15 May 2016

Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Ms Botlogile Tshireletso has implored local authorities to work as a team in implementing development plans.

Officially closing a two-day NDP 11 National Stakeholders Conference for local authorities in Gaborone, Friday, Ms Tshireletso said working in silos should be a thing of the past. “Joint planning programming and budgeting will be critical if we are to achieve the desired impact and optimally use the limited resources at our disposal,” she said.

She said the conference was critical in the sense that it was meant to appreciate, critique and publicise as much as possible the NDP that would run for the next six years.

She said she appreciated their participation at district thematic sessions where a lot of issues regarding districts were discussed. Ms Tshireletso said she hoped that their drafts adequately addressed the theme for NDP 11  which was, Inclusive Growth for the Realisation of Sustainable Employment Creation and Poverty Eradication.  She said all activities for District Development Plans and Urban Development Plans should centre on the theme and be aligned to the proposed new Vision 2036 which embraced sustainable development agenda.

The assistant minister thus implored stakeholders to disseminate issues and new planning approach to other important players that they represented at district level.

Secretary for Economic and Financial Policy, Dr Taufila Nyamadzabo said it had been evident during discussions that it was critical for participants to prioritise their projects given negative economic growth rate of 0.3 per cent and mild reception in 2015. 

Dr Nyamadzabo said financial resources had badly been affected; hence submission of drafts plan on time was crucial for them to accommodate some requests.

He said during discussions, it was also evident that they should put in place some cost recovery measures and introduce Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to raise revenue. ENDS