BIG Coalition goes it alone

THE Basic Income Grant (BIG) Coalition has decided to press ahead with a N$100 a month social grant to Namibians, despite Government rejecting the idea last year.

In a presentation delivered at the United Nations Commission for Social Development in New York on Friday, coalition leader Bishop Zephania Kameeta said the coalition had decided to raise funds to start with a pilot phase of the project, which would demonstrate the practicality of the idea. “One has to acknowledge that economic growth and sound macroeconomic indicators, which Namibia has indeed achieved since Independence, do not necessarily translate into sustained benefits for the poor,” Kameeta said in support of his statement.BIG Secretariat member, the Reverend Dirk Haarmann, said yesterday that the pilot project was still in its early stages, but a number of individuals had pledged their financial support, should it take off.”It’s still very much in its early stages.We’re looking at a period of one to two years, and the pilot will be confined to one area.It’s basically to get a concrete example of how the BIG can work, which we can show Government,” Haarmann said.The Coalition hopes the pilot project will prove that a basic income grant would allow more people into the country’s economy, freeing them of the “survival economy” by providing income security.In New York, Kameeta said Government had to take responsibility for rectifying the high income disparity in the country, calling it a structural problem.”Employment creation programmes in the form of public works are important, but in a situation where the structural imbalances are not redressed, they only offer a piecemeal solution.Just like sending an ambulance to rush from one accident to the other, but without looking at road safety measures.”We need to accept that it is the objective of the private sector in the market economy to generate profits, not jobs.It is an illusion [to think] that without structural policy interventions the private sector would take an interest in changing the structures in which it currently makes its profits,” Kameeta said.He addressed the committee after being invited to the panel discussion of the 45th session of the UN Commission for Social Development.The overall topic of the session was ‘Good Practices for Promoting Employment and Decent Work’.”One has to acknowledge that economic growth and sound macroeconomic indicators, which Namibia has indeed achieved since Independence, do not necessarily translate into sustained benefits for the poor,” Kameeta said in support of his statement.BIG Secretariat member, the Reverend Dirk Haarmann, said yesterday that the pilot project was still in its early stages, but a number of individuals had pledged their financial support, should it take off.”It’s still very much in its early stages.We’re looking at a period of one to two years, and the pilot will be confined to one area.It’s basically to get a concrete example of how the BIG can work, which we can show Government,” Haarmann said.The Coalition hopes the pilot project will prove that a basic income grant would allow more people into the country’s economy, freeing them of the “survival economy” by providing income security.In New York, Kameeta said Government had to take responsibility for rectifying the high income disparity in the country, calling it a structural problem.”Employment creation programmes in the form of public works are important, but in a situation where the structural imbalances are not redressed, they only offer a piecemeal solution.Just like sending an ambulance to rush from one accident to the other, but without looking at road safety measures.”We need to accept that it is the objective of the private sector in the market economy to generate profits, not jobs.It is an illusion [to think] that without structural policy interventions the private sector would take an interest in changing the structures in which it currently makes its profits,” Kameeta said. He addressed the committee after being invited to the panel discussion of the 45th session of the UN Commission for Social Development.The overall topic of the session was ‘Good Practices for Promoting Employment and Decent Work’.