President Nangolo Mbumba, in his capacity as the co-facilitator of the Summit of the Future, will use the Hamburg Sustainability Conference to continue the push for the reform of international financial institutions.
Dr. Mbumba will be undertaking a working visit to Hamburg, Germany, for the conference that seeks to tackle topics such as the governance of international organisations and entrepreneurial approaches for sustainable development.
The recently adopted Pact of the Future commits party countries to accelerate the reform of the international financial architecture.
These reforms are necessitated, in part by the emergence of unsustainable debt burdens and vulnerabilities in developing countries, further constraining their development progress.
Namibia's classification as an upper middle-income country by the World Bank has had a constricting impact, which President Mbumba is expected to point out.
"And the Hamburg Sustainability Conference, by virtue of the participation of key actors in the global financial architecture, such as the MD of the IMF, as well as the President of the World Bank, who will be in the room, provides an opportunity to President Mbumba to carry that strong message that speaks to the interest of the Global South, specifically Namibia as a country that has been classified as an upper middle-income country and is therefore unable to benefit from loans that would speak to stages of development and inequalities that we have been trying to address for the past 34 years," said Press Secretary Dr. Alfredo Hengari.
The recently held Summit of the Future, co-chaired by President Mbumba and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, identified that the SDGs are comprehensive in terms of implementation.
The Hamburg Sustainability Conference would thus bring to the fore the need for trustworthy collaboration among the international community in the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
"And in that capacity, our President will be part of the opening segment, which will feature the Chancellor of Germany, where they will unpack some of these very important issues that have an impact on Namibia's trajectory in terms of ability to reach the SDGs and our own efforts to pursue green industrialisation. So in that connection, it is a very important platform that demonstrates recognition Namibia has received in terms of its leadership in the Summit of the Future as well as the adoption of the Pact of the Future."
The conference starts on Monday.