Situation and Priorities

Social protection situation

Namibia faces a structural triple challenge. It remains one of the world's most unequal countries (Gini coefficient: 0.59), with 19 per cent of the population living below the international extreme poverty line and a national unemployment rate of 36.9 per cent, rising to 44.4 per cent among youth , against a backdrop of jobless economic growth and structural informality.

Emerging shocks compound these structural pressures. Fiscal constraints, with public debt exceeding 60 per cent of GDP, limit the scope for expanded social investment, while climate shocks (drought, flooding) undermine agricultural livelihoods and accelerate rural–urban migration. The pace of digital and energy transitions creates both employment risks and opportunities, requiring active just transition measures.

Social protection spending stands at approximately 5.3 per cent of GDP for both non-contributory and contributory schemes, reflecting sustained political commitment to redistribution. The system comprises universal old-age grants, disability grants, and child maintenance grants. However, overall coverage remains low, with fewer than a quarter of Namibians (24.2 per cent) covered by at least one social protection scheme. Key gaps include: the absence of contributory pension and unemployment insurance schemes; limited coverage of informal and self-employed workers; fragmented, largely manual delivery systems; declining benefit adequacy due to inflation; and incomplete beneficiary registries. Nearly 250,000 workers remain unattached to any pension fund.

Government and social partner priorities

Namibia is a Pathfinder Country of the Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection for Just Transitions (GA). The Government of the Republic of Namibia has committed to implement key reforms in employment creation and social protection, with support from the United Nations. The work is underway and is being supported through two catalytic joint programmes: the High Impact Track (HIT) Joint Programme funded by the UN Joint SDG Fund and implemented by FAO, ILO; and the Matching Fund for the Global Accelerator (M-GA) being implemented by ILO, UNICEF and the World Bank.

The interventions include a comprehensive reform of the legal and policy framework governing the national social protection system. This includes a detailed review of the Social Security Act, Labour Act, and related legislation to align them with international social security standards, in particular ILO Convention No. 102 and to close the gaps that currently exclude informal workers, self-employed persons, and the most vulnerable households.

Government and social partners have agreed that this review must be accompanied by costing exercises and fiscal space analysis, so that reforms are anchored in evidence and sustainable financing from the outset.

A key component of the proposed work is the establishment of a National Pension Fund and a National Unemployment Insurance Fund. The pension reform seeks to introduce a contributory pension pillar for public and private sector workers, complementing the existing universal old-age grant and extending long-term income security to those currently without coverage. The unemployment fund will deliver insurance-based cash benefits linked to active labour market policies, employment services, and skills development, creating for the first time in Namibia a coherent continuum from income protection through to re-employment. Both funds will be subject to tripartite consultation, actuarial assessment, and phased legislative enactment, with the GA providing technical facilitation throughout.

Parallel to these contributory reforms, the GA will support the operationalisation of the Integrated Beneficiary Registry (IBR), a fully digital, interoperable platform that will improve targeting accuracy, eliminate duplication across grant programmes, and extend service delivery to remote and underserved communities. This is a government-led initiative with active participation from social partners, and it underpins the broader effort to modernise social protection delivery mechanisms.

Finally, the proposed work explicitly addresses the extension of social protection to workers in the informal economy, a direct priority of both government and trade unions. This involves removing legal and administrative barriers to social insurance participation, adapting contributory schemes to the realities of irregular income, and linking formalisation incentives with access to social protection benefits. Together, these actions constitute a system-wide strengthening agenda that moves Namibia decisively from a fragmented, underfunded social protection arrangement towards a rights-based, adequately financed, and universally oriented system.

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