Graduates must join fight against poverty

The Minister of Higher Education, Technology and Innovation, Dr Itah Kandjii-Murangi, has called on all graduates to join the war against poverty. Kandjii-Marungi was speaking at the Polytechnic of Namibia’s spring graduation ceremony at the Safari Court Hotel and Conference Centre last week. “In his inaugural address as President of the Republic of Namibia in March this year, His Excellency Dr Hage Geingob spelled out challenges facing our country. Chief amongst these are poverty, inequality and unemployment. Therefore as a priority he declared an all-out war on poverty, hunger and inequality. It is our duty, all of us, including the new graduates, to join the fight against poverty,” she said. She called on the youth, especially graduates, to bring their ingenuity, innovation and idealism to contribute to building a stronger and inclusive Namibia. “You must bring your bountiful energy to ensure that we succeed in these endeavours because failure is simply not an option,” she said. Kandjii-Murangi said the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recently approved a 17-goal programme on sustainable development. “This important step was hailed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as a defining moment in human history,” she said. The minister said his remarks were based on the fact that goals are a universal, integrative and transformative vision for a better world. She said the SDGs are critical for Namibia, explaining that over the next 15 years, Namibia must ensure that its national development agenda and policy framework are geared to enable it to achieve the targets set for the SDGs. “In this regard, a good start has already been made and it is encouraging that there is significant alignment between the priorities in our national development programmes such as NDP 4 and Vision 2013 on the one hand, and the Sustainable Development Goals on the other,” she said. She called on the Polytechnic, which is transforming into the Namibia University of Science and Technology, to embrace innovation, commercialisation, entrepreneurship and creation of economic value to boost the performance of the economy and the creation of jobs. “In order to eliminate poverty from our society and reduce inequality within our nation, sustainable economic growth and diversification, job creation and improvement of service delivery should be pursued with a sense of urgency. We need the contribution from our institutions of higher learning to achieve these objectives,” she said. GORDON JOSEPH