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Nawa 16 |
Apr 9 2003 |
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JUNIOR ACHIEVERS AIM HIGH
 Namibia`s youngest managing director? A likely candidate would be 17-year old Ndatila Namundjepo, who recently ran a company owned by 16 young shareholders. As a student of the Jan Jonker Secondary School, and a participant in Junior Achievement program, Ndatila and her classmates operated the school`s "tuck"or snack shop over a 15 week period, then liquidated the company and shared the profits. "We learned the basics of running a business and that we should offer what people expect in terms of quality,"said Ndatila at the end of the program. She said the group had gained basic business management skills, including registering a company, drafting financial statements, and operating through a board and executives.
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The Junior Achievement program is implemented through a local registered entity, Junior Achievement Namibia (JAN), which was established in 2001, as a chapter of Junior Achievement International, an 84 year old Colorado-based organization with affiliates in 113 countries worldwide, 14 of which are in Africa. JAN`s aim is to equip young Namibians with skills to establish and manage small businesses, and through the process, develop an entrepreneurial culture among students and out-of-school youth. Participants also learn how a market-driven economy functions as well as the role business plays in the global economy.
JAN`s start-up is being jointly funded by USAID/Namibia and the United States Government`s Education for Development and Democracy Initiative. This assistance will be phased out in three years time, as the Namibian private sector increasingly takes on responsibility for support of the activities. A local board, composed mainly of private sector representatives, was established in 2002 to provide program leadership.
Programs are running at ten schools in Windhoek and in the northern part of the country. Although the focus is secondary schools, the program has also been initiated at the Polytechnic and Windhoek Vocational Training College. According to Mr. David Groenewald, JAN`s Education Specialist, the goal over the year ahead is to extend the program to three other schools in the south, one or two others in the west, and to an additional vocational training center. The program is hoping to reach 1000 learners by the end of 2003. |
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ELECTORAL SUPPORT PROGRAM FOCUSES ON GENDER AND DISABILITY
 With Presidential and Parliamentary elections scheduled to take place in late 2004, and Sam Nujoma, the only President Namibia has ever known, announcing his intention to step aside in accordance with provisions of the Namibian constitution, Namibia is rapidly approaching its most important political transition since independence. In order to help prepare citizens for the 2004 elections, a consortium, led by the Electoral Commission of Namibia and including the local NGOs, the Namibia Institute for Democracy and the Legal Assistance Centre, and three international partners, i.e., the Governments of the United States, Sweden and the Netherlands, has been formed.
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The consortium will implement a comprehensive three-year civic and voter education and voter registration program. It will target Namibians from all walks of life but particular attention will be accorded to groups that could be regarded as marginalized in society, including illiterate and semi-literate voters, first-time voters, female voters and disadvantaged ethnic groups, such as the San.
As part of its effort to better understand certain segments of its target population, the consortium recently held a workshop in Windhoek to discuss, with a wide spectrum of gender and disability experts, issues related to gender mainstreaming and disability sensitization. Among the interesting presentations made was one on "Gender and Political Participation,"by Christiaan Keulder of Namibia`s Institute for Public Policy Research. According to Keulder`s research, political participation is, on average, higher in rural areas than in urban areas and civic participation shows a similar trend. While there was no overall gender gap with regard to political participation, there is a statistically significant gender gap with regard to civic participation, with more women active than men. This latter finding refutes conventional wisdom in Namibia that men are more active and participate more than women.
A successful gender mainstreaming campaign should not only address relevant gender gaps, but also be culturally and locally specific, and use local groups for message dissemination. Similarly, the design of disability-sensitive materials should address the needs of people living with disabilities. Approaches discussed at the workshop included making extensive use of the radio medium in all language services, supplementing audio visual materials with sign language, and showing people living with disabilities in campaign materials. Workshop participants agreed that, because Namibia`s democracy is a young one, and many of the country`s people are still learning what their rights and responsibilities in a democracy are, civic and voter education campaigns must link democratic concepts to daily life. By doing so, the campaigns will not only help voters reach more informed decisions at the polls but also help deepen democratic development and civic participation in Namibia over the longer term. |
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INTEGRITY SYSTEMS LAUNCHED
 According to Transparency International`s annual `Corruption Perceptions Index,` Namibia ranks among the developing world`s least corrupt countries. But Namibians are not content to rest on their laurels. Many Namibians in the government and in the NGO community are working hard to improve the country`s already strong record. A program recently launched to support on-going efforts is the National Integrity Promotion Program. Spearheaded by the Office of the Ombudsman, the stated goal of the NIPP is "to prevent and minimize corruption through the raising of public awareness of the causes, effects and costs of corruption on development, human rights and service delivery and, through the building of a coalition of public and private actors, to promote and strengthen integrity systems at all levels in Namibian society."
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Joining the OO`s in founding the coalition are the Namibia Association of Local Authority Officers, the Namibian Chapter of Transparency International and the Namibia Institute for Democracy. Together, the coalition will conduct a national integrity and service delivery survey, support a multi-media public awareness campaign, sponsor a series of national risk assessment and integrity systems workshops, and assist complementary efforts at the grassroots level.
During the launch of NIPP, Ombudswoman Bience Gawanas asked why fighting corruption should be high on the country`s agenda. "For me,"she said, "the answer is that, 13 years into our independence, we are starting to move towards adulthood as a nation. We are starting to decide our own values and how we want to live. Through actions and institutions, we are seeking to build the habits that will be the foundations of the society and the country our children will inherit. We are determining what sort of people we want to be…."Later in her remarks, she underscored the economic reasons for fighting corruption, saying that, "When we talk about fighting corruption, about promoting integrity, about human rights, we do so because we believe that the maximum resources available must be targeted to improving the quality of life of the poor…"
The coalition has chosen as its logo, the Namibian fish eagle set against the sun of the national flag, surrounded by their slogan, "Serving Namibia through Honesty, Integrity and Pride." |
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