A delegation from the Zambian National Assembly dealing with parliamentary reforms paid a working visit to the Otjozondjupa Regional Council for benchmarking purposes.

The delegation was accompanied by the Secretary to the Namibian National Council, Tousy Namiseb, and his Zambian counterpart, Deputy Director for Parliamentary Reforms, Bridget Kabala.

Tousy Namiseb, Secretary to the National Council, said sister parliaments within the Southern African region, and broadly within the African region and beyond, have an agreement where they visit one another to learn from one another.

"The delegation is looking at how the constituency system functions in Namibia. Zambia is a unicameral system; they do not have two chambers, but its members of the Assembly are elected from constituencies. So we are giving them that platform to look at how the constituencies are formed, how the constituencies are funded, and what the dynamics are."

Zambia's Deputy Director for Parliamentary Reforms, Bridge Kabala, says the visit to the Otjozondjupa Region in particular was to familiarise themselves with the management structures of regional councils.

"So we chose the Parliament of Namibia first of all because we recognise that the Namibian parliament does use strategic management in the way it does its work, apart from facilitating the work of the politicians, and it uses strategic planning. We do recognise and acknowledge that there's a difference in the administrative processes for our Zambian parliament and the Namibian parliament."

The delegation proceeded to the Kalkfeld settlement to visit some of the projects administered by the regional council.