By Emma Apollo
WINDHOEK
A two-day immersion workshop into the World Bank commenced in the capital yesterday.
The workshop aims at providing the Namibian Government with an opportunity to learn more about the work of the Bank and is organised by both the Bank and the Government.
Participants also have to come up with a business plan, which is to guide the way forward in terms of identifying development activities to be implemented for the next two years.
Speaking at the occasion yesterday, the Bank’s Country Director Ritva Reinikka said that transparency was one of the Bank’s core beliefs and it has over the years disseminated information about its projects and programmes so that anyone interested has a better understanding of what it was doing in their countries.
“Over the past three years, I have often heard the question: “Namibia is a member of the World Bank Group. What does this membership entitle us?” she said.
She stressed that the World Bank Group was a development cooperative – a public good – and therefore her objective as Country Director was to ensure that the country was aware of the many opportunities the Bank provides and to draw on them on own terms.
“China makes use of the Bank extensively and so does Brazil and Mauritius. I hope that the next two days will reveal these opportunities to Namibians as well as guide us on what Namibia expects.”
Also speaking at the opening ceremony, National Planning Commission Permanent Secretary Mocks Shivute said despite the fact of Namibia being regarded as a middle-income country not qualifying for soft loan financing from the Bank, the country benefits from the Bank’s technical assistance such as in the education sector.
On Monday, the Bank signed a financial support agreement of US$15 million for the Education and Training Sector Improvement Programme (ETSIP), making it the leading technical agency in the ETSIP partnership.
World Bank collaboration in education dates back to 2003 when Government approached the Bank to conduct an analysis of education, training and skills development and to make recommendations for improvements.
Making use of this work, the country developed the 15-year strategic plan followed by the five-year sector programme ETSIP.
Government and the World Bank also recently developed the country’s first strategy – a framework to strengthen future cooperation.
“This framework aims at setting the stage and thereby enables us to move away from the traditional and limited engagements based on ad hoc and occasional activities that were not always clear in their origin, usefulness or timeliness,” said Shivute.
Shivute stressed that the Bank’s experience could be moulded to fit the country’s needs and therefore be tailor-made to guide most, if not all of its development efforts in reaching the objectives set in Vision 2030.