Geingob’s admiration for potent advice

WHEN President Hage Geingob assumed presidency last year, one of his prime fundamental ideologies after the explicit war on poverty was to have a transparent reign and administration, having nothing to hide and investing in wide consultation if need be.
This same principle was coined on the premise that democratically elected governments are accountable to voters and their processes are open to public scrutiny and at same time privatization shuts the public out of decision-making that deeply affects the public interest.
The later appointment of an A-team indicated that Geingob was a man who walked who took the highest office knowing that he could not walk the talk alone but would consult and seek guidance where need be in a bid to take Namibia to a place of prosperity in quest of realising the Fourth National development Plan and more recently the Harambee prosperity Plan for all.
In essence, the initiative to invite world-renowned economist, Nobel laureate and lecturer in economics at Columbia University in New York Professor Joseph Stiglitz to develop leadership capacity at a national level cannot go unnoticed and should be applauded as a first for Namibia and a bright resourceful move that gives the nation hope for a bright future.
What is imperative to understand is that without effective leadership, meaningful and sustained development is not possible. That is why at the inception of the new Government last year, Geingob held an introductory leadership seminar under the excellent leadership of Dr. Carlos Lopes, who is was also in the country this past week. The outcome of that seminar subsequently informed the declaration of intents and the performance agreements by all Ministers as well as aspects of the Harambee Prosperity Plan.
It is through this concentration of intellectual knowledge and capacity, as well as leadership experience that Namibia can realize tangible results in some of its key outcomes that it would like to achieve under the Harambee Prosperity Plan. These include: the nations resolve to eradicate poverty in all its forms; the commitment to growing the economy in a sustained an inclusive manner; and the commitment to steering Namibia towards a future of shared prosperity, characterized by equitable income distribution and fair economic participation for all citizens.
In this light, we must not forget that based on academic citations, Stiglitz is the 3rd most influential economist in the world today, and in 2011 he was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
In addition to making numerous influential contributions to microeconomics, Stiglitz has played a number of policy roles. He served in the Clinton administration as the chair of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors (1995 – 1997). At the World Bank, he served as senior vice-president and chief economist (1997–2000), in the time when unprecedented protest against international economic organizations started, most prominently with the Seattle WTO meeting of 1999. He was a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.
Whilst previous leaders have done well in consolidating peace and unity, having a man of this calibre on Namibian soil clearly shows Geingob’s intent on achieving his goal and his ambition towards a prosperous Namibia.