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Consumer education for sustainable consumption
2016-04-06Staff Report 2 Consumer Education is simply informing consumers of their rights. This will help consumers purchase proper goods at the right place and the right price. It is in a consumer's best interest to have a high awareness of the products he/she buys. This can lead to saving money and/or improving the quality of the goods purchased. It promotes self-confidence and independence; it imparts life-skills, which contribute to success in everyday living. It encourages critical thinking, which helps consumers function more efficiently in the marketplace. It promotes self-confidence and independence. It imparts life skills, which contribute to success in everyday living. It fosters values such as distinguishing between needs and wants, paying bills, saving money, planning and budgeting. The choices that consumers make have significant social, economic and environmental implications. In particular, consumer choices can often have an impact on sustainable development. Stakeholders have devoted considerable attention to developing ways to influence consumers’ choices so that they support sustainable consumption. In addition to economic and regulatory measures, there is increasing consensus that consumer education can play an important role in promoting sustainable consumption. Such education should be incorporated into school curriculum and should include awareness raising campaigns as well as initiatives targeting adults and children. To be successful, such education should focus on increasing awareness of the importance and benefits of sustainability, both for individuals and society, developing practical knowledge of what consumers can do to support sustainable consumption, and providing necessary skills and attitudes for putting this knowledge into everyday practices. I urge and put an emphasis that Namibia should have strict laws in protecting consumers from the abuse of markets, an excellent example of the consumer protection law is like the Lemon law in Kansas. If you buy a used vehicle and haven't been disclosed all of its problems, and it goes bad on you within a short period of time you can take it back for a refund. Consumer protection laws are intact for the purpose of protecting consumers from unscrupulous people who would sell shoddy products for a quick buck. Which is why there is a three-day right to cancel on every contract? In Namibia we have institutions that provide support platforms, such as the Financial Literacy Initiative, which provides broad-based public financial and consumer education in Namibia. This is to ensure that the basic needs of the community are met, quality of life for all is improved, and inefficient use of resources and environmental degradation are avoided. It should be noted that consumer education is essential. 2016-04-06Staff Report 2
