UNESCO. General Conference; 30th; Records ... - unesdoc - Unesco

Annex
to the verbatim record of the eighth meeting
Statement by the Honourable John Mutorwa, MP, Head of the Delegation of Namibia 1
Madam President of the General Conference, Mr Chairperson of the Executive Board, Mr Director-
General of UNESCO, Your Excellencies Heads of State and Government, Honourable Ministers, distinguished
delegates, ladies and gentlemen, we are again gathered here to take stock of our achievements, and of course of
our failures, but above all, to identify the path which we must take as a family with one vision and that is: make
the world a better place for all its people.
Namibia welcomes and appreciates this opportunity to participate in the activities and deliberations of
this 30th session of the General Conference, barely two months before the world will bid farewell to the twentieth
century.
Namibia’s challenge, ten years after independence, is still essentially, one of nurturing and maintaining
an open democracy, while making fairly rapid changes in the social, economic and individual values and
behaviour of citizens. The opportunities are there, provided by a rich variety of natural resources, a fairly stable
democratic state created under a liberal constitution. But like in many countries in the world, the majority of our
people do not fully benefit from these opportunities. Our mission, therefore, is to ensure that education and
training play a key role, especially in developing the human resources, which are central to sustainable
development.
We all experience, in one way or another, the unfortunate phenomenon of marginalized youth,
unemployed youth and children living under difficult circumstances. This has become a global challenge, which
needs to be addressed urgently. UNESCO has organized a number of youth forums during this last biennium and
we have noted with great interest that there will be a youth forum during this Conference. We have also listened
to the Manifesto for the Twenty-first Century presented to the plenary by the young parliamentarians from
various member states of UNESCO. It is only through involving the youth in our discussions that they really
become partners in identifying solutions to the global youth problems.
Regarding children living under difficult circumstances, such as street children, we need to double our
efforts to erase this ugly phenomenon from our societies. Namibia has a street children programme, which
receives UNESCO assistance since 1996. The programme aims at the re-integration of street children back in
their families, school and society. However, there is an absolute need to work on the causes of street children, if
the problem is to be addressed radically.
Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, we can have excellent programmes and visions, conclusions
and recommendations from conferences - we can have sufficient means to implement them, but in order for our
undertakings to be successful, we need global peace. This century has been marked by conflicts and violence, It
is time that as we enter the third millennium, the world starts cultivating peace, but lasting peace. We commend
the efforts of UNESCO to encourage the world to work for peace as we enter the year 2000, the International
Year for the Culture of Peace. We trust that every country will make its contribution so that peace becomes a
reality and part of our daily life. For the launch of the international year for the culture of peace, Namibia has
opted for a peace march involving mainly school children and young people. This march was led by our Head of
State, We need to cultivate Peace, Tolerance and Democracy among our youth, hence our full support for the
Associated Schools Project activities and the Pilot Project on Education for Human Rights and Democracy in
Southern Africa.
UNESCO has organized a number of international conferences where Member States have expressed
their needs and aspirations. These conferences have come up with impressive conclusions and recommendations.
The question that needs to be answered is: What next? Wherefromhere?Areweabletoimplementthese
conclusions? The answer is yes. All what we need is a strong political will and genuine solidarity.
At the World Conference on Higher Education held here at UNESCO last October, the stress was laid
on the importance of “a radical transformation of higher education landscape”. This radical transformation of
higher education implies that all individuals be offered a lifelong opportunity to access higher education based
solely on their capabilities. We all agreed that such a far-reaching process of transformation cannot be undertaken
by governments and higher learning institutions alone. It is now the time to draw in all stakeholders and to take
1
See 30 C/VR.8, paragraph 26.
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