By Wezi Tjaronda
WINDHOEK
The Joint Consultative Council (JCC) will relaunch itself on Wednesday to mark its new facilitation role.
The JCC, which started in 1995 as a policy development forum, will now concentrate on providing services to small and medium enterprises considering that they are the backbone of the Namibian economy and thus need to be supported in line with the development goals in NDP3 and Vision 2030.
Following a professional evaluation and review that the board of directors commissioned in 2006, the JCC will now position itself to become a network of service providers focusing on business development services to SMEs.
JCC Director Tuwilika Hamwele said the organisation focuses on making available reliable reference and guidance systems for SMEs to access business support services, providing a platform for exchange in service provision practices and demand-driven approaches for service providers, creating linkages between public and private service providers to avoid duplication and also to conduct research and monitoring and evaluation in order to ensure a conducive environment for service provision.
JCC’s partners include the government ministries and agencies, local authorities and regional councils, non-governmental organisations and community-based organisations, institutions of higher education, private and public finance institutions, international development partners and business representative organisations.
Some of the programmes and services that the JCC offers are listing new partners and subscribers, providing information of JCC functions as a store of information to SME service providers, referring network partners, subscribers and advisors, supporting enterprise development and business support services programme of the Ministry of Trade and Industry and creating awareness among local councils and regional councils on their role in growing the small business sector.
The JCC is a Section 21 company with 26 members who meet quarterly.
At the relaunch on Wednesday, the JCC will present the results of the business development services study, the JCC model, JCC tools, and the outcome of the study on local authorities in the north.
The JCC is also renowned for its annual Sam Nujoma Innovative Entrepreneurs Award (SNIEA).