THE Council of Churches of Namibia (CCN) has been engaging Government to alleviate poverty and hunger in the country.
The secretary general of the CCN, Maria Kapere, said the church coalition had submitted a national paper to the National Planning Commission in which areas of cooperation between the government and the churches were identified.
In a research paper released this week, economist Martin Mwinga said churches must place more pressure on Government in the fight against poverty, as they had the capacity, resources and leadership to do so.
The research paper is titled ‘The Role of Churches in Namibia’s Economic Development’.
According to Mwinga, poverty and unemployment are major challenges to overcome in Namibia, and the churches have to play an active role in advocating for the needs of the poor and vulnerable.
‘Periodically, the church leaders should issue statements on the state of the economy, the national budget and allocation of national resources to create awareness about the high level of poverty and social ills in the country. Umbrella bodies such as the CCN should provide leadership in this discretion and actively engage Government in addressing the socio-economic challenges facing Namibia.’
Kapere said: ‘We have also approached the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister with projects for the San and Ovahimba communities and the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare to assist in projects of violence against women and children. In the meantime we are busy building capacity to ensure that these projects are implemented successfully. In the past many of these projects failed due to a lack of capacity.’
The churches, according to Mwinga, have made a significant impact on the social structure of the population, particularly in uplifting communities in the provision of education, health services, income-generating projects, restoring human dignity and other socio-economic interventions.
However, more could be done taking into consideration the N$11 billion investment assets of the Roman Catholic Church, the N$9 million of churches under the Lutheran denomination as well as the assets ranging from N$5 million to N$100 owned by other churches.
In the education and health sectors churches are involved in the running of schools, owning 140 pre-primary schools, 20 primary schools and six secondary schools as well as 50 health facilities.
According to Mwinga, one of the problems that might hamper the churches to play a bigger role in poverty elimination is that most church headquarters are concentrated in Windhoek or bigger towns and not in the rural areas where the majority of Namibians live.
‘Churches in Namibia seem to be isolated from the bulk of the poor population located in rural areas,’ said Mwinga.
According to him the churches today are more concerned about keeping the members they have happy and entertained rather than reaching out to the lost in their community.
‘It is only through efforts of different stakeholders that Namibia can succeed in addressing socio-economic challenges facing the country,’ said Mwinga.
