Published June 15, 2009 08:17
Meatco Namibia’s Board of Directors on 4 June 2009 approved the establishment of a trust to further social development activities for Meatco’s stakeholders in the mainly remote livestock rearing communities in Namibia.
With a stakeholder reach of approximately 70% of the country’s population, social responsibility expectations weighs heavily on the Corporation and the need for development action in the Namibian agricultural industry is great.
The chairman of Meatco’s Board of Directors, Mr. Arne Gressmann said, “In order for Meatco to achieve meaningful progress towards the economic empowerment of rural livestock rearing communities, it is of paramount importance for the Corporation to have made this decision to detach its commercial activities from its social responsibilities in order to create focus and resources required. Creating a trust will open up doors for donor funding to augment the Meatco resources which will be used to improve socio-economic conditions in rural areas in the livestock sector through developmental interventions.”
The proposal for the establishment of the trust was researched and presented to the board by Meatco’s former Senior Manager for Corporate Communication and PR, Ms Uschi Ramakhutla, who is now tasked with the establishment of the trust and putting into place the structure and initial projects.
“Most of the footwork for the establishment has been done including the objectives of the trust and the identification of initial projects based on the developmental gaps in the rural livestock industry.”
She added that focus will be on large scale sustainable projects impacting the lives of thousands of people. Meatco has agreed on an annual contribution which the trust will use for leverage when sourcing funding for its projects.”
Focus areas for development will be: Education, Training and development; Environment; Entrepreneurship and Staff Volunteerism.