Ministry of Youth, National Youth Service, Sport and Culture
Introduction
A part of the colonial legacy of Namibia is the suffering caused by the system of apartheid, racial discrimination, war, poverty and other injustices to the Namibian people. Policies of apartheid rule in particular served to accentuate racial and ethnic divisions within the society to the extent that different communities continued to remain segregated geographically, economically and socially.
Namibia has a population of 1.6 million and, over the last few decades, the country’s population has been growing at a rate of three percent. Further, because of age distribution patterns, the number of youth is growing faster than any other age group. In the absence of viable alternatives in rural areas, many of these young people are migrating to towns and cities, swelling the ranks of urban unemployed. Repatriation of exiles and demobilisation of combatants from both sides of the conflict further aggravated the employment shortfall and increased the possibility of social tension.
Indeed,
unemployment is a major problem in Namibia. Only 19.6% of the economically
active population are employed and national unemployment rate is 31.4%. Such
levels of unemployment breed other problems, such as, increase in crime rate
and alcoholism. Alternative sources of income are generated by unemployed
Namibians from the sale of home-brewed beer and spirits. Still others live a
humiliating life by searching for scraps of food in garbage dumps in and near
the towns. This is not an unusual scene, but is a matter of grave concern for
the government.
We
have a high percentage of unemployed youth as most of them have very little or
no education. Most of these young people have severed their family links and
moved away from their home environments in search of work, which they are
unable to obtain because of lack of skills.
Young
people are an asset of any nation. They are full of energy and have a dream
and vision for the future. They are pragmatic and uninhibited in their
approach. This is a resource which, when properly nurtured can be rewarding,
but when ignored and neglected, can explode into catastrophe and disaster.
Colonial
rule did not prepare young Namibians for constructive contribution to nation
building. The Bantu Education System prepared young Namibians for subservient
roles only. As a consequence of the various ills of apartheid, contemporary
young Namibians find themselves unable to cope with the technically advanced
labour market. Hence, unemployment is the result. Crime rate has gone up as a
natural consequence of high unemployment and youth are being stigmatised as
perpetrators of crimes in our towns and cities.
Keeping
in mind these realities, a Ministry of Youth and Sport was created in 1991 by
hiving off the responsibilities of sport from the Ministry of Education,
Culture and Sport. Creation of this ministry was driven by the realisation
that the youth, who constitute more than half of the population, and their
problems, such as, illiteracy, inability to continue in school, lack of
appropriate skills, unemployment, alcohol abuse, etc., need focused attention.
In addition to addressing the social issues affecting young people, this
ministry is responsible for the promotion of sport in schools and at community
level; for, sport is an important ingredient of initiatives for building
individuals’ self-worth, and promoting community spirit.
Thus,
the objective of the ministry is to oversee all government policies and
operations in regard to youth and sport; to ensure that the objectives are
achieved and policies are properly implemented; to review policy options and
suggest and/or approve and make public government’s policies and guidelines
in these areas.
Functions
of the ministry include:
1.
Development of the youth to its fullest potential with special
reference to unemployed youth, illiterate youth, school dropouts between the
ages of 15 and 30, and rural youth.
2.
Promotion of sport to the optimum.
3.
Provision of administrative services.
Structure
of the Ministry
The
ministry carries out its responsibilities through two directorates, viz., the Directorate of Sport Promotion and Development, and the
Directorate of Youth Development.
Directorate
Youth Development
All
areas of work in which Directorate Youth Development is presently involved are
seen as essential to address the needs, problems and expectations of the
target group of this ministry. When Namibia
became independent, there was no institution that looked after the well-being
and interest of the youth despite the fact that it is the youth who are most
impacted by socio-economic issues, such as, education, skills, sports, health,
infrastructure, employment, etc. Therefore, this directorate is responsible
for addressing the youth’s concerns, and active promotion of their role in
national social and economic development. The Directorate also emphasises
plight of the unemployed youth and school dropouts and aims at enhancing their
access to economic and social services.
