23 Feb 2021

Botswana Council of Non-Governmental Organisations (BOCONGO) and Institute Development Management (IDM) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at forming a joint planning and delivery of tailor made programmes relevant to BOCONGO and its constituency.

Speaking at the signing ceremony in Gaborone on Monday, IDM’s assistant director, academic services, Mr Mathias Chida said the objective of the MoU was to collaborate and provide in-service training to NGOs and close the skills gap that continued to affect developing countries in their developmental journey.

 “As such NGOs, civil society and community based organisations are very important stakeholders when it comes to advocacy and lobbying for policy reform and mindset change towards people-centred development,” he said

Mr Chida also highlighted that the mandate of IDM had evolved, with the vision of ‘growing great minds’ premised on the four pillars of training, education, research and consultancy. 

He said  there were areas of challenge faced by most NGOs, especially following the dwindling presence of donors in the country.

“Our pursuit is not only to build a strong knowledge based economy as espoused by government, but more importantly a society that is compliant with the principles of good governance,” he said.

BOCONGO board member, Mr Robert Letsatsi said collaboration was not only an excellent example of strength between the two institutions, but also a clear indication that both organisations were committed to supporting the country’s national agenda of good governance. 

He further revealed that the agreement had one added advantage to both entities, as it aimed to strengthen collaboration in engaging members of BOCONGO as resource persons with expertise on some of the training courses. 

 

“I know that we all share the same eagerness and optimism looking at the great potential and the numerous opportunities that this partnership is about to bring,” he said. ENDS