Namibia still wallowing in poverty

The country still faces a number of challenges as 27% of the its population, approx. 600,000 people are living in poverty, according to UN resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative, Kiki Gbeho.
Gbeho said this earlier this week on occasion of the International Day for Eradication of Poverty at an event that ran under the theme ‘Moving from Humiliation and Exclusion to Participation: Ending Poverty in all its Forms’ which was held at Groot Aub.
Gbeho said poverty levels are still high, despite the many achievements in Namibia, which include Gender parity, press freedom as well as the HIV infection reductions. According to Gheho, “Poverty levels are highest in rural areas as compared to the urban parts of Namibia,” and also female-headed households, pensioners and subsistence farmers with no formal education, are less advantaged. Regional Councillor for Windhoek Rural Constituency, Penina Inga Ita, at the event also reiterated that Windhoek Rural Constituency is where poverty is visible.
“Our community members are either employed at farms or commute to work in city centre to make a living. The poverty level in Windhoek Rural is 2.9 percent, placing the constituency in the Region in 3rd place,” she said.
Inga Ita said that there is a need to establish vocational education and training institution to be able to conduct the recognition of prior learning, because most of the community members have skills in doing the job but have no qualifications.
Currently the unemployment rate in Namibia stands at 28.1% with the majority of that number being youth. Earlier this year, President of Namibia, Hage Geingob launched war on poverty and challenged the nation to ensure that by 2020 poverty will be eradicated.