Namibia still grappling with after-effects of apartheid, PM tells UN event

Prime minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila says Namibia is still grappling with, among others, the after-affects of apartheid’s discriminatory policies.

Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said this at the Human Rights 75 high-level event on the future of human rights, the economy, and development in Geneva, Switzerland, on Tuesday. The two-day event was convened by United Nations Human Rights.

She added that due to Namibia’s classification as an upper middle-income country, the country has limited access to developmental assistance in terms of grants and soft loans.

Therefore, conditional loans continue to hamper human development due to their superficial indicators, which are not human-centred

“Yet the country is one of the most affected by climate change and is grappling with high poverty and inequality as the after-effects of discriminatory apartheid policies,” she says.

Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said development policies must be centred around respecting, protecting and fulfilling human rights, and economic decision-making must be based on human rights considerations.

“This means we must put our people at the centre of development initiatives to pursue the realisation of Article 22 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 22 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights,” Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said.

She said Namibia’s development policies, such as Vision 2030, the Harambee Prosperity Plan and the five-year national development plans promote sustainable development by ensuring that economic advancement is achieved by striking a balance between social development and economic growth.

“The social sector receives the highest share of the budget, accounting for 53% of the budget this financial year to provide for enhanced action on education, gender equality, poverty eradication and social welfare, health and social services, youth and sport,” she said.

MULTILATERALISM

Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said to ensure shared prosperity and elimination of inequalities among countries, multilateral systems must be inclusive and operated in an equitable manner, with the adopted principles applied in a fair and the consistent manner.

“The inconsistent application of internationally agreed principles erodes trust in the systems, leaving them ineffective to prevent and resolve conflicts, with detrimental effects to society,” she said.

The prime minister said multilateral systems must promote the principles of sustainable benefit-sharing of natural resources.

“ […] benefits arising from international trade, exploitation of natural resources, biological diversity, genetic resources, and traditional knowledge,” she said.

The premier said environmental challenges caused by the over-exploitation of natural resources must be addressed to ensure the sustainable use of the environment, ensuring that economic benefits accrue to the people whose environment is exploited.

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