Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1698830658660.pdf (Namibia)
2016/17 BUDGET MOTIVATION SPEECH APPROPRIATION VOTE 12 MINISTRY OF GENDER EQUALITY AND CHILD WELFARE: 2016/17 FINANCIAL YEAR BY HOUNORABLE DOREEN SIOKA (MP) 31 March 2016 IIPage Honourable Chairperson, Honourable Members, Let me take this opportunity to congratulate Namibia on its 26th Independence Celebration.

As you are aware, His Excellency, Dr. Hage Geingob in his Independence speech declared 2016 as a year of implementation.
In the same vain I would also like to join this August house to congratulate Hon.Calle Schlettwein, the Minister of Finance and Hon.

Tom Alweendo, Minister of Economic Planning and Director General ofNPC and their teams for crafting and accommodating an inclusive budget, aimed at tackling the needs of all women, men and children.

The MGECW commend the GRN's commitments towards our people buy putting more efforts towards poverty eradication.
This is a necessary step in improving human dignity of our citizens and we will do our best to deliver services.

Honourable Chairperson; Honourable Members; It is now my distinct honour, to present to this August house the budget allocation of the MGECW for the financial year 2016/17.

An amount of N$ 858, 051, 000.00 (Eight hundred and fifty Eight, fifty one Thousand) is allocated for 2016/1 7 financial year; which is an increase of 5.71% from the previous Financial Year.
Out of that amount N$852, 209, 000 (Eight hundred and fifty two Million, two hundred and nine thousand is allocated for operational budget for the Ministry, while N$5,842, 000 (Five Million, eight hundred and forty two thousand) is allocated for developmental programmes; which has seen the Ministry'S Development budget decreased by 54.32%).

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d l.., Honourable Chairperson, Honourable Members, Allocation of funds per Programmes; PROGRAMME 1.

POLICY SUPERVISION AND SUPPORT SERVICES 1.1.


The Capital projects being manned by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare, involves the planning, budgeting construction, renovation and maintenance of offices of the Ministry.
During the Financial Year 2015/16, the following were the achievements on Capital Projects Programme under the Ministry: • Completed the renovation of the second tower of Ministerial Head Office (Juvenis Building) in Khomas Region; • Completed improvements to the Homes of Safety and Shelters in Khomas Region, specifically on the fencing of the Garden and renovations to the Gym - Hall; • Completed the renovations to the Houses at the Namibia Children's Home, where two houses were successfully renovated.
This is an ongoing project where the Ministry renovate the houses at the Centre each financial year within the confinement of the allocated budget; 31 d • The Ministry constructed and Inaugurated Regional and Constituency Offices at; ./ Epembe - in Ohangwena Region; ./ Okatjali - in Oshana Region; ./ Stampriet - in Hardap Region .

./ Omuthiya - in Oshikoto Region; To be inaugurated soon ./ Sesfontein - in Kunene Region to be inaugurated soon.
During this financial year 2016/2017 the amount of N$ 81 791 000 (Eighty One Million, Seven Hundred and Ninety One Thousand Namibian Dollars) is allocated to this programme inclusive of capital projects.

PROGRAMME 2.
CARE AND PROTECTION OF CHILDREN: Honourable Chairperson, Honourable Members; 2.1 This programme is about providing social welfare grants, to orphans and vulnerable children, providing subsidies to Residential Child Care Facilities, managing shelters for the abused women, men and children, managing the operations of the Namibian Children's Home and After School Centre, implementation of policies, standards and guidelines, provision of professional services and monitoring and evaluation of the child welfare programs.
2.2 The Ministry is taking care and protecting Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) under the age of 18 years due to conditions such as the effects ofHIV/ AIDS, and general vulnerability.

This will assist our children to develop into confident and 4\ P;; (' productive citizens as they grow up and realize their full potential as citizens of this beautiful country.

I am proud to announce that 204 161 (106930 girls, 97 232 boys children) received grants during 2015/2016 financial year.
I am also glad to inform the house that the Child Care and Protection Act provides an enabling environment for the care and protection of children in Namibia, which will be in line with the international standards which Namibia ratified.

This financial year 201612017, an amount of N$697,397, 000 (Six Hundred Ninety Seven Million, Three Hundred and Ninety Seven Thousand Namibian Dollars) was allocated for these programmes which includes grants and subsidies which is an improvement with 16.47%.
Honourable Chairperson, Honourable Members, PROGRAMME 3.

SUPPORT COMMUNITY AND EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT: 3.1.

The aim of this program is to; • Facilitate the socio-economic empowerment of poor rural and urban communities through the provision of Income Generating Activities (IGAs) start up grants and micro-entrepreneur support system in order to contribute to community upliftment and improved livelihoods.
About fifteen thousand (15 000) community members from all fourteen regions were mobilized to start potential income generating activities.

5 I F (l g ( • Women in Business Associations (WIBA) were established in the regions to serve as a platform for networking, mentoring and capacitating upcoming small business women.

Eighty one (81) WIBA members participated in programmes offered by the Ministry.
• In order to ensure sustainability of community livelihood, communities are equipped with advance income generating skills through training programmes run and managed at Community Empowerment Centers (CECs) in the regions.

