Namibia is hosting the Sixth Session of the African Union Specialised Technical Committee on Social Development, Labour and Employment.

The week-long engagement started on Monday with senior government officials from within the African continent aiming to develop coordinated responses to unemployment, poverty, migration and labour market informalities.

Delivering his welcoming remarks, Executive Director in the Ministry of Justice and Labour Relations, Ben Nangombe, stated that the session embodies the spirit of shaping policies intended to uplift the people of Africa and strengthen the continent's resilience.

Nangombe stated that under its sixth National Development Plan (NDP6), Namibia has adopted a human-centred approach to development, focusing on strengthening social protection, improving labour market inclusion and building systems that safeguard the well-being and security of all Namibians.

"Through the interventions that are planned in NDP6, we are working as a country to build systems that are robust, that are future-ready, that are better coordinated, and that are responsive to shocks in support of greater national vision to defeat poverty, to uplift all sectors of our society, and to bring about prosperity that we as Namibians yearn for and that we as Africans also desire."

Also in attendance is the Secretary General of the International Trade Union Confederation, Joel Odigie, who emphasised that social protection is a right and a productive investment and should not be regarded as charity, as it strengthens resilience and protects people.

He said democracy should be experienced through decent jobs, fair wages, functioning public services and social security.

"When democratic systems repeatedly fail to improve people's lives, public trust weakens. Support for democracy cannot be treated as an unlimited reserve. And then there's a call. People will only see democracy as useful when they are devoted to it."