The conference, to be hosted by the poverty eradication ministry, will be addressed by Namibian President Hage Geingob and the UN country resident coordinator Anita Kiki Ghebo.
Apart from panel discussions, there will be presentations from the findings made during the regional consultations meetings on appropriate social safety nets and deprivation from basic services as well as skills development and training.
Employment creation through small to medium enterprises and community development will also be a subject of discussion, according to the organizer.
The introduction of basic income grant for those who do not qualify for any financial help from government is expected to be discussed.
In his State of the Nation Address in April this year, president Geingob said 28.7 percent of Namibians are impoverished. Namibia has a population of about 2.5 million.
“The cold facts are that poverty, even at 28.7 percent is still too high. Poverty at 10 percent is still too high, if we were to halve that to five percent, it would still be too high. The war on poverty is focused on eventual eradication so we will not hide behind statistics as our focus is on sustained poverty reduction measures,” Geingob said.
The organizer said the introduction of food banks is another topic expected to take center stage during the conference. Early this year, the Windhoek and Walvis Bay mayors visited Brazil to study how food banks operate. Enditem
Source: Xinhua