• To this end, the Ministry has entered into an agreement with COSDEC to provide income generating skills training on our behalf.
So far these training has been offered by COSDEC in; ~ Ongwediva in Oshana, ~ Outapi in Omusati, ~ Tsinstabis in Oshikoto and ~ Tsunkwe in Otjozondjupa regions respectively, whereby Ninety-Six (96) beneficiaries benefited from this training.

Honourable Chairperson, Honourable Members, 3.2.


Early Childhood Development programme This consist of an expansion of affordable and accessible integrated ECD programmes and services to all young children from 0-4 years 'old with focus on children living in difficult circumstances.

61 p ;1 0 ..'" '~.. "- ECD programmes is also about influencing people and the background in which children are growing up so that the overall development of children is supported.
The programme aims at mobilization, education and sensitization ECD community members to be involved in early childhood development of young children.

The following are the achievements of the Early Childhood Development programme for the Financial Year 2015/16.
• Monthly ECD subsidy is provided to 1006 Educarers from 806 community ECD centres in all the regions • 100 standard ECD centres and 4 model centres were supported with teaching, learning materials, equipment and furniture • ECD centres standards implementation sessions was conducted for 1655 Educarers, parents and committees members in 7 regions Honourable Chairperson, Honourable Members, I am aware that part of this function is to be transferred to the Ministry of Education, Art and Culture as outlined in the NDP4, and modalities for the transfer was discussed between the two Ministers and Cabinet submission has been prepared for discussions.
An amount of N$ 64 117 000 (Sixty Four Million, One Hundred and Seventeen Thousand Namibian Dollars) is allocated to these programmes for 2016/2017 Financial Year.

Honourable Chairperson, Honourable Members, PROGRAMME 4.
PROMOTION OF GENDER EQUALITY AND EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN: This programme aims at empowering women economically, socially and politically through creating conductive environment and strengthening national (institutional) capacity to engage in planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation process that show gender results through a well-coordinated implementation of the National Gender Policy (2010-2020) and other international commitments.

4.1.
4.1.

Under this programme the following are the achievements during the Financial Year 2015-16.

• Regarding the roll out of the Coordination Mechanism for the Gender Equality and empowerment of women and girls, four out of six national level clusters were operationalised through development of key action areas for implementation in the financial year 2016117 and through holding regular meetings.

• Further efforts were made to implement Cabinet decision on Gender Responsive Budgeting Initiative (GRB).
A team of GRB trainers was put together and trained on the application of the GRB guidelines as well as on gender analysis tools.

These OMAS were Higher and Basic Education, Works and transport, Health and Social Services, Safety and Security, Defence and Finance.

• The Ministry conducted a roundtable meeting for Women Members of Parliament on 18-19 September 2015.
The key objective of the meeting was to establish the level of participation of women MPs in parliament 6 months after entering parliament and the challenges they were facing, as well as to introduce them to strategies for engaging fully and constructively in parliamentary debates.

• The ministry also revamped the Zero Tolerance Media Campaign for GBV under the theme: "Spot it to Stop it" focusing only on radio drama series and only in English language.
In total 18 episodes covering domestic violence and rape were aired on NBC radio and is still continuing.

Honourable Chairperson, Honourable Members, 4.2.

The following are the challenges of this programme • I would like to point out again that the ministry received no budget allocation to address gender based violence, and hence the heavy reliance on donor support which is dwindling and hampers consistence of programming and implementation of gender equality activities in general and GBV in particular.
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C Honourable Chairperson, Honourable Members, An amount of N$ 14 746000 (Fourteen Million, Seven Hundred and Forty Six Thousand Namibian Dollars) which is allocated to this programme.

With this little allocation, Honourable Chairperson, Honourable Members, the programme intends to: • Fully roll out the Coordination Mechanism for the implementation of the National Gender Policy up to constituency levels.
• Increase its advocacy and awareness at community level on gender issues including GBV, sexual reproductive health and HIV/AIDS as well as carry out legal literacy awareness on existing gender related laws for people to know and claim their rights.

• Promote and build capacity for implementation of the Gender Responsive Budgeting initiative.
• Since the theme of the sixth parliament is "Striving toward gender equality and raising awareness against gender based violence placing focus on amendment of bills such, marriage bill, marital property bill, child justice bill, customary law marriage bill, divorce bill and witness protection bill, the trafficking in person bill and to ensure it is tabled this year in parliament.
The programme will work closely with the Law Reform Commission to ensure that gender specific provisions are included in these laws.

This task requires funding to source gender expertise.

• Continue to create awareness on the implementation of 50/50 representation of men and women in decision making positions as per SADC Protocol on Gender and Development and to coach and mentor women in leadership and decision making positions.
Honourable Chairperson, Honourable Members, In conclusion, I humble request this august house to approve the budget allocated to the MGECW under vote 12 amounting to N$ 858,051.

000 (Eight Hundred and Fifty Eight Million and Fifty One Thousand) for the financial year 2016117.

We will definitely continue to do more with less.

Let us all work together to stop Gender Based Violence and make Namibia a safe place for all.

I THANK YOU!

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