NSA Holds Public Lecture on Poverty Reduction

Isaac Chikosi

The Namibian Statistics Agency (NSA) held a public lecture on 27 June this year at Swakopmund Sands Hotel on poverty and employment in respect to Sustainable Development Goals on poverty and decent work in Namibia. The public lecture was facilitated and presented by Valentina Stoevska from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Department of Statistics.

Introducing the lecturer, Iipumbu Sakaria Corporate Communications Manager of the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA), began by stating that, “statistics are crucial for developing policies that help in the reduction of poverty”.
Stoevska lauded the country’s current efforts in addressing poverty and employment. There has already been much improvement in the alleviation of poverty. Nevertheless, “despite significant progress in extending social assistance programs, the human right to social assistance is not yet a reality for many in poverty.
On the positive side however, almost 100 per cent of people above retirement age receive a pension”, said Stoevska.
In addition to this, “having a job is not always a guarantee against poverty or social exclusion. To reduce poverty, government provides a range of social transfers, such as unemployment benefits, sickness and invalidity benefits and minimum income benefits”
NSA statistics show that the levels of long-term unemployment, joblessness and in-activity remain high among certain population groups with high disparities amongst workers in terms of job quality, work contracts or job security.
In retrospect, while the economy has strengthened, the youth still face a high risk of unemployment and social exclusion.
“Over the long term they could fail to gain new skills and suffer from erosion of competences, which in turn might lead to a higher risk of labour market and social exclusion”, reiterated Stoevska.