Youth
in Namibia is defined as that group of young people, both male and female,
aged between 15 and 30. However, for practical reasons, many of the activities
will often need to embrace all those below the age of 30. The definition is
therefore, not rigidly restrictive. What is important is the acknowledgement
that it is the youth as a group that is most beset by problems of school
drop-out, illiteracy, lack of appropriate skills, unemployment and
underemployment, alcohol and substance abuse, HIV/AIDS and other
health-related problems as well as problems of urbanisation.
Therefore,
the directorate’s mission is to plan, co-ordinate, facilitate and implement
programmes for the socio-economic development of the Namibian youth in
conformity with national development goals and objectives as set out in the
National Youth Policy and the priority areas in youth development as defined
by the Commonwealth Youth Programme and the United Nations.
The
directorate consists of two divisions: Division Resource Co-ordination,
Information and Research, and Division Training and Employment.
Division
Resource Co-ordination, Information and Research
The
division is responsible for enhancing, identifying, consolidating and
providing necessary resources to facilitate national youth initiatives. Its
functions therefore include:
1.
Collecting information on youth resources.
2.
Registering youth groups and associations.
3.
Identifying social support networks for young people.
4.
Enhancing scientific research for the provision of data for strategy
planning.
5.
Administering an information data bank for disseminating information on
youth needs, health and counselling.
6.
Carrying out research on youth needs, problems and expectations.
7.
Producing a newsletter/information paper.
8.
Facilitating government and non-government participation in
international and Commonwealth youth programmes.
9.
Planning, co-ordination and implementation of youth development
programmes.
10.
Planning, co-ordinating and facilitating national and international
youth exchange programmes.
Programmes
are developed by programme specialists and national co-ordinators at head
office level in collaboration with the target group, line ministries and
through their involvement in inter-ministerial and inter-sectoral committees.
These programmes are then implemented by regional youth officers and staff in
collaboration with regional and district youth forums and groups.
Development
and Implementation of Youth Policies and Strategies
The
ministry provides broad guidelines for youth development from which action
programmes and services for youth are developed. These programmes aim at
encouraging active participation and contribution of the Namibian youth to
national, social and economic development. To that end, the ministry has
formulated a National Youth Policy and strategies that serve as guidelines for
youth development.
Empowering
Youth
The
government’s initiatives for empowering youth involve:
1.
promoting and encouraging active participation and contribution of
Namibian youth in national social and economic development,
2.
providing a platform for NGOs involved with youth to meet and share
experiences, and
3.
creating structures through which youth can be represented, e.g., the
National Youth Council, regional youth for a, and district fora.
The
ministry is also entrusted with the task of promoting and developing sport
among the Namibian population and the youth in particular, as well as of
combating youth unemployment. In its emphasis on the need for the “youth to
grow with the nation” the government has set out to:
1.
promote employment, training and education opportunities for young
people,
2.
support young people with special needs, including those with
disabilities,
3.
encourage better health and healthy life-style among young people, and
4.
promote the rights and responsibilities of young people and increase
their participation in national development.
Thus,
youth development is seen as a process of continuous planning of youth
development structures, institutions and programmes that facilitates and
creates societal conditions conducive to the advancement and protection of the
rights of the youth and their self-actualisation.
National
Juvenile Justice Programme
To
facilitate successful implementation of this programme, the ministry continues
to function as a collaborating partner in the juvenile justice reform process.
Emphasis of this programme continues to be on five component areas:
1.
Life Skills Diversion Programme which aims at diverting juvenile
offenders away from the strict and formal criminal justice system to a system
of life skills training.
2.
Prisons and Detainment Outreach Programme through the provision of life
skills training to those youths already in prisons.
3.
Monitoring and data collection.
4.
Juvenile Justice Advocacy and Awareness.
5.
