The Gender Ministry relies on 1 social worker for every 11 000 children needing help countrywide.

The United Nations estimates that the number of children under the age of 15 in Namibia is estimated to be 891 182.

Gender Minister Doreen Sioka in a press statement said the fight against gender-based violence has been slowed down because of the lack of social workers and employees in her ministry.

Sioka said the country is faced with an insufficient number of social workers thus the ministry only has 1 social worker for 11 000 children.

“As a result, they are overworked and leave the Ministry for other institutions,” Sioka said.

Currently, the country has 8 GBV shelters which are all unoperational as a result of a lack of staff members.

The ministry’s directorate of gender at both head office, regional and constituency levels are understaffed.

“This poses a challenge in managing programmes efficiently,” Sioka said.

Sioka added that there is a lack of technical capacity at both national and regional levels to deal
with adult GBV Cases.

Despite the lack of capacity, Sioka said the ministry will have additional regional GBV Clusters engagement and dialogues and create a dedicated lean structure for shelter services.

Sioka further said Namibians should refocus their energies and stop the blame game and rather fight together for a safer country.

The ministry however did not address the calls for her resignation.
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