18 Feb 2020

The 2020/2021 budget speech has caused  displeasure amongst some members of the civil society.

This came to the fore during a recent forum organised by civil society organisations for legislators.

Botswana Child Rights Network executive director, Mr Kitso Mokgonami said more resources should be invested in the rights and welfare of children.

“When we talk of knowledge based economy, can all this be achievable if the foundation of every society, being the children, is not properly taken care of? Is there adequate resource allocation for the children? In our opinion as the child care sector is no,” Mr Mokgonami said.

Furthermore, he said strategic government spending on children was critical for the nation’s future and the timing on the investment itself if not properly addressed, could have dire effects on society’s future.

He cited the recent BGCSE results as an example of inadequate resource allocation and suggested that government should pass a child friendly budget. For his part, Tonota MP, Mr Pono Moatlhodi agreed with Mr Mokgonami’s sentiments that the welfare of children should be put prioritised when government plans its budget.

He said the welfare of children was a topic close to his heart and was dismayed to learn of the inadequate resource allocation towards the child care sector.

He was particularly appalled by the state of the education system including the poor state of classrooms.

“Until and unless we get together and approach the leaders of this government and task them to evaluate our education system and make sure our children are properly educated, we will continuously fail our children”, he said.

Meanwhile, Speck Dynamics consultant, Mr Sennye Obuseng said the Children’s Act of 2009 placed an obligation on duty bearers to provide care, support, protection and rehabilitation of children.

He said the national budget, as with the previous budgets,  was not child friendly, as allocation of resources is more focused on the economy and less on human capital.

Mr Obuseng said the department of secondary education spent 31.4 per cent of its budget in 2019/20 yet schools were in dire need of resources whilst special education received P42 million and only spent 1.1 per cent.

Mr Obuseng urged legislators to ensure that budget lines that protected children were not affected and additional resources invested in order to implement the Child Protection Act and save the nation’s future. ENDS