17 Aug 2022

Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis (BIDPA) has forged ties with Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Botswana towards capacitating the media on evidence-based policymaking.

BIDPA acting executive director, Dr Gloria Somolekae, said in an interview, that BIDPA was not just a research institute, but also to helps build capacity.

She said the issues surrounding the use of evidence in policy-making were critical to government, BIDPA, and key stakeholders who believed in the participatory nature of development, and that all voices needed to be heard and reflected in the policy outcomes.

“The whole idea is to allow reporters to understand how important evidence is in shaping policy outcomes, how to collect it, how to analyse it so that we can end up with better policy outcomes as a country,” she said.

Ms Somolekae said conclusions that were made by the MISA Botswana director were quite pertinent in the sense that he was steering them towards the direction of giving meaningful expression to the attainment of a knowledge-based economy.

This will ensure that BIDPA will structure its research and contribution to matters that can enhance the participation of the youth in the economy and the policy processes, she said. 

Speaking about BIDPA in-house challenges, Ms Somolekae said the organisation had a modest budget and was currently exploring how it could train its young employees up to PhD level.

She said PhD was the minimum requirement for effective research globally, and BIDPA wanted to put them in that position, where they could participate and even compete, on an equal footing and strength with peers around the world.

“They are fairly capable, so we need a budget. 

In the meantime, we need to be striking more partnerships with experienced researchers, which we are working on, so we have joint research projects that can shape developments in our countries,” she explained.

For his part, MISA Botswana Director, Mr Tefo Phatshwane said the media was important in assisting the public to acquire information that was premised on government developmental endeavours.

Mr Phatshwane said MISA Botswana’s mandate was to change the landscape of reporting in the country by capacitating reporters to build meaningful and evidence-based stories that had the potential to influence policy-making.

He said gone were the days when the public depended on Facebook scoops to make meaningful decisions, therefore, it was vital for media houses to build a positive narrative about their overall package of information dissemination.

The director stated that remaining relevant within the market should be a fundamental goal for every media house as it guaranteed integrity and foreseeable business gains.

Mr Phatshwane urged BIPDA to endeavour to focus efforts on coming up with research that influenced young people’s participation in policy formulation, especially taking into account their presence on social media.

He said policy-making should, in essence, consider leveraging the adoption of technology, adding that legislation that would see young ones earn a living off YouTube should be formulated.

He said it was sad for the country to be losing talent to others because there was no legislation that supported producers to monetise their talent, adding that passing such legislation would not cost the country any money, but a signature. 

He said already, neighbouring countries were tapping into monetising production made on their own from Tik-tok, YouTube, Facebook, among others. ends