Focal Point Network to meet first time in Africa in 2019, hosted by Namibia
“The diplomatic family is my constituency. To that end, I am pleading to my constituency for us to bring out ideas on how we can contribute to the campaign of making our cities clean and safe. I know I have raised this matter with some of you in our bilateral meetings. I now want all of us to reflect on it as we move on,” said the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Hon Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah when she addressed the Namibian Diplomatic Corps earlier this month.
“Gender violence has become not only a security concern but a developmental challenge. As a result, following the clean-up campaign on 25 May 2018, all Offices/Ministries/Agencies were directed to develop programmes to contribute to the cleaning up of all the dangerous points in our cities. Safety and Security is good for all of us and it is important that we all play a role in ensuring safe areas,” she told her audience.
On peace and security, the minister later added “I wish to inform that in our resolve to advocate for the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda in line with UN Security Council Resolution 1325, Namibia has joined the global focal point network and attended both successful meetings held in Alicante, Spain 2017 and Berlin, Germany 2018. This global focal point network focuses on increasing women participation in peace-related activities and conflict resolution.
“In this context, I wish to announce that Namibia will host the Focal Point Network meeting in April 2019 and we invite your governments to participate. For countries who are not members we invite you to sign-on to the Global Focal Point Network. I should also mention that this will be the first time that this meeting will be hosted in Africa,” she said.
Minister Netumbo-Ndaitwah has established a tradition of addressing the Diplomatic Corps at yearend. “This gathering demonstrates the value we place on our bilateral and multilateral relations and cooperation. Diplomacy is the art of engagement; and this is why I engage you periodically,” she said.
