15 Mar 2018

 President Lt. Gen. Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama will officially open a two- day International Conference on Poverty Eradication on Tuesday.

The Conference, to be held at the Gaborone International Conference Centre on March 20-21, 2018, is being sponsored by the Government of Botswana with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and other partners, which has attracted the participation of experts and policymakers from around the globe (see list below).

The title and theme of the conference “Leave No One Behind in the Fight Against Poverty, Exclusion and Inequality” reflects an ambitious commitment on the part of participants to create a truly inclusive global society.

The opening session would also feature a key note address by Mr. Stephen Devereux of the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex.

The Conference will be closed on Wednesday by the Vice President Mokgweetsi Masisi, who will be inaugurated 11 days later as Botswana’s fifth President.

In further keeping with its theme, the Conference will focus on identifying and showcasing best practice examples from countries that have been successful in reducing and alleviating poverty, as well as sharing ideas on the critical pathways and trade-offs for achieving further progress. In this respect, plenary sessions that will focus on such questions:

Who are the poor and those left behind, and why are they being left behind? What are the key structural barriers to their inclusion and socioeconomic mobility? How have countries reached the poor and those left behind, and how have they reached the farthest first? Which lessons and best practices have been learned that could help to improve the lives of the poor and those left behind? How to manage reforms to ensure poverty eradication?

Amongst other things, the conference will thus further seek to meet the following objectives:

Share the criteria for identifying the poor and examine the structural barriers to poverty eradication, inclusive growth and social-economic mobility.

Learn from the experiences of other countries in the Global South-lessons learned and best practices-especially for those that have successfully managed to reach the farthest of the poor and excluded through sound pro-poor policy interventions and programmes. What these countries did differently that led to their success stories through the policies and strategies employed by their governments will be key focus areas.

Identify key policy considerations when designing programmes that focus on the most vulnerable, extreme poor and marginalized.

In addition, it is intended for the conference to explore strategic partnership and South-South Cooperation opportunities for accelerated implementation of poverty eradication policies and strategies.

Expected outputs of the Conference will thus include achieving a better understanding of what policy measures can be adopted to successfully eradicate poverty, promote inclusive economic growth and reduce inequality within the context of leaving no one behind; and forging of greater strategic collaboration and partnership among countries from the Global South, for an accelerated implementation of poverty eradication. Ends