Government fails to address poverty and unemployment – Survey
The government is not doing enough to address the country’s most important problems; unemployment and poverty, according to the public in a recently released Afrobarometer survey.
This is despite the Harambee Prosperity Plan prioritising these issues among those that require urgent attention as well as the government having already increased social grants – specifically through the increase of the old age grant and the implementation of the Food Bank, in recent years.
According to the survey, 70% of the people interviewed have gone without a cash income at least once over the past year, with stark contrasts between urban and rural populations. While another, 47% said they have gone without food at least once over the past year.
Further, the majority of Namibians say government should further prioritise spending on poverty reduction by increasing social protection grants (66%); reducing the defence budget in favour of poverty eradication and development (64%); or raising taxes for poverty reduction (53%).
The Afrobarometer team in Namibia, led by the Institute for Public Policy Research, interviewed 1,200 adult Namibians in November 2017.
