Discussion on the national budget shifted to analysing the Appropriation Bill's responsiveness to gender and youth concerns during a public engagement hosted by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, the Youth Leadership Programme, and the Trade Union Congress of Namibia.
Gender expert Immaculate Mogotsi pointed to a critical issue: only two of the 14 established ministries explicitly reference women in their budget allocations.
She emphasised that effective implementation of gender policies is impossible without adequate funding.
"The only two ministries that use the term 'women' are the Ministry of Gender and the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development; hence, I've pulled those two. They are the ones who took it; they pronounced it; they say it. The others may be saying it, but they are not as explicit because, as I said earlier, all the ministries are required to be mainstreaming gender in their budget."
Mogotsi highlighted key areas, such as the call for VAT exemptions on tampons, which serve the same purpose as sanitary pads, and the need to revise maternity leave policies, while further calling for consideration of paternity leave.
"We've seen a lot of women going on maternity leave for two months and opting for vacation leave because when they go on maternity leave, they forfeit their salary; the employer does not pay them their salary, and there I am highlighting it means that the current structure of social security maternity leave payout is pushing women into poverty when they go on maternity leave."
Mogotsi also raised concern over what she called neglect of the boy child.
She advised the government to invest more in the equal development of both boys and girls across the nation.
"We see consistently that our boy children are lagging behind academically, and it's not just tertiary institutions; it's from primary, too. This study is laying out what is happening to the boy children. Now, any one of you is as excited as I am about having a female President, a female deputy President and a female Speaker. These things did not just happen; it was years of concerted effort, funding that was put aside and training that was rolled out. We have to, for a moment, say and ask ourselves what is happening to the boy child in Namibia; they are really lagging behind, and it's a concern we need to start investing in the empowerment of the boy child."
Economist Mally Likukela provided an insightful breakdown of the budget, emphasising where youth and gender concerns were placed.
He noted that while the top three areas receiving the highest funding were education, finance, and health, the youth and sport sectors received only N$1.3 billion, and gender was allocated a mere N$473.6 million.
Likukela stressed urging the government to prioritise urgent matters affecting the youth and gender equality in future budgets.
"Let's see the ministry that's responsible for the youth; it's number 11. You expect such a very crucial ministry to be somewhere around the top 5, but it's number 11. Gender has died a sudden death; last year it was here, but now it's here because the heartbeat of gender was removed and taken to finance."