A new private sector entity, SMEs Compete Namibia, was launched officially on Monday to provide support for Namibia’s small and medium enterprise (SME) sector. SMEs Compete Namibia is an exciting new public private partnership arrangement between the entity itself, First National Bank Namibia Limited (FNB), and the German development service, Deutscher Entwicklungsdienst (DED). The US Agency for International Development (USAID) hosted the event with attendance by USAID Mission Director, Gary Newton, Achim Mortier, the head of DED in Namibia, and representatives from the SME department of FNB, the Ministry of Trade and Industry, and several owners of SMEs.

Through SME’s Compete Namibia, business growth and employment creation support provided to Namibia’s SME sector by USAID Namibia is set to continue for many years. USAID had provided funding over a 4-year period to a project, SMEs Compete, to help SMEs in Namibia grow and prosper. Throughout the year prior to the end of USAID’s funding in February 2006, systematic and widespread consultations were conducted between corporate firms, SMEs themselves and public sector partners represented by the Ministry of Trade and Industry. These consultations led to the crafting of a public private partnership (PPP) between SMEs Compete Namibia, FNB, and DED.

Under the PPP arrangement, Namibian entrepreneurs and their employees will benefit from business skills training and mentoring. SMEs Compete Namibia’s team will help SMEs access markets, domestic and foreign. Additionally, small firms will continue to receive business linkage guidance and support so that more corporate firms can discover for themselves that there is indeed a vibrant SME sector in the country, as well as small firms who can provide a wide array of goods and services that now are being imported.

The offices of the Anti-Corruption Commission were burgled in the night from Sunday to Monday this week. Luckily only one computer was stolen, which only had unimportant information stored on its hard drive. The alarm system went off and alerted a private security company, which arrived promptly and disturbed the thieves.

Namibia’s National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) urged the Namibian government to immediately put effective precautionary measures into place to ensure that work of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and its commissioners remain unhindered. The ACC’s inquiries were essential to the transitioning of Namibia to a truly transparent and functioning democracy.

The nature of anti-corruption proceedings pit a principled State agency against very powerful individuals, often times who are former State officials themselves. Fearing that they could be exposed and prosecuted for corruption, such individuals might be prompted to pre-empt the ACC and the Government’s efforts to weed out corruption at its roots.

In the absence of such preventive security measures, reasonable fear of possible reprisal might coerce ACC commissioners to act in less vigorous fashion towards the widespread scourge.

"While we do not wish to instil unnecessary fear in the minds of the ACC Director and his colleagues, it is hoped such preventive measures are swiftly put into place to secure to the Director and all indispensable ACC employees the right to security of person and thereby proactively ensuring that the ACC’s work will be independent and thorough" said NSHR executive director Phil ya Nangoloh.

The Ministry of Health and Social Services (MoHSS), in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Blood Transfusion Services of Namibia (NAMTS) in an effort to improve the preservation of blood and blood products in Namibia by strengthening the blood cold chain held a Blood Cold Chain Training workshop of four days ending Friday.

The training workshop was aimed at improving the understanding of the importance of storing and transporting blood and blood products at the appropriate temperatures; to improve knowledge and skills in the procurement and use of blood cold chain equipment and accessories; to build capacity in the maintenance and repair of blood cold chain equipment and to improve the monitoring and evaluation of the blood cold chain

Twenty-four participants involved in the collecting, transportation and storage of blood and blood products in the country participated. The majority came from NAMBTS who do all the collections, processing and distribution of blood and blood products. Others came from Windhoek Central Hospital, Rhino Park Hospital, Roman Catholic Hospital, Medi-Clinic, MoHSS and courier services who transport the blood to various parts of the country.

Once blood is collected from the donor there is the need to maintain it under the appropriate temperature and conditions. It entails specialized equipment that is appropriately used and maintained."

About 20,000 units of blood are collected annually by NAMBTS. From its central site in Windhoek, NAMBTS distributes blood and blood products to 36 hospitals all over the country for patient use. Eleven of these hospitals are located more than 500 km from Windhoek and the interval for delivery of blood to more than half of the hospitals ranges from 12 to 72 hrs. NAMBTS also relies on out rich mobile bleeding teams that travel into the communities and institutions for blood collection.