiative aims at fast-tracking much-needed global actions to promote a job-rich recovery, as well as just ecological, technological and societal transitions to more sustainable and inclusive economies.
Kavihuha addresses inequality in Namibia, saying it is high because it is fuelled by corruption.
"This is because redistribution of resources is being skewed in a specific direction through the process of corruption. That should be addressed as a first step," Kavihuha said. According to the latest Transparency International corruption index, on a score of 100, Namibia has lost two points from 51 in 2020 to 49 in 2021. The results are given on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). He further said there is a need to address the decent rural employment concept, with an emphasis on decent employment and the development of rural enterprises. "We have seen that the government, from their policies, doesn't talk about informal sector development. The issue of dual economy is affecting development because what the formal sector gets is not what the informal sector gets," he said. According to him, the informal sector is not being promoted within the concept of fiscal and monetary policies.
Kavihuha said the 8th United Nations Sustainable Development Goal goal, which aims to promote economic growth and decent work for all, must be prioritised as it emphasises that economies grow when more workers have access to jobs. He suggested that the Social Security Commission should become the Social Protections Commission so that it can provide a better social net when crises like Covid-19 occur.
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"Social protection cannot not be stagnant. We do not want social security, we need social protection moving forward," Kavihuha said.
LACK OF STATISTICS
Sangheon Lee, the director of employment policy at ILO, yesterday said Namibia's lack of recent statistics makes it difficult to meaningfully engage on the socio-economic challenges facing the country. He said the lack of statistics creates a problem where they cannot properly access the data around key sectors in the country's social and economic landscape. "We are very worried that we do not have any statistics for us to engage more meaningfully. That is one priority for all of us to work well together," Lee said. The last major information collection exercise conducted by the Namibia Statistics Agency was the 2011 Population and Housing Census, the third national census conducted in Namibia since independence. The first was conducted in 1991, which was followed up by the 2001 census. The ILO delegation met at State House with a high-level local delegation, which presented the second Harambee Prosperity Plan, green hydrogen and energy developments as Namibia's bet for employment creation and further economic development.
