19 Aug 2018

Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Ms Botlogile Tshireletso says the Vulnerability and Risk Assessment (VRA) is an effective research methodology which aims at developing common understanding among a wide range of stakeholders.

Speaking at the stakeholders training workshop in Mahalapye, Ms Tshireletso said the VRA identified the types of risks that different social groups were exposed to as a result of climate change and other challenges. 

 “The research tool establishes remedial actions to reduce the risks identified and build resilience by engaging stakeholders from communities, government, civil society, academia, private sector and other relevant entities,” she said.

Different sub district stakeholders in development planning were part of the workshop to appreciate each other’s problems and come up with solutions on how they could tackle them. 

She said in Botswana the VRA team made up of a partnership of the University of Botswana (UB) and OXFAM, a charitable organisation from the United Kingdom to carry out the Adaptation at Scale in Semi-Arid Regions (ASSAR) project focused on barriers and enablers of adapting to climate change at various scales in semi-arid regions. 

The University of Botswana- based ASSAR team has been working together with their colleagues from Universities of Cape Town and Namibia since 2014.

“The VRA team was engaged with the community of Mahalapye and produced a report with interesting findings to inform the sub district development with the hope of addressing identified challenges,” she said.

Assistant Minister Tshireletso was hopeful that the residents of Mahalapye who attended the workshop presented their everyday challenges so as to help in producing good results.

She hailed the VRA workshop as a good forum as it was not just a platform for airing grievances but also an opportunity for contributing ideas on how challenges affecting the development agenda in the sub district could be solved. 

She said the platform accorded the community an opportunity to play a part in identifying solutions to their problems.

Ms Tshireletso also acknowledged that the VRA workshop held in Mahalapye was a follow up to the initial similar activity that was conducted at Bobonong.

She also appreciated the University of Botswana, Oxfam and their partners for offering themselves to capacitate the sub district officers and assured them that their efforts would not be in vain as the public officers would effectively utilise VRA methodology in the development planning as well as in identifying issues affecting the various stakeholders that they served.

For his part Kgosi Ezekiel Joel from Bobonong who are the pioneers of the VRA programme said changes in climate, judicial system and population growth at times resulted in human wildlife conflict. 

Kgosi Joel said the Bobirwa VRA had resolved that government must consider lifting the hunting ban as a way of reducing the ever increasing wildlife conflict. ENDS