Martin Endjala
Popular Democratic Movement Member of Parliament Maximalliant Katjimune is calling for a single directorate for youth programmes currently offered by the National Youth Council, the Ministry of Sport, Youth and National Service as well as the National Youth Service to make youth empowerment initiatives effective.
Katjimune was speaking in the National Assembly during which he suggest the possibility of looking at combining the directorate of youth in both entities into one single body to put an end to the duplication of responsibilities, programmes, resources and conflicting policies around the same issues affecting young people.
He emphasised that having more than one entity with the same function does not guarantee the
successful implementation of the responsibilities. According to him a single entity in which all resources are pulled will be more effective in successfully executing its functions.
“All of the powers, functions and duties performed by the NYC, NYS and the Directorate could have been effectively executed under the auspices of one single youth agency,” said Katjimune.
Such a single entity can also serve the government good in making it lean, which has proven effective in a number of countries, and contributed immensely to government’s ability and capacity to provide higher quality, efficient, faster and more transparent services to citizens.
He said in 2017, India also merged 94 government departments into only 37, which saw a major increase in service delivery and structural cost output. Equally in 2017, the Singaporean government executed one of the most successful mergers of government agencies when it merged two government entities.
The International Enterprise (IE) and the Standards, Productivity and Innovation Board (SPRING) was merged into one single entity, which saw the rise of enhanced competitiveness and support for business.
There are other mergers of government services, he said, that can be considered if government is serious about improving and bring efficiency into the delivery of services as well as cutting costs at a structural level.
He also referred to the National Credit Youth Scheme, which is run by the Directorate of Youth and the Youth Development Grants, administered by the National Youth Council, which he said should be consolidated under one division and overseen by the envisaged single body proposed in by the motion. Furthermore, the various horticultural, mushroom and charcoal productions run by the National Youth Council in the Erongo, Kunene, Omusati, Oshana, Ohangwena and Oshikoto regions should be merged with the already existing civic and skills training programmes being offered by the National Youth Service.
He also advised that the various programmes run by the Directorate of Youth such as employment
and training, youth reproductive health, juvenile and child justice, youth exchange and hostelling and integrated rural youth development, to be consolidated into similar programmes already administered by the National Youth Council and the National Youth Service.
