Swakopmund — The Deputy Prime Minister Marco Hausiku has called on the Namibia Institute of Public Administration and Management (NIPAM) to promote civil education in public policies, programmes and services among civil servants, for them to render excellent professional services to the country.

"The government will continuously promote mechanisms that will enhance citizen participation in public policy making and the implementation process. Therefore, both the public at large and civil servants must be on par in terms of rendering and receiving proper services," Hausiku said when addressing close to 400 public servants on Friday at the Africa Public Service Day commemorations in Swakopmund.

He explained that civil servants render a very important service to the community at large and therefore need to rise and sharpen the interface between political principals and technocrats through collaborative and meaningful interactions to give voice to citizens.

"Within the context of the above mentioned realities, it is time for management development institutes to rise and shine in their performance. The continent is faced with a myriad of challenges, ranging from poverty to poor infrastructure to mention but a few. These challenges require well-trained cadres and leaders who understand and are committed to 'ubuntu' - the common good," the deputy prime minister said.

Hausiku also congratulated NIPAM for being recognized as the second most accountable and transparent organisation in Africa at the recently concluded fourth continental African Public Service Day celebrations in Accra, Ghana.

Renowned Namibian academic and political analyst Dr Joseph Diescho, who was recently appointed as the Executive Director of NIPAM, told New Era that NIPAM "is doing a tremendous job in building capacity for public servants and now plans to pilot their training programmes to the regions." NIPAM provides capacity building to staff at central government level. NIPAM training is aimed at the executive level of government right through to operational staff by offering flagship programmes, as well as generic training and development courses.

It also offers a range of highly specialised courses and programmes to expose office-bearers to new knowledge and skills.

From governance to fraud prevention, NIPAM offers State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) assistance to manage their responsibilities more effectively and to contribute to making such enterprises more competitive, efficient and transparent.