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https://namibiadigitalrepository.com/files/original/1524fb53c289e5478b6f95a592b07928.pdf
375210df7937d82c87f9b68c6a4c1945
Dublin Core
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Title
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Labour Resource and Research Institute (LaRRI)
Description
An account of the resource
The Labour Resource and Research Institute (LaRRI) is a vibrant Namibian based research and education institute committed to the overall political and economic independence of all working people in Namibia and beyond. The institute fights for a fair, just social and economic Namibian society through labour research,education, and lobbying and advocacy. The institute believes that the nature and scope of labour research is informed by the struggles and experiences of the working people and consequently shaped by their values, principles and their world view. It is no doubt that labour is the primary source of value but many workers continue to be exploited and undervalued. LaRRI was therefore established in 1998 to seek answers to the existing economic and social order with a view to provide alternative developmental agenda in favour of the working class.
Unionization rates in Namibia are high. 30 trade unions grouped into two federations represent over 100,000 workers. Namibia has no minimum wage, but trade unions have managed to negotiate minimum wage agreements in both the agricultural and construction sectors. Despite some success in the traditional sectors, Namibian Unions still face many challenges, and will have to improve their recruitment strategies and organize their workers in non-traditional sectors. Unions need to develop effective strategies to influence socio-economic policies in favor of the workers and the poor that span beyond the workplace.
LaRRI offers a range of short and medium term courses for trade union leaders, organizers, and shopstewards in Namibia and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. Courses offered include: political economy, globalization, export processing zones (EPZs), structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) collective bargaining, affirmitive action, and gender issues. In addition, LaRRI offers an accredited labour diploma course, which is run in cooperation with the Workers College, the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, and the University of Namibia.
Besides its research reports, LaRRI has published a range of seminar papers and articles for local and international publications. LaRRI has also produced popular booklets for trade unions, most of which are available on LaRRI’s website and the resource center. LaRRI is a founding member of the African Labour Research Network (ALRN), which carries out research projects for trade unions across Africa.
LaRRI continuously updates and expands its resource centre, which now contains a range of books and periodicals on various topics like trade unions in Namibia and the SADC region, industrial relations, gender equality, international trade unions, HIV/Aids, the Namibian economy, occupational health and safety, as well as UNDP and ILO publications. The resource centre serves as a library for trade unions, NGOs, students and the general public.
The institute engages in public debate by organizing and being invited to public discussions, book presentations, lectures, and workshops. Media appearances are also frequent. Furthermore, the institute will expand its engagements by actively disseminating the ongoing initiatives through poster campaigns, periodic public gatherings with community members, cultural events, and social media.
Organizing the unorganized. Re-defining ‘the working class’ in today’s context. Environmental justice. Mining, fishing, and farming; land-grab issues. Gender equality. Challenges confronting women workers and HIV-AIDS discrimination. Housing and urban rights. Access to housing and the right to the city. Youth and unemployment. Politics and oportunities for the youth. Foreign investment and neo-colonialism. Dispossession through trade agreements. Social protection and economic rights. Basic income grant and state spending.
The items in this collection are taken from open access publication on the LaRRI website. All rights are theirs.
Source
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http://www.larri-namibia.org/
Rights
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© Labour Resource and Research Institute (LaRRI). The items in this collection are taken from open access publication on the LaRRI website. All rights are theirs.
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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An Assessment of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and its Implications for Namibia
Description
An account of the resource
The United States introduced the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) in 2000 with the intention of maximising trade between the US and sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. Specifically, AGOA aimed at developing the textile industry in SSA countries as it has the potential to contribute positively to employment creation due to its labour intensiveness nature. Unlike other trade agreements that are bilateral, AGOA is a unilateral trade preference agreement decided upon by the United States and targeting SSA countries. AGOA accords the President of the United States the right to cease the status of a SSA country that does not meet the requirements set out in AGOA. Only eligible sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries that meet certain requirements outlined in the Act can benefit under AGOA. Under AGOA, certain goods from eligible SSA countries can enter the United States duty free and quota free. The introduction of AGOA led to increased trade between the USA and the SSA countries. However, the increase in trade was not experienced at the same level in all SSA countries and did not affect all goods equally. Trade statistics show that countries that experienced substantial growth in trade included Nigeria, Angola and South Africa, Gabon and Chad. Furthermore, products dominating trade between United States and SSA countries are natural resources and primary products. Overall, petroleum products account for more the 90 per cent of all African exports to the United States. In other SSA countries, AGOA led to the development of textile industries. Thus countries like Swaziland, Lesotho and Malawi experienced a substantial growth in their textile industries. Despite the significant growth experienced by the above-mentioned countries, total exports to the US from African countries are still dominated by petroleum products. In Namibia, products that dominate exports to the US are metals, minerals, textiles and apparel. The highest overall exports of US$ 238 219 million were recorded in 2004 and dropped significantly to US $129 557 million in 2005. The reduction in exports was also