Juvenile Crime Prevention Programme
Juvenile
Justice Advocacy and Awareness is a new programme, developed in mid-1994. It
aims to support the juvenile justice reform in Namibia by providing specific
juvenile justice programming, training and advocacy. In addition, the
programme works closely with other line ministries and NGOs to ensure a co-ordinated
approach to reform.
The
ministry recognises the important contribution youth can make in affecting
change and promoting economic and social development in Namibia. However, too
often, young people fail to benefit from this process because of single or
multiple conflicts with the law that leads to incarceration and/or labelling
as a “criminal.”
The
Juvenile Justice Reform process was begun in July 1994 with the creation of
the Juvenile Justice Forum, an informal organisation set up to address
pertinent juvenile justice issues. The group consists of representatives from
various line ministries and NGOs with an interest in juvenile justice reform.
The ministry is a founding member of the forum and has been actively involved
in juvenile justice advocacy, development and implementation ever since. This
programme is an expressed commitment by the ministry to expand its juvenile
justice reform programme and service provision to juvenile offenders.
Youth
and Child Rights Advocacy Programme
This
programme forms part of our Juvenile Justice Programme and contains aspects of
the Family Life Empowerment Programme and the National Plan of Action for
Children which will be co-ordinated by the newly appointed juvenile justice
co-ordinator. Main aim of this programme is to promote public awareness and
address issues relating to youth and child rights and to assist with the
monitoring of these expressed youth and child rights as embodied Article 15 of
the Constitution of Namibia, as well as the United Nations and other
international treaties and agreements.
The
programme is, however, not simply advocacy through awareness, but rather
advocacy through action. It is national in scope and will be implemented
throughout the country. The following programme initiatives are already in
progress:
1.
child rights training for staff,
2.
monitoring of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child,
3.
public awareness campaigns and local committees,
4.
children and women in especially difficult circumstances,
5.
National Programme of Action for Children, and
6.
data collection and analysis.
This
programme puts particular emphasis on issues relating to juvenile justice,
primary health care and education. The programme is national in scope and
implemented throughout the country by regional youth officers and multipurpose
youth resource centre staff personnel of this ministry.
Youth
Education, Information and Communication
The
youth never had the opportunity to actively participate in environmental
issues because they did not have the opportunity to participate in any
development. There are crucial global issues regarding the environment, e.g.,
deforestation, conservation, population, etc. where youth can play a very
constructive role. Therefore, this programme aims to promote a number of
initiatives as follows:
Environmental
Education Programme
1.
environmental awareness and advocacy,
2.
establishing and running urban and rural environmental education clubs,
3.
establishing and running urban based environmental centres youth
conservation corps, and
youth wilderness corps, and
4.
community-based tourism.
Integrated
Rural Youth Development
Rural
areas in Namibia contain 70% of the country’s population. Though rural youth
face constraints similar to those faced by their urban counterparts, these
constraints are exacerbated as a result of availability of fewer resources and
more problematic access to potential development interventions. In general,
young people face a host of harsh realities: high unemployment; limited
potential for income-generating activities for want of capital and expertise
required to initiate such activities; high numbers of early school leavers;
illiteracy; lack of training or recreational facilities; and health problems
which may be associated with HIV/AIDS and uneven access to relevant
information concerning health, contraception and sexuality.
Response
of many young people to the depressing range of issues affecting their daily
reality is to migrate to urban centres, where they hope to obtain employment.
An increasing number of young people seeking work as casual labourers each day
on the streets of Windhoek bears witness to the trend. Not only does this
urban migration place increasing burden on facilities in urban areas, it also
deprives the rural areas of the energy and creativity of young people --
further encouraging the cycle to continue. Therefore, this programme aims to:
1.
empower rural youth by providing facilities, services and educational
opportunities in an informal setting,
2.
integrate rural youth into community-based natural resources management
programmes,
3.
provide rural youth with vocational skills in an informal education
setting using experiment-based learning techniques, and
4.
develop and implement self-employment projects.
