WINDHOEK – Omaheke Regional Governor Festus Ueitele has observed that a lack of proper coordination amongst different directorates of ministries in the region is a key factor hindering progress in the region.
Ueitele, in his recent state of the region address, said directorates can never work in isolation with one another but should collaborate in terms of information and resource-sharing.
“The lack of coordination amongst different directorates of a particular ministry should be a thing of the past,” Ueitele said in his address.
He said his office has not received any input from some critical ministries, such as the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Industrialisation, Trade and SME Development, Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Poverty Eradication and the Office of the Vice-President.
Also, he said, neither from offices and agencies such as the Directorate of Immigration, Directorate of Rural, Water Supply and Sanitation, Directorate of Forestry, Directorate of Sports and the Division for Marginalised Communities.
He demanded that all these ministries, offices and agencies provide his office with written explanations as to the reason why no adherence was given to his request for inputs.
Furthermore, Ueitele said another worrisome scenario is the slow implementation of capital projects.
“We can never be responsible for denying people services and goods because of our own bureaucracies and office politics,” said the regional governor.
“We should strengthen the working of constituency development committees, village development committees in order for us to effect the implementation of a bottom-top approach in all our institutions,” he added. Ueitele also touched on the situation of drought in the region saying that while drought is a challenge, it also presents opportunities for innovative solutions.
“This is a time to harness the full capacity Namibia has to offer to find solutions to youth employment and food security challenges,” he said.
He said his office has enlisted the services of technical experts to develop a blueprint for small-scale agro-processing and start-up innovation space.
According to him, this blueprint is aligned with the government’s Growth@Home Strategy focusing on self-sufficiency and adding value to local raw material.
He said the project includes a 30-hectare irrigation project to produce vegetables, animals feed, lucerne and flowers, taking advantage of the abundant underground water resources in some parts of the region.
Ueitele said as the regional governor he is painfully aware of the plight of the youth in the region.
“The youth … have innovative ideas and all they need is support to commercialise those ideas,” he said, adding that to develop the region, unlocking the innovative potential embedded in the region’s youth is essential.