experienced in the textile industry in Namibia and in many SSA countries. For instance, many textile producing SSA countries experienced a decrease in their textile exports and subsequently company closures, which led to loss of thousands of jobs. In Namibia alone, about 1 600 jobs were lost when one of Ramatex’s subsidiaries (Rhino Garments) closed down in 2005. Namibia became a beneficiary country in 2001 and qualified for the ‘special rule’ provision on apparel articles which allows lesser developed SSA countries to source their raw materials from anywhere in the world. Only countries that had been classified as lesser-developed countries on the basis that their GDP per capita did not exceed $1500 could benefit from this provision. Before, 2001, Namibia did not have a developed textile and apparel industry but this changed with the introduction of AGOA coupled with many government concessions, which largely influenced the Ramatex company decision to invest in Namibia. Ramatex is by far the largest textile factory in Namibia and was expected to create about 8 000 jobs, a reason which was used to justify the concessions offered to Ramatex. Following retrenchments in 2005 and 2006, there are currently only 3 600 Namibian workers employed at Ramatex. Despite having increased workers wages in 2006 following lengthy negotiations and a strike, Ramatex workers are still among the lowest paid industrial workers in Namibia. Furthermore, since its inception, labour relations have been tense at the company with the lack of wage increases as the main source of conflict. This study revealed that there are internal and external challenges that face the success of AGOA in SSA countries. The internal challenges relate to the ability of companies to fully benefit under AGOA due to internal capacity constraints whilst external constraints are the end of the Multi Fibre Agreement (MFA) coupled with the attractions offered by China as an investment location.
Creator
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Ntwala Mwilima and Herbert Jauch
Publisher
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Labour Resource and Research Institute (LaRRI)
Rights
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© Labour Resource and Research Institute (LaRRI)
Format
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PDF
Date
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2007
Language
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English
AGOA
Export Processing Zones
Foreign Direct Investment
Herbert Jauch
Labour Resource and Research Institute (LaRRI)
Ntwala Mwilima
Textiles
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https://namibiadigitalrepository.com/files/original/503bd2557672ec27b74eeeeae4777651.pdf
2424cccb7693794cf3656b94dd286e80
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Friedrich Ebert Stiftung
Description
An account of the resource
<span>The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) is the oldest of Germany’s ‘political foundations‘ and committed to the basic values of social democracy and the labour movement. </span><br /><br /><span>As a private, non-profit educational institution, ‘think tank’ and platform for political dialogue, its mission is to promote democracy, development, social justice and peace through capacity-building, policy research, public dialogue and international exchange.</span><br /><br /><span>FES carries out its international activities through a network of currently about 100 offices world-wide, in combination with its headquarters in </span><a href="http://www.fes.de/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Berlin and Bonn/Germany</a><span>and in close co-operation with its local and international partners. </span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.fesnam.org/contact.html">The FES office in Namibia</a><span> was established in 1989 on the eve of the Namibian independence. At present it is staffed with one expatriate and six local full-time employees. </span><br /><br /><span>Before 1989, i.e. during South African apartheid rule in the then South West Africa, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung had already supported in various ways those that struggled against white minority rule and for an independent and democratic Namibia. The establishment of an office was then just a logical step - based on requests by our political partners and motivated by the desire to firstly, support the transition to a non-racial multiparty-democracy and secondly, contribute to the transformation of the Namibian society into a prosperous and just society of equal rights, equal opportunities and a decent living for all.<br /><br />The items in this collection are taken from open access publication on the LaRRI website. All rights are theirs. </span>
Source
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http://www.fesnam.org/
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
© Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, The items in this collection are taken from open access publication on the FES website. All rights are theirs.
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Africa’s Clothing and Textile Industry: The Case of Ramatex in Namibia
Description
An account of the resource
Namibia’s experiences with Ramatex to date point to the urgent need to ensure (at the very least) compliance by foreign investors with Namibian laws, regulations, workers’ rights, as well as environmental, health and safety standards. Experiences elsewhere have shown that compromises on social, environmental and labour standards in the name of international competitiveness have led to a ‘race to the bottom’. The Namibian government as well as trade unions will have to demonstrate that they are serious in defending these rights that were only won through long and bitter struggles. It will be crucial to demonstrate to Ramatex that Namibian laws, regulations and rights are not negotiable. Otherwise, Ramatex will set an example for others to follow, resulting in the loss of some achievements made by Namibian workers since independence. in: Herbert Jauch / Rudolf Traub-Merz (Eds.) - The Future of the Textile and Clothing Industry in Sub-Saharan Africa (Bonn: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, 2006)
Creator
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Herbert Jauch
Publisher
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Friedrich Ebert Stiftung
Rights
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© Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 2006
Format
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PDF
Date
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2006
Language
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English
Source
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http://www.fesnam.org/pdf/2006/reports_publications/Jauch_AfricasClothing_TextileInd2006.pdf
Herbert Jauch
Human Rights
Labour
Labour Resource and Research Institute (LaRRI)
Law
Namibia
Ramatex
Textiles