Youth
Health Programme
Very
high rates of teenage pregnancy raise a number of concerns in relation to the
country’s overall population growth and development, the youth’s
reproductive health, and their vulnerability to poverty. It is a complex
problem requiring understanding of socio-cultural environment, changes that
take place in adolescents’ life, adolescent attitudes to sexuality, peer
group pressure, economic pressure linked to poverty, social change and
urbanisation process, and decay of traditional structures that formerly
moulded the transition from childhood to socially-valued reproductive roles,
extent of education on sex and contraceptive knowledge and practice, and the
youth’s proneness to such problems as unemployment, alcohol and drug abuse.
Addressing these problems requires a holistic approach and the involvement of
a leading agency to facilitate co-ordination and implementation.
In
November 1992, the ministry was given the mandate to develop a programme of
youth health and development with out-of-school
youth at the first International Conference on School and Youth Health,
held in Swakopmund. In January 1994, the Youth Health Programme of the
ministry was established with its main focus on out-of-school youth. The
programme is also accessible to school-going youth, but outside of the school
context. Since that time, the programme has developed a variety of strategies
to attempt to meet health needs of young people. The programme’s emphasis is
on counselling and education, provision of youth-friendly health related
services, preventative programmes, peer education and counselling, and
research. Main components of overall health programme are as follows:
Needs
Assessment: The
first stage of the programme was to assess the specific health needs of young
people. Priorities as perceived by young people were identified through focus
group discussions with young people throughout the country. Overall, health
issues identified were reproductive health, alcohol and drug abuse, and
broader social problems issues emanating from these health problems.
Training:
One
of the major components of the programme has been to train youth officers to
incorporate health promotion work as part of their work as youth development
workers, drawing on extensive links between health and development. This
training has included a number of components as follows:
1.
Understanding of health as an integral part of youth development.
2.
Organising, facilitating and evaluating participatory education with
young people.
3.
Developing a range of media for effective communication on health.
4.
Developing peer education and counselling initiatives.
5.
Encouraging innovation when working with young people.
Information,
Education and Communication:
There has been a strong focus on the development of information, education and
communication strategies driven by young people who have wide range of skills,
ideas and creativity which are under-tapped. Thus, health officers facilitate
the process but allow young people to take the process further.
Research:
The
research component of the health programme focuses particularly on those young
people who are marginalised in some way. To date, this has included research
into the health and development needs of rural youth in the Kavango Region
through a process of participatory rapid appraisal; and research into the
situation of young sex workers and their clients in Walvis Bay. Through the
health programme, research is also being initiated into rights and
discrimination in the context of HIV infection in Namibia. It is hoped that
the research component of the health programme will be strengthened in the
coming years with researching current initiatives in youth health throughout
the country, and documenting these in a systematic form with a view to
developing an extensive and easily-accessible data base.
Service
Provision: After
more than two years of work on health education, it became apparent that the
involvement of the Youth Health Programme in health promotion could also be
extended to provision of health services. Such an approach was thought to be
more effective in meeting a clearly identified need for open and friendly
service for young people, especially in relation to the more sensitive aspects
of young people’s health, such as, their reproductive health. Further, it
was felt that existing services did not have the human resources or time to
really offer young people all the information, education, counselling and
support they required, and that these services were often not sensitive to the
needs of young people. In order to take this initiative further, a pilot
programme is to be established in Windhoek.
Information
Programme
There
is generally a lack of adequate structures to identify needs and to provide
information and services to youth in order for them to become active players
in the future development of the country. The ministry recognised this gap and
decided to play a catalytic role in identifying the needs of the youth, co-ordinating
creative responses to the needs, and mobilising resources to address these
needs. The ministry also recognises that NGOs and community-based
organisations can play an important role in meeting there challenges. Further,
many of the ministries already perform functions that can contribute to the
alleviation of the identified problems. Accordingly the concept of “Workers
with Youth Forum and Network” was developed.
