25 Sep 2017

Civil society organisations have been hailed for their contribution to the development of the country for the betterment of the lives of the less privileged in the society.

Officially opening the Bobonong Orphans and Vulnerable Children Centre recently, Minister of Immigration, Nationality and Gender Affairs, Mr Edwin Batshu said the centre funded under the Empowerment of Non-State Actors Programme (ENSA) give a deep sense of appreciation of the importance played by civil society.

Mr Batshusaid undertaking of such projects was made possible by the collaboration between government and the European Union under the ENSA programme with the major objective of contributing to economic growth and poverty reduction through the strengthening of of the role of Non-State Actors.

He said government strongly subscribed to the 'whole of government approach' to national development to ensure sustainable achievement of national development goals.

He said NDP 11 called for the participation of all stake holders, including civil society organisations for the successful implementation of the plan with the view to realising the national development objectives to meaningfully empower the citizens.

The minister stated that in 2015 over P23 million was awarded to 26 large scale Non-Governmental Organisations with a maximum ceiling of P1 million  and 16 small scale projects with a ceiling of P100 000 throughout the country.

In addition, he said all the NGO's had completed their projects including the Bobonong Orphans and Vulnerable Children Centre.

The centre, he said would bring a significant improvement to the lives of the targeted beneficiaries as well as increase the well-being of the orphans and vulnerable children ranging from zero to 18 years in Bobirwa.

He said the centre provided tutorial services and pyscho- social support to vulnerables to improve their academic performance, and as such the centre enabled such children to have adults and peers they could rely on for social support and encouragement.

The centre belongs to the Bobonong Community Home Based Care with ENSA contributing over P539 000 towards its construction against a total cost of P654 000 and the added cost was raised by the other stakeholders, business community, and the community  to which Mr Batshu commended for their effort.

Further, he commended the development the EU for extending support for the empowerment of Non-State Actors and said the initiatives undertaken through ENSA would not only improve livelihoods but would also go a long way in contributing to governments efforts of employment creation and poverty reduction.

For his part, head of delegation of EU to Botswana and SADC ambassador Alexander Baum said the establishment of the centre was made possible with funding from EU through the Botswana-EU cooperation programme ENSA which for the last three years a total of 51 grants at a combined value of P27 million covering various sectors of NGO's.

The programme, he said aimed to support civil society work with particular focus on priority sectors that included education in particular to early childhood care and inclusive education, social services focusing on orphans and vulnerable children, environment, women empowerment and arts and culture.

Ambassador Baum commended BCHBC that having a centre that caters for children who have no known biological parents to provide them with necessities of life was a contribution to social development at a community level.

He said orphaned children could easily fell prey to all sorts of vulnerabilities emanating from their own communities and beyond which could often lead to permanent psychological trauma that would later need much more resources to repair.

He added that Botswana strongly believed in empowered civil society sector to make meaningful contribution to the development of the country.

By this head Botswana and EU were on the same page, because "EU believes that active civil society sector is important for citizens to engage in their own communities and evolution of their societies."

The programme,he said was coming to an end at the end of the year and Botswana-EU collaboration would be looking at other opportunities to continue support Non-State Actors.

Besides being recipients of grants, he said civil society organisations could benefit from strategic exchange of technical assistance and experiences through other EU instruments such as European Instrument on Democracy and Human Rights which over the last two years issued grants to 10 NGO'S with a value of P20 million and expect this facility would continue to be available for Botswana civil society organisations.

He encouraged NGO's to work hard to promote their work saying being an NGO in an upper middle income country had its own challenges and challenged them to look beyond the borders of Botswana to explore opportunities. ENDS