Ignatius Kariseb
November will see a clear indication & contestation of ideas, principles and beliefs, and will end with an indication of the individuals that will occupy three very influential political and administrative portfolios in our mighty party.
The most analysed, unpacked, lobbied and petitioned for portfolio is that of vice president of our Swapo Party. Recently, I penned an opinion piece titled `the legacy must continue, in hope for better`. Here, I laid the primary case for the current incumbent, comrade Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, as she fights on to retain her position.
I further made it a matter of transformational and strategic competencies of comrade Nandi-Ndaitwah.
In facilitating long-term goals and strategies for our party, especially for the 2025 national elections, we must bring our part to establish a common path, mobilise resources, facilitate political education and fully synchronise our political programme and have a dominant competitive edge over the opposition parties.
Furthermore, by deepening unity, our oarty can rebuild as well as flourish. When being guided by the above, we stand firm and unwavered that Nandi-Ndaitwah is the candidate to best facilitate the above, and calls on us party members and delegates alike to rally behind her.
When President Hage Geingob and Nandi-Ndaitwah were elected to the presidency and vice presidency of the party, respectively, it instilled in us great pride, excitement, camaraderie and a militant duty to serve these set of leaders at all costs.
The militant duty remains, and has now been passed over to the incumbent VP as she contests to retain her portfolio. The ascension of Nandi-Ndaitwah ascertained that indeed it is the era for women to lead.
But we maintain that that cannot be the overarching criteria. We made clear mention of competencies and leadership traits that best position her for the top job.
In making a stronger case, Nandi-Ndaitwah will pull off a multi-sectoral strategic approach where all wings will play a greater deal in administration and implementation in Swapo’s political programme, manifesto and policies.
Analysis and evaluation of the outcomes of any strategic process is the last stage of strategic political management. As a party, we are now tasked to alter our path to take the appropriate corrective action to adjust to shifting political trends by tracking the effectiveness of our organisational strategies. Under the leadership of Nandi-Ndaitwah, as a political party, we have the further chance to establish and assess performance indicators as party leaders, and implement interventions as needed through this continuing process. This is going to be our process of organisational renewal.
Under Nandi-Ndaitwah, we stand guided that a strategic political plan’s assessment provides a glimpse of potential shortcomings, and determines if our overarching political programme and strategy need to change course. As a party, we will regularly assess implementation of the strategy to ascertain what’s performing and what’s not. We must not fear reform and change, but rather embrace it, but at the same time ensure that we remain true to our founding principles.
We will further ensure, under the leadership of Nandi-Ndaitwah, that we facilitate a multisectoral approach. This refers to the deliberate collaboration among various stakeholder groups (e.g. government, civil society and the private sector, political organisations) and sectors (e.g. health, environment, and economy) to jointly achieve a policy outcome. This will ensure the party has greater influence to ensure our political programme and manifesto is implemented.
By engaging multiple sectors, the Swapo Party can leverage knowledge, expertise, reach and resources, benefiting from their combined and varied strengths, as they work towards the shared goal of facilitating better service delivery and livelihood outcomes for all.
The main strength of a multi-sectoral approach is that it creates a mechanism for information-sharing and coordination, supporting the inclusion of all major stakeholders in society, regardless of their sector or work of our mighty party.
Intersectoral collaboration, intersectoral action and multisectoral coordination are all terms that represent an approach that brings partners together to work collectively on a common issue, and this is what Cde Nandi-Ndaitwah stands for.
Related to the socio-economic empowerment of women, the approach recognises that solutions go beyond the provision of development services by Government, and often lie outside of the boundaries of the government. This is where the mobilisation machinery of the Swapo Party comes in and lobby for women’s rights. An intersectoral approach is needed to address the dynamic and inter-dependent nature of socio-economic development that we as a party are advocating.