The Ministry of Gender Equality, Poverty Eradication, and Social Welfare held an awareness workshop in Rundu aimed at increasing knowledge about the Social Protection Policy at the regional level.

The Social Protection Policy was launched in March last year, and the gathering was also to familiarise participants with Namibia's social protection landscape and existing social protection programmes.

"Our ultimate aim is to empower everyone here with critical information about social protection programmes across the sector. Armed with this knowledge, you will be better equipped to assist the public, guiding them through the registration requirements of various programmes and directing them to the appropriate institutions based on their needs. This, in turn, will save potential beneficiaries the inconvenience of being turned away due to missing documentation, ultimately saving them time and money and significantly enhancing the efficiency of our service delivery," said Deputy Minister Bernadette Jagger.

The Councillor of Rundu Rural, Paulus Mbangu, stated that despite good policies, it always takes a long time for things to be implemented.

"There are people that are suffering so much that they can die of hunger at any given time but are not benefiting from this grant that we have. On paper, it looks very sweet, but practically, we are experiencing problems in our constituencies with vulnerable children. Some of them have applied but have been on the waiting list for three years. Because either there is a shortage of staff, let's take an example, like here in Kavango Region, there is only one administrator that has to process all those applications that are coming from the constituency; it's just not practical terms."

The Deputy Director of the Ministry of Gender Equality, Poverty Eradication, and Social Welfare, Filimon Shiimi, says dishonesty among the citizens is the main cause of the delay in the registration process.