13 Aug 2015

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has donated camping equipment worth over P50 000 to Shorobe Community Development Trust.

The donation came after a request by residents during the recent UNDP coordinator Ms Helen Clark’s visit to the village, who emphasised the need for Botswana to broaden its economic base.

Speaking during the handing over of the donation, UNDP deputy resident representative, Mr Lase Sisay said during their visit to the village, the residents requested them to support their village. 

He also revealed that since Ms Clark was impressed with the turnout of women and youth during her visit, she made few commitments to assist the residents. “One of the commitments was to provide tents and mattresses for the trusts and I am pleased to hand over 12 tents and 12 mattresses. 

I have realized that the donation is not enough but I believe we could provide more,” he added. Mr Sisay urged residents to come up with income generating projects aimed towards improving their living standard. 

He said the project should target women and youth and the UNDP would drive the implementation.

He informed the residents that UNDP has adopted Shorobe village and urged them to work closely with the coordinators of the sustainable land management and sustainable livelihoods project.

The project is implemented in the Ngamiland District and it aims to mainstream sustainable land management in rangeland areas of Ngamiland District productive landscapes for improved livelihoods.

For his part the deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Environment Wildlife and Tourism, Mr Jimmy Opelo said the government encourages departments and ministries to forge partnership with private sectors in order to drive developments and empower the communities.

He said their partnership with UNDP existed for a long time hence the implementation of a project dubbed Mainstreaming Sustainable Land Management (SLM) into Ngamiland Productive Landscapes for Improved Livelihoods.

Mr Opelo said the project seeks to come up with sustainable projects which the community could benefit from in terms of land management and natural resources within their areas In addition, he said the efforts had been made by the government to improve the lives of the communities through Community Based Natural Resources Management programme. 

The programme aimed to improve rural livelihoods at the household level attained through sustainable management of natural resources by communities.

Kgosi Molatedi Dingalo appreciated the donation and revealed that the trust has long been formed but did not operate as expected because of lack of funding. He said a meeting would be called to announce the donation to the residents. ENDS