The
aim of the programme is to establish a central resources unit, namely, the
National Information Data Bank and Information, Education and Communication
Unit (IEC) that seeks to assist youth, youth organisations, and researchers at
national and regional levels in accessing resources, training material and
information on youth-related issues, and in providing opportunity to network
with others in related fields.
Overall,
therefore, this programme aims to enhance information collection and
dissemination on youth issues by taking a number of initiatives as follows:
1.
a quarterly youth magazine,
2.
establishing a computerised data bank on youth issues,
3.
regional and national youth resource directories,
4.
national directory of youth organisations,
5.
directory of professional youth workers,
6.
conducting youth related research and data collecting,
7.
establishing a youth and rural youth-specific reference library and
study facilities,
8.
producing reference materials for programmes and youth workers,
9.
establishing a youth information desk, and
10.
facilitating international networking.
Youth
Exchange Programme and Youth Hostels
The
aim of this programme is to provide young Namibians opportunity to meet with
youth at national, regional and international levels and through this contact
share knowledge and experiences by participating in regional, national and
international youth exchange programmes, and regional, national and
international volunteer work camps. In addition, the ministry provides youth
hostel facilities of international standard.
National
Youth Service Scheme
This
scheme will be a national study service scheme for all categories of Namibian
youth. It will aim at school leavers and youth out of school to engage in
study service within the public sector where they would be involved in the
social development of the country. This scheme is being put in place in the
light of the fact that the youth in Namibia were disadvantaged in the area of
employment, skills training and education and need an opportunity to play a
constructive role.
Provision
and Maintenance of Infrastructure
The
aim is to provide well-equipped youth resource centres with well-qualified and
motivated staff to address the multiple problems and expectations of youth in
the regions. These centres will seek to bring together various communities and
government agencies involved in youth work and thereby strengthen programmes
and activities as well as maximise the utilisation of scarce resources.
Various infrastructural projects include establishing regional multipurpose
youth resource centres, integrated rural youth development centres,
environmental education centres, youth hostels, and youth-friendly health
clinics.
Regional
Multipurpose Youth Resource Centres
The
purpose of the regional multi-purpose youth resource centres is to provide
regional personnel and young people, and organisations with well-equipped
facilities, resources and trained personnel for the promotion and development
of youth development programmes and activities. These centres will also be
used to accommodate the regional youth and sport offices. Their main tasks and
responsibilities are therefore as follows:
1.
to receive and disseminate information on local, national and
international resources,
2.
to co-ordinate the activities of the centre with those of the regional
office, youth groups, and
workers with youth in the region,
3.
to provide counselling services,
4.
to plan programmes and activities for needs and expectations as
identified by regional and district offices,
5.
to develop and share resources as needed by the region,
6.
to provide exhibition facilities as needed by the community, and
7.
to provide youth friendly reproductive health services.
Integrated
Rural Youth Development Centres
Two
centres are being planned, one at Frans Dimbare in the Caprivi Region, and one
at Warmbad in the Karas Region. Aim of theses integrated rural youth
development and environmental centres are to empower rural youth by providing
facilities, services and educational opportunities.
By assisting rural young people in building environmental awareness,
life and vocational skills, and strengthening families and communities through
a participatory development approach, the ministry's project will lead to
greater capacity on the part of rural youth in successfully addressing their
own needs.
Specific
objectives for the development of the integrated rural youth development and
environmental centres include:
1.
erection of buildings for day to day operations of the centres;
2.
procurement of the necessary technical equipment and teaching aids;
3.
developing and implementing environmental education programmes as a way
of integrating rural youth into the community-based natural resource
management programmes;
4.
providing rural youth with vocational skills in an informal educational
setting, using experience-based learning techniques, such as, fish farming,
animal husbandry, entrepreneurship, agricultural production, crafts, etc.;
5.
developing and implementing programmes to assist young people in their
finding or creating own employment; and
6.
developing and implementing programmes through which rural youth can
acquire basic life skills, such as, health education, leadership training, art
and culture, recreation and sport, etc.
