By Emma Kakololo WINDHOEK The Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry yesterday held a one-day retreat to improve on service delivery to members of the public. “My aim of addressing you today is to arouse the faculties of your minds and hearts to the urgency … to respond to… improved efficiency and effectiveness of public sector service delivery,” the Minister of Agriculture, Water and Forestry Dr Nickey Iyambo told members of his staff. The Minister further stated: “This urgency is coming from our clients (farming community). It is coming from our observers, particularly the political executive – you all heard the President repeatedly lamenting both in the media and in Cabinet the lack of policy implementation.” Iyambo was hopeful that the retreat would be a second step towards the Ministry’s efforts to regain its clients’ confidence, the first being the ongoing strategic planning process. He reminded the meeting on four crucial points to consider during the retreat – to come up with clear policy directives; to consider how the ministry could position itself to support initiatives that support the policy focus; thirdly, the need for the service delivery to be client-focussed; and, whatever they choose to implement during the course of the year, should have a long-term perspective. “In other words, our activities for this year should support the long-term objective of our policy focus,” said the Minister. “In this regard, I urge you to commit yourselves individually to the finalisation of the ongoing strategic planning process,” he stated.