17 May 2018

Ministry of Finance and Economic Development is doing all within its means to domesticate the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Addressing an Ntlo ya Dikgosi sitting at Cresta Lodge, the ministry’s director, Ms Tebatso Chalashika said efforts were ongoing to make the SGDs suited to the country’s needs and priorities.

Ms Chalashika said the exercise was not done in isolation but involved different stakeholders in government, the private sector and civil society.

She said since the adoption of the 17 SDGs in 2015, Botswana had been in full swing to ensure they were achieved, particularly that some were carried over from the Millennium Development Goals.    

She said a national steering committee charged with coordinating localisation activities and facilitating Botswana’s participation in SDGs related activities regionally, continentally and globally was working tirelessly addressing communities and district leadership on the SDGs.

Among others, the SDGs call for ending poverty, equal treatment of women and men by 2030 and the empowerment of women and girls.

Other SDGs promote equal rights to economic resources as well as access to basic services, ownership and control of land and other property for women, and for females to have a stake in inheritance and natural resources. Others call for the tackling of all diseases and the thorny issue of maternal mortality rate after and before birth as well as the provision of quality education for all.

On the economic front, the SDGs call for addressing income inequality, unemployment, dominant single volatile commodities as well as country debt.

Regarding the environment, Ms Chalashika said issues of global warming, unsustainable practices in farming, mining, tourism and infrastructure development where there were no relevant guiding policies or legislation were emphasised.

She said for the goals to be achieved, all the different sectors had to come together, noting that farmers could not produce food if they were not healthy.

The domestication of SDGs is linked with NDP 11, DDP 8 and Vision 2036 for proper execution.

Commenting on global warming, Ntlo ya Dikgosi Chairman, Kgosi Puso Gaborone queried that some big developed economies were pulling out of global warming agreements leaving less developed economies in the lurch.

He said the move could adversely affect the good intent.

Another speaker, Kgosi Moeti Monyamane of Kgalagadi North region expressed fear that it would take time for the SDGs to be achieved, particularly the issue of maternal mortality.

Kgosi Monyamane noted that Kgalagadi North was promised several maternity wards in local clinics during NDP 10, but that the projects had since been carried over to NDP 11, saying the matter needed urgent attention. Ends