18 Nov 2019

Development of a knowledge-based economy is dependent upon building synergies across the different sectors of the economy, the President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi has said.

In his State-of-the-Nation Address today, President Masisi said it was within this context that the education quality assurance system would be closely aligned to professional bodies.

He said there would be closer collaboration between Botswana Qualifications Authority and professional bodies such as Botswana Health Professionals Council, Engineers Registration Board and the Architects Registration Council.

He said this would go a long in engendering quality and relevance of education to the job market, adding that the endeavour would enhance the global competitiveness of citizens.

President Masisi further said due to the ever evolving needs and expectations by the public on the nature and manner of how services should be delivered, government continued to look for ways and means that would facilitate and enable public officers to deliver efficient and consistent service to the nation.

He said government had developed a Productivity Improvement Blue Print to tackle the most problematic areas of poor work ethic, inefficient government bureaucracy, inadequately educated workforce, restrictive labour laws and corruption.

In addition, he said, government had developed an action plan to respond to the challenges outlined in the 2018 Global Competiveness Report.

“The implementation of this action plan is ongoing,” he said.

President Masisi said government was also in the process of formulating the Public Service Human Resources Framework whose intention was to enable the Botswana Public Service to manage its human resources effectively by providing a linkage between human resources policies and procedures.

“This will form the backbone which will enable the public service to anticipate future service delivery needs and equip it to plan and cater for addressing those needs in a seamless manner,” he said.

He said Botswana Public Service College (BPSC) continued to deliver diverse programmes that were targeted at closing competency gaps for public officers.

He said deliberate efforts were also being made to ensure the creation of a succession pool through the development of a talent management and succession planning framework.

“Furthermore, government will progress the implementation of a development based assessment process as well as assess the impact of programmes to respond to current needs.

The operationalization of the Botswana Public Service Assessment/ Development Centre (AC/DC) is at an advance stage with sourcing for key personnel and other logistical arrangements being done to have the Centre piloted by April 2020,” he said.

President Masisi said dialogue remained the pillar of good industrial relations in the country, to this end, he said there were 60 registered Trade Unions, two Trade Union Federations and one Employers’ Organisation.

He said the number Trade Unions had gone down as a result of the cancellation of three Trade Unions in May 2019 due to non-compliance with the Trade Unions and Employers’ Organisations Act and the dissolution of one Trade Union.

He said tripartite partners comprising representatives of government, employers and workers were finalising the Botswana Decent Work Country Programme (BDWCP) for 2019-2023.

President Masisi further said priorities for the programme were Employment creation, social dialogue, social protection and compliance with international standards.

“Government in collaboration with representatives of employers and workers continues to make progress in the review of labour laws in order to close gaps in the laws and align them with the provisions of International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convections that have been ratified by Botswana,” he said.

President Masisi said Botswana continued to strive for decent work and minimum wage rates was increased by 17 per cent for all sectors with the exception of agriculture and domestic sectors which were increased P1000 per month with effect from  July 1. Ends