13 Sep 2018

An enabling environment should be created in order for Poverty Eradication Programmes to succeed, says Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) council chairperson, Ms Bookie Kethusegile.

  Speaking during a district dialogue forum workshop held in Palapye on Monday, Ms Kethusegile said the enabling environment included a stable political and socio-economic environment as well as a competitive environment in which the playing field was even.

She said stakeholders and government should find a way that would assist and encourage beneficiaries to withstand challenges and obstacles, adding that applicants should look for projects that suited their areas. She also said village leaders should be empowered with knowledge on various government programmes that their communities could benefit from. Ms Kethusegile further said each district and village should have effective participation as the existence of a vibrant NGO community could  only be a manifestation of the country’s democratic principles, and also one of the parameters by which to judge the level of community participation.

“An effective monitoring and evaluation mechanism shall be developed in NGOs and governmental organisations and all shall adhere to it,” she said. She said those who benefited from poverty eradication programmes should monitor and evaluate each other in order to uplift and enhance their businesses using the monitoring tool. She also added that government should assess, monitor and evaluate its programmes funding request from NGOs as well as to facilitate financial support to deserving cases and ensuring accountability and compliance to the conditions of the support. The aim of the workshop was to create an opportunity for Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to share their positions on key policy issues and engage in debates with government and the private sector.

The aim was also to contribute to developing a better understanding of CSOs work and create a better context upon which the partnership between CSOs and government could produce improved impacts on communities, disadvantaged groups and society.

For his part, assistant poverty eradication coordinator, Mr Nyendi Moloyi added that it had been observed that there had been an increase in children affected by poverty, especially in the districts of Kweneng West and Ngamiland. He said research was being conducted to find out why such areas were highly affected, adding that his office was concerned about the increase of poverty from 8.4 per cent to 8.8 per cent and were working round the clock to implement ways to reduce escalating poverty issues.

“This is the reason why the government came up with ways of reducing poverty with programmes such as Poverty Eradication, Youth Development Fund and Gender Affairs programmes,” Mr Moloyi explained. ENDS