Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1698145984195.pdf (Namibia)
2-0/0001 REPUBLIC OF NAMIBIA OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER Tel No: Fax No: (061) 2879111 (061) 234 296 Private Bag 13338 WINDHOEK NATIONAL ASSEMBLY APPROPRIATION BILL 2011/12 mWARD A HUMAN CENTRED BUDGET BY RIGHT HONOURABLE NAHAS ANGULA PRIME MINISTER Hard choices March 30, 2011 A budget is a tool for planning.

Planning implies making hard choices.

Choices have to be made because of scarcity.

This means that the available resources put limitation on a range of choices to be made.
A budget is, therefore, not an open- ended affair.

It has parameters.

The Minister of Finance in her fiscal policy for the Medium Term Expenditure, Framework, (MTEF) 2011-2014, has set fiscal benchmarks which shall determine the size of the cake.
These benchmarks are: • Maintenance of average debt within the limits of 30 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP); • Keeping the average budget deficit within 7 percent of the Gross Domestic Product; All official Correspondence must be addressed to the Premanent Secretary 2-010001 2 • Ensuring that public expenditure levels are below 30 percent of the Gross Domestic Products, on annual basis; • Keeping the interest rate payments as a ratio of Revenue within the limit of 10 percent annually; • and maintaining contingent liability of the State below the target of 10 percent of the Gross Domestic Product, annually.
These benchmarks form the bedrock of a sustainable macro-economic framework.

Public revenue has to be generated within these parameters.

There is, therefore, limitations to revenue generation.

This is the first huddle any Minister of Finance has to face.

The second challenge is how to allocate the resources generated from the public.

This is a serious responsibility.

The Minister exercises this responsibility in Cabinet.

At Independence, Cabinet identified priority sectors for Government investment.
These were: Education, Agriculture, Health and Housing.

These still remain priorities of Government.

In the current Budget these Sectors collectively are allocated N$ 15.3 billions.

This is more than one third of the Budget.

Cabinet recently added another priority.

That is the Employment Creation Programme.

The Targeted Intervention Programme for Employment and Economic Growth (TIPEEG) is being developed to be the anchor for employment creation.
Four Sectors have been identified as having high potential for employment creation.

These are Agriculture, Tourism, Transport, Housing and Sanitation.

An amount of N$ 9.1 billions has been allocated to these Sectors for this purpose during this financial year.

All official correspondence must be addressed to the Deputy Secretary to Cabinet 2-0/0001 3 The choices of Government are clearly to address the human needs.

This is a human centred Budget.


Unfortunately the social deficit we have inherited is enormous.

This historical social deficit cannot be smoothed out in a single Medium Term Expenditure Framework.

Poverty, both absolute and relative, shall continue to haunt us for some time.

No wonder some citizens are pushing for the Basic Income Grant (BIG).

We are a caring nation Proponents of the Basic Income Grant tend to paint a picture that of an uncaring Government.

That picture is wrong.


What the Government is saying is that poverty eradication should be tackled in a sustainable manner.

Furthermore, poverty reduction should be empowering.

Sustainability is the key consideration in the Brazilian law on Basic Income Grant.
Article 2 of the Brazilian Law on Basic Income Grant reads: ''The basic income grant will be distributed equally and will be sufficient to cover all the basic needs such as food, education and health, taking into account the country's level of economic development".

The underlined caveat is conveniently ignored by the proponents of the Basic Income Grant.

Equally, the figure of N$ 100 will not be able to cover "the basic needs such as food, education and health".
All official correspondence must be addressed to the Deputy Secretary to Cabinet 2-010001 4 Moreover, whatever measures are adopted to fight poverty, such measures should empower the beneficiaries.

Empowerment restores the dignity of a person.

A healthy, fit and strong person shall feel more dignified ifhis or her independence is restored though empowerage social interventions.

Such a person will feel offended if treated like a child by a benign benevolent State.
BIG is a paternalistic way of fighting poverty.

For the elderly, the disabled, the vulnerable and the war veterans, Government has created extensive safely nets to take care of their needs.

The table bellow captures the allocations to these safety nets.

