Members of Parliament in the National Assembly have raised concerns that women’s empowerment initiatives are excluding rural women and neglecting the needs of boys in empowerment campaigns.

The MPs made their remarks while responding to Minister of Gender Equality and Child Welfare, Emma Kantema, who was updating the house on the National Gender, Equality and Equity Policy.

George Kambala, MP for Affirmative Repositioning, said, “We keep on looking at women who went to school, those close to parliament, those close to the presidency... so we need to be deliberate and say rural women empowerment.”

Vetaruhe Kandorozu, MP for NUDO, added, “Due to urbanisation, women are left in the villages. But the problem is the Ministry of Gender doesn’t have a robust programme to assist them while they are there.”

Associate Professor Job Amupanda, leader of Affirmative Repositioning, questioned, “Why don’t you have women herdsmen in your same policy?”

Ephraim Nekongo, MP for the Swapo Party, expressed concern that “the boy child nowadays is left behind because we are empowering the girl child at the expense of other genders.”

Inna Hengari, MP for the Popular Democratic Movement, said, “These conversations must be brought down to the grassroots level... with our aunts and uncles or mothers who are shopkeepers, those involved as caretakers, and so forth.”

Ester Haikola-Sakaria, MP for Affirmative Repositioning, suggested, “There must be a committee or something... women-headed households, just a group of women, and also equally men. Both genders are important, but it’s important we uplift both of them.”

Salomon April, MP for the Swapo Party, warned, “We are going to get the country into a new problem where men, the boy child, start to believe he is an inferior Namibian because there are no deliberate programmes for them.”

In response, Minister Kantema emphasised the ministry’s commitment to earnestly addressing gender issues.