08 Nov 2017

President Lt Gen. Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama says government has achieved ‘very good’ progress in the upliftment of the lives of  remote area communities under the Affirmative Action Framework for Remote Area Communities that was approved in July 2014 together with its 10-year implementation plan.

Delivering the State of the Nation Address on November 6, President Khama said significant progress has been noted under the areas of provision of shelter, tertiary education and economic empowerment initiatives among others adding that government is further committed to the development of Remote Area Development Programme (RADP) farms, including the fencing of the 10 existing ones. 

He said government was currently sponsoring a total of 1 659 RADP beneficiaries in different tertiary institutions and another 21 058 have engaged in formal or temporary employment through affirmative action measures. 

President Khama highlighted that 2 949 RADP constituents have directly benefited from the Poverty Eradication Programme, 2 748 from Integrated Support Programme Arable Agriculture Development (ISPAAD) and 1 361 from Livestock Management and Infrastructure Development (LIMID).

This financial year, he said an additional 352 housing units were under construction, on top of 20 units being completed from the previous year.

He said the Ipelegeng programme had, over the course of the last decade, provided temporary relief to vulnerable groups amongst rural and urban communities through labour intensive public works providing short-term employment to over 60 000 people on a monthly basis. 

The Ipelegeng programme, he said had in the process contributed to various construction and maintenance projects of essential public facilities, adding that the programme had also supported the implementation of initiatives such as crime prevention and Special Constables by the Botswana Police Service, wildlife volunteers and development of monuments initiatives as well as immigration volunteers. 

With regard to community development, President Khama said government had during the current financial year, introduced the Constituency Community Development Programme with a total budget allocation of P570 million, translating into P10 million per constituency. 

The initiative, he said was introduced to economically empower communities, create employment and provide services like basic infrastructure and small projects that could not ordinarily be accommodated in both the District Development Plans and National Development Plan.  

He said the constituency community development initiative was further intended to promote community empowerment by strengthening the process by which citizens take the lead in initiating and proposing solutions to local challenges. 

Further, he said government had committed to the protection of vulnerable members of the society through the provision of social protection programmes. 

He noted that social protection programmes to that end, assist different categories of vulnerable people such as destitute persons, orphans and vulnerable children, community home-based care patients, world war II veterans, old age pensioners and people with disabilities. 

He said beneficiaries continued to receive services that improved quality of their lives, food security and ensured dignified living. 

The supplementary feeding programmes, he said were provided in 755 Primary Schools with an enrolment of 354 317 pupils and 575 health facilities with a total of 297 775 beneficiaries and the pre and primary schools menu had been revised into a full school feeding programme.

President Khama said provision of the new menu would commence in the upcoming financial year with local sourcing supporting Economic Diversification Drive (EDD) objectives.

He highlighted that government continued to purchase agricultural produce for primary schools as that provided a market for the improvement of the livelihoods of subsistence farmers adding that funds were disbursed to Local Authorities to help facilitate procurement of fresh agricultural produce from local farmers. 

Since its inception to June 2017, President Khama said the initiative had benefited 15 246 subsistence farmers at the cost of P26.9 million. ENDS