Policy brief launched by UN Namibia
The United Nations (UN) Namibia launched a policy brief titled “COVID-19: An emerging Development Challenge, but opportunity for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Namibia” last week.
The Policy Brief positions Economic Transformation in the context of COVID-19 and analyses how Namibia is currently fairing, through a socio-economic impact assessment order to generate short, medium and long term recommendations in addressing COVID-19.
Eunice Ajambo, Economist and Development Coordination Officer at UN Namibia said for economic transformation, employment is the cornerstone of the links between economic growth and social development.
“The commitment is evident in the range of strategies and policies in the country and to further unleash the benefits, identification of critical challenges, constraints and opportunities needs to happen, based on the policy space, institutional capacity, potential policy synergies, trade-off,” she added.
Ajambo drew inspiration fro the tenet of Goal 17, ‘Partnerships for the Sustainable Development Goals’ which underpins the power of working together as the engine of inter connection, possibilities and promise for our collective future. “The opportunity for Economic Transformation requires that all stakeholders work together, it calls for multi-stakeholder, holistic approach which can ultimately recalibrate Namibia’s future forever,” she emphasised.
The Policy states that crises can be opportunities for countries to recalibrate their policies and actions towards implementation of more long term sustainable economic transformation strategies that feed into national visions.
Therefore for Namibian, this can mean strengthened commitment to diversifying sources of revenue, enhance economic diversification through benefaction, natural resources value chain, alongside the range of complementary policies including human capital development and economic governance.