Youth
Hostels
The
aim of the youth hostels is to provide short-term, affordable, safe and clean
accommodation for local and foreign young people and to provide accommodation
for staff of the ministry during in-service training courses. These facilities
could also be used to accommodate youth groups and workers with youth during
workshops, seminars and conferences organised by the ministry; and to
accommodate both local and international sport teams.
These
hostels would be attached to the regional multi-purpose youth resource centres
to enable rural youth to utilise the centres’ facilities.
Human
Resource Development
The
ministry puts great emphasis on providing the necessary in-service training to
its staff to better their qualifications and skills. In this regard, training
courses are scheduled each year to provide staff with the necessary skills and
work experience. In addition, staff members are sent on national and
international courses as needed.
The
objective of the division is to facilitate youth training and employment and
co-ordinate youth entrepreneurship training. Towards fulfilling this
objective, the division carries out a number of functions as follows:
1.
preparing the youth for labour the market;
2.
developing and improving relevant skills to enable youth to enter the
job market;
3.
identifying, facilitating and co-ordinating training needs and
employment opportunities;
4.
co-ordinating and facilitating youth skills training and supervising
the smooth running thereof;
5.
co-ordinating and facilitating youth career guidance;
6.
planning, co-ordinating and implementing the National Youth Service
Scheme;
7.
co-ordinating, facilitating and assisting youth in entrepreneurship
training programmes; and
8.
providing the youth access to credit facilities.
Youth
Skills Training
To
ensure the acquisition and development of relevant and marketable skills by
the youth, the division
strives
to:
1.
develop, monitor and evaluate relevant and marketable skills for the
youth;
2.
co-ordinate and mobilise locally, as well as internationally, efforts
geared towards skills
development;
3.
harness, by conducting workshops, the latent potential skills that the
youth possess; and
4.
provide appropriate information and relevant skills to youth.
Youth
Entrepreneurial Training Programme
To
plan, co-ordinate and facilitate youth entrepreneurial training programmes for
unemployed young people, the division seeks to:
1.
identify training needs of the young people to assist them in setting
up business;
2.
provide information and guidance to youth on training and employment
opportunities;
3.
ensure that young people who undergo training have access to appropriate
credit facilities;
4.
co-ordinate and facilitate community projects;
5.
liase with Namibia National Chamber of Commerce and Industry and other
NGOs on available
credit
facilities for young business people;
6.
keep up-to-date records on youth enterprise training programmes and
ensure that tracer studies
are carried out to determine if
training provided is responsive to market demands;
7.
monitor and evaluate the performance of youth income generating projects
in progress; and
8.
communicate and co-ordinate strategies, plans and programmes for
entrepreneurial training with line ministries, private sector and NGOs.
Operational
Objectives
The
division’s operational objectives can be outlined as follows:
1.
to facilitate youth training and employment through the establishment of
youth skills training centres, and to assist them with finding employment;
2.
to develop relevant skills in conjunction with labour market demand so as
to enable youth access to the job market;
3.
to identify, facilitate and co-ordinate training needs for young men and
women with disabilities and ensure that training and recreational facilities are
built taking their needs into account;
4.
to share gathered information with youth on appropriate marketable skills
and where and how to obtain them;
5.
to assist and facilitate the registration of unemployed youth countrywide
and to pass on such information to the Ministry of Labour;
6.
to establish multipurpose youth resource centres and youth hostels in all
thirteen regions of Namibia, that will serve as educational, recreational and
health centres for young people;
7.
to sensitize both parents and youth on the causes and impact of sexually
transmitted diseases (STDs) and HIV/AIDS, and prevention thereof; and
8.
to provided young men and women with information on their legal rights
and to work closely with the Ministries of Home Affairs and Justice on matters
pertaining juvenile offenders and how best to rehabilitate them.
