10 Mar 2021

The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Eric Molale, says government will embark on a social reform programme, which will usher in a new paradigm that goes beyond poverty reduction to build resilience, redistribute wealth and to invest in all Batswana.

Presenting the ministry’s budget proposals for 2021/22 financial year, Mr Molale said his ministry with the assistance of the UNDP had developed a National Social Protection Recovery Plan, which emphasised on the need for Botswana to consolidate its social assistance system that reflected vulnerabilities of individuals throughout their life course.

This, he said, was consistent with aspirations of the new national social protection framework approved by Cabinet in August last year.

The framework sought to position the social protection system so that it could effectively and efficiently respond to the varied risks and vulnerabilities faced by Batswana.

Minister Molale said one of the most critical components of the framework was development of a single social registry.

He said development of the single registry had started and they were currently populating the system with data from his ministry which would be followed by data from other ministries.

He said both the social protection framework and recovery plan propose the consolidation of the existing suit of 29 social welfare programmes across government to properly reflect the five individual life course stages which are expectant mothers and infants, school age, youth, working age and old age.

Furthermore, he said it was critical to underpin the programmes with robust systems common in all programmes and all of them would be Omang based to avoid duplication and double dipping.

Mr Molale said Ipelegeng programme had been transformed to make it more productive and sustainable adding that it would focus on maintenance of public facilities especially schools, maintenance of cluster fences, de-bushing of international boundaries, construction of kgotla shelters and other development projects at a local level.

He said the programme also aimed at empowering beneficiaries through capacity building, skills development for sustainable livelihoods and complement other programmes aimed at employment creation and poverty alleviation.

Minister Molale said Ipelegeng must be complemented by the Constituency Community Programme on maintenance of public infrastructure.

“In pursuit of building sustainable livelihoods, job creation and building resilient communities, the rural development council through its natural resources technical committee is currently working on the development of a blueprint to guide on the utilization of natural resources with notable economic value,” he said.

He said the emphasis would mostly be on remote and rural communities who have remained poor despite the natural resources endowments within their environment.

The minister said the ministry would to roll out research proto types undertaken by institutions such as BITRI and NAFTERC on veldt products and other natural resources mostly found in rural and remote areas.

“These prototypes would be rolled into high value goods and services some with the possibility of being exported,” he said.

Minister Molale said the intention was for people to get out of poverty and improve their livelihoods.

Still in Parliament, Minister Molale said 429 255 households nationwide were provided with food baskets at a cost of P431 million to assist them survive the effects of the lockdown imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said the food baskets from government were augmented by donations from the private sector, diplomatic missions, Botswana’s development partners and individuals. ENDS