In the current Budget a sum ofN$ 3, 749,301 is earmarked for the social safety nets.
If the Expenditure on the Safetynet for the MTEF Programme (N$ 000) Early Childhood Development Support Subsidies Grants to Women's Projects for Capacity Building Maintenance grants, Foster parent allowances (OVC) Allowance for War Orphans Social Pensions Funeral Plan Namibia emergency Disaster Funds Veterans (Subvention) Food for work, Cash for Work School feeding Programmes Subtotal PSEMAS Total MTEF Projection 2011/12 2012/13 2012114 Actual 200/10 400000 Actual 2010/11 400000 700000 842000 773000 1000000 Not available Not available 202061 369000 375196 372 780 Not available 0 878433 34251 129400 221800 1000 400000 950877 40000 20000 221800 3000 400000 960160 44145 20000 246800 3000 270000 1 031 842 48 413 20 000 246 800 5000 Not available Not available Not available Not available Not available Not available Not available 2708945 3177677 3749301 1994835 909 181 902500 1041497 1550800 Not available 3618126 4080177 4790798 3545635 All official correspondence must be addressed to the Deputy Secretary to Cabinet 2-0/0001 5 amount allocated to the health and well-being of public servants through PSEMAS is added the total allocation to social safety nets shall be N$ 4,790,798 benefiting some N$ 1,058,965 citizens.
In addition allocations to anti-retroviral therapies, the Students Financial Support Scheme and the San Development Programmes further benefit large sections of our population.

Undoubtly our Budget is people centred.

It is not only pro-poor but pro-vulnerable members of our society.

This is a demonstration that our Government cares.

Furthermore, serious attempts are made in the Development Budget to equitably allocate resources to Regions.
Development Equity The total Development envelope for 201112012 is N$8.6 billion.

How is this amount distributed per Region?

The Khomas Region received the highest allocation.

An amount of N$ 1.4 billion has been allocated to this Region.

The largest allocation of N$ 120 millions is for the School of Medicine of the University of Namibia.

The other allocation of N$ 35million is for the expansion of the Hotel School of the Polytechnic of Namibia.
Other notable allocations are to the construction of Otjomuise Primary School, New Cimbabesia Primary School, University of Namibia Students Resource Centre, construction of the .National Genetically Modified Organism Testing Centre, improvement to .Neudamm Agriculture College, etc.

Other large allocations are for the construction of Government Office Blocks and other Public Physical Facilities.
All official correspondence must be addressed to the Deputy Secretary to Cabinet 2-0/0001 6 The Kavango Region received the second largest allocation of N$ 852 million.

This amount will cater among others, for the construction of Ncaute Secondary School (N$20 millions), Rundu Vocational School (N$ 17 millions), construction of water sewerage and roads in Rundu (20 million); development of Katwitwi EPZ Industrial Park (N$ 20 millions), Rural Electrification (N$ 9 millions, ect.
The Omusati; Karas; and Ohangwena Regions received N$ 719 millions, N$652 millions and N$ 641 millions, respectively.

Whereas the Oshikoto, Erongo, Oshana and Caprivi Regions received N$593 millions, N$ 476 millions, N$573 million and N$ 423 million, respectively.

Otjozondjupa Region is also in this class.

It was allocated N$ 523 million.

Whereas Hardap and Kunene Regions received N$ 247 millions and N$ 198,831 millions respectively.
An amount of N$ 257 millions is allocated to maintain and acquire Government Properties abroad.

In terms of the allocation per person in the Regions, the Karas Region received the highest.

The Caprivi and Khomas Regions received the second highest per capita allocation.

The Omusati and Ohangwena Regions received the lowest per capita allocation.

The Erongo, Hardap, Kavango and Omaheke Regions received more or less the same allocation per capita.
Similarly, Oshikoto and Otjozondjupa are at par in terms of per capita allocations.

There is therefore no denying that the development cake is being shared equitably.

The challenge is however, who determines the priority of Regions in terms of which proj ects to be funded by the Development Budget.
One hopes that the All official correspondence must be addressed to the Deputy Secretary to Cabinet 2-0/0001 7 appointment of Regional Governors shall enhance wider stakeholder participation in the allocation of the Development Budget.

Conclusion The Honourable Minister of Finance and the Honourable Director-General of the National Planning Commission and their staff should be commended for making the right choices in the allocation of the Public resources.
The choice of allocations of the national demonstrates that the Namibian Government is human centred, caring, fair and empowering.

These are the qualities of a "People's Government" and a of Developmental State.

I thank you!

All official correspondence must be addressed to the Deputy Secretary to Cabinet