Directorate
Sport Promotion and Development
Most
of the objectives for which this directorate was created for are still valid
today and would continue to be valid for the foreseeable future.
The accomplishment of the directorate’s objectives is a process,
somewhat evolutionary. In a nutshell these objectives are:
1.
to promote and support sporting activities locally and internationally;
2.
to establish basic sport facilities at identified strategic points and to
upgrade existing ones to international standards;
3.
to introduce certain sport-codes into communities where they are unknown;
4.
to ensure that each and every Namibian has the opportunity to practice
the sport discipline of his/her choice;
5.
to monitor the application of statutory provisions in both amateur and
professional sport; and
6.
to promote and, where possible, to provide professional training for
sport technical staff, administrators and officials.
The
Directorate of Sport is made up of two divisions, namely, the Community Sport
Promotion Division, and the School Sport Promotion Division. At the helm of the
directorate is a director while deputy directors head the two divisions.
Namibia
National Sports Council (NNSC), Namibia School Sport Union (NSSU), and Tertiary
Institutions Sports Associations of Namibia (TISAN).
National
Sports Commission
The
functions of the commission are:
1.
To advise the minister with regard to any matter on which the minister is
required to consult the commission
in terms of the Sport Act, management and development of sports in Namibia, and
any matter which the minister refers to the commission for its investigation and
advice.
2.
Subject to the provision of the Sports Act, to administer the fund.
3.
To exercise control over the participation of any sports person or any
national association in any international sports event.
4.
To exercise control over the
awarding of any national sports colours by any person or national association to
any sports person or team.
5.
To exercise control over the arrangement of any international sports
event, any
person, or national association.
Achievements
Directorate
Youth Development
The
directorate secured a niche for the ministry in the national socio-economic
development through measurable achievements in the last ten years are as
follows:
Establishment
of the National Youth Council
The
National Youth Council, which is an independent body, was established by an Act
of Parliament to act as vanguard umbrella organization for youth and youth
organizations and to advise the Ministry of Youth and Sport on all matters
pertaining to young people. Its
annual budget is fully funded by the ministry and has certainly succeeded in
promoting youth participation in decisions that affect them.
Since its inception, the council’s executive committee has worked
closely with the ministry in establishing infrastructure regionally to enhance
communication between urban and rural youth.
The council also funds youth income generating projects, annual youth
EXPO and other programmes and activities for the youth.
The latest achievement of the council, in conjunction with its mother
body, the Ministry of Youth and Sport, was the holding of the Second National
Youth Conference, from 4 to 6 August 1999.
Youth
Skills Training Centres
These
centres refer to vocational institutions targeting unemployed youth and school
dropouts with emphasis on those unable to access vocational training centres of
the Ministry of Higher Education, Vocational Training, Science and Technology.
In other words, these centres act like a “bridge” between the
unemployed, and in most cases uneducated, youth and vocational training centres.
They offer one-year skills training in carpentry, bricklaying, welding,
tailoring, hospitality training and plumbing.
There
are currently two of such centres, one at Kai//Ganaxab in Mariental, with an
annual intake of some thirty trainees, and one at Okahao. Budgetary provision
has been made in the next financial year (2000/2001) for the expansion of the
Okahao Centre in order to increase its capacity.
By
the end of 1998, these centres produced approximately 515 graduates in various
disciplines, and the majority of them were fortunate enough to obtain employment
right away. However, Namibia with a
small private sector will be unable to absorb all our trainees, and, therefore,
there is a need to provide to these qualified trainees access to credit
facilities for starting their own business – may be in the form of
co-operatives.
With
effect from 1 April 2000, additional youth skills training centres will become
operational, one in the Omaheke Region and the other in the Erongo Region.
Erongo Region’s Centre will be a hospitality training centre, while the
Omaheke one will concentrate more on agriculture.
