Martin-Olembe Antindi
Once a servant, will always be a servant. That has always been an obligation and calling for Katrina Liswani, and what she came to be known for as an exciting responsibility of making a difference in the lives of the people. Her activism has not only been locally but globally.
A lot of people came to know and understand Liswani when she accepted an overwhelming pressure from the public to contest for the SPWC position for secretary, when one is disciplined and intelligent, you hardly make drama or get involved in inappropriate circumstances that will land you on the front pages of newspapers.
Liswani holds a Master’s Degree of Arts in Public Policy and Administration, she also has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and several diplomas in various fields such as financial management, labour administration, strategic management, personnel management, employment, leadership, child labour and gender training just to mention a few. She is a founder member of the Namibia Poverty Alleviation Foundation, which has assisted thousands of Namibian people that are affected by poverty.
Her experience ranges from working in the ministry of labour as a deputy director, the African Union Commission Department for Social Affairs as head of Labour Employment and Migration and at the International Labour Organisation as coordinator of Labour Market Information for decent work measurements.
She has 30 years of experience in the labour administration system and 10 years in the liberation struggle with the Swapo Department of Labour.
Liswani has 15 years of working experience in the government (ministry of labour) and six years of working experience at international organisations, whereby she worked for four years at the African Union Commission and two years at the International Labour Organisation in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The practical activism of Liswani includes her sincere dedication toward looking at the socio-economic impact of development projects of all kinds, with special regard to employment and poverty alleviation, informal sector, social policy, migration, child labour and HIV/AIDS.
She has outstandingly played a bigger role in activities related to labour, health and safety, employment, gender, migration, social security and social responsibility programmes at the national and international levels.
She obtained an abundance of skills which enabled her to develop her work ethic. She got skills in policy design, monitoring and evaluation.
Liswani has represented the government at various national, regional and international meetings such as at ILO Conferences, African Labour Administration Centre, SADC Ministerial Labour and Social Sector and many others.
She also represented the African Union Commission at various meetings on negotiations of the AU-EU agreement on Migration and Development, AU Social Policy Framework development, AU Human Trafficking, especially women and Children policy framework and the Ouagadougou Plan of Action on Employment and Poverty Alleviation for Africa.
She chaired International Committees on Employment, HIV/AIDS just to mention a few.