WINDHOEK -The Ministry of Foreign Affairs last week on Thursday on the eve of the sixth presidential and National Assembly elections launched its Strategic Plan that will run for four years.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah said the plan covers the period 2013 to 2017 during the period of implementing the Mid-Term Plan of NDP4 for the realisation of Vision 2030, which has enabled Namibia to play her role internationally including her contribution to the realisation of the AU Agenda 2063, the Post 2015 Agenda and Beijing +20.
“The implementation process is based on excellence that will take the ministry to greater heights,” she told members of the diplomatic community and other stakeholders that attended the launch at a hotel in Windhoek on Thursday.
The Strategic Plan has identified three projects, namely, diplomatic representation; promotion of trade and investment, tourism and culture; and consular services.
Permanent Secretary Ambassador Selma Ashipala-Musavyi who was instrumental in the process, said the ministry is adamant in seeking to increase its baseline in terms of arranging trade activities and missions to and from Namibia from 112 to 500 by 2017. She said under each programme the ministry has identified projects that will enable it to meet the set targets that can be monitored, as well as measures.
“By this the ministry hopes through our diplomatic missions to make an impact on the desired outcome of 1-8 of NDP4.”
She said the ministry committed itself to changing its work culture to do business with its stakeholders, taking effective measures to ensure that the Strategic Plan is fully implemented, all operational guidelines are effectively applied and that the target must be achieved by 2017.
Giving her overview Ashipala-Musavyi identified programmes with concomitant strategic objectives such as Bilateral Affairs, Multilateral Affairs, Protocol and Consular Affairs, Treaties and Agreements, Namibia Diplomatic Missions, Coordination and Support Services, Policy Coordination and Information Research.
Ashipala-Musavyi said in enhancing multilateral diplomacy, Namibia has set herself to be fully conversant with all the multilateral organisations and to establish a visible presence there to get young professional Namibians to fill the quota at all relevant regional and international organisations, and continue to participate in conflict resolution and maintenance of international peace and security in the region and globally.
By Fifi Rhodes