Youth
Employment and Entrepreneurial Promotion Programmes
The
programmes aim at engaging the youth in meaningful production activities and
income generating enterprises geared to instil self-esteem and the spirit of
self-reliance amongst the youth. So far, various youth projects have been set up
to produce leather products, agricultural products, and brick making, and to
provide eco-tourism and recreational facilities. With additional funding from
NGOs and international organizations awaited in the next financial year, the
idea of youth becoming their own bosses appears to be paying off.
Multi-Purpose
Youth Resource Centres and Youth Hostels
These
facilities bring multi-programmes and activities under one roof. Four such
centres have become fully operational, in each in the Oshana Region (Oshakati);
Erongo Region (Swakopmund), Hardap Region (Keetmanshoop) and Omusati Region (Outapi).
Plans are underway to build similar centres in all our thirteen regions.
Briefly,
these centres offer cheap and affordable accommodation for young men and women
(local and international); programmes pertaining to youth health, such as,
reproductive health, peer counseling; HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention;
juvenile justice programme for young offenders; income generating activities;
and environmental education. These
centres also serve as conference facilities for the government and the NGOs,
including youth organizations and church groups.
National
Youth Service Scheme (NYSS)
This
scheme offers an experimental learning environment for high school graduates and
school dropouts (unemployed) and aims at involving the youth in national
economic development. First fifty Grade 12 graduates will complete one year
voluntary community service in the year 2000 before joining institutions of
higher education in 2001. The
second group will include fifty Grade 12 and 200 Grade 10 and school dropouts by
September 2000.
While
Grade 12 participants are destined for further studies, those without Grade 12
will join vocational training centres for two years after completing their one
year-voluntary community service. The
programme will become permanent once the piloting currently underway proves its
worth.
Directorate
Sport Promotion
Sport
Policy and Sport Act (1995)
Before
independence there was neither a sport policy nor appropriate to govern the
administration of sport in the country. As
a result, inequalities of the previous dispensation were quite rampant in sport
too. In many instances, some
sport-disciplines were only for the privileged urban elite.
Therefore, a Sport Policy for the Development of Sport for all Namibians
was formulated, followed by the enactment of an Act of Parliament to enforce it.
Ideas behind these legal instruments were to give each and every Namibian equal
opportunity to participate in the sport-code of his/her choice and to redress
inequalities of the past.
Soon
after Namibia became independent, the government, in conjunction with Namibia
Sport Council, embarked upon a programme of training trainers in the various
sport-disciplines all over the country. Much
has been achieved; many sport people in the regions are now exposed to
sport-codes that were unknown to them earlier. Sport-codes like hockey,
volleyball, and, to some extent, tennis, previously known only in urban areas,
are now finding expression in the regions.
However great deal still needs to be done.
Again, as with many aspect of sport, many of them are ongoing projects.
In
coaching clinics, teachers and local club coaches were trained with the latest
techniques for the promotion of sport. Approximately
8500 coaches have so far been trained through these programmes and there is no
doubt that they are making a difference in our effort for the upliftment of the
standard of sport in the country.
During
the last decade, Namibia participated successfully in many international events.
Many individual sport-codes also participated in many international events. In
multi-sport-disciplines events, Namibia took part in two Olympic Games, two
Commonwealth Games, and three All Africa Games.
Due
to financial constraints, only soccer, athletics, netball and volleyball
featured this year. If funds permit, more codes will be added to the list in the
future.
Coaches
The
Ministry of Youth and Sport joined other ministries and government agencies
through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in signing different permanent joint
commissions of co-operation on youth and sport related matters.
On
soccer, the ministry has agreement with Germany allowing Mr. P Ueberjahn, the
current coach of the National Team, to be seconded to this ministry. German
football expert will continue to be available to Namibia on a long-term basis.
The ministry has also a very fruitful and intensive exchange programme in the
field of youth football between Namibia and the Westfalia Regional Association
of the German Football Federation.
Pursuant to the Agreement on Economic, Technical, Scientific and Cultural Co-operation, which provides for the esta