02 Feb 2025

After retreating to Botswana to hold discussion on how to help the country modernise its economy, President Advocate Duma Boko has expressed confidence that the team of United Nations Economic Commission of Africa (UNECA) has had a full idea on things that needed to be done. 

Speaking at a briefing with the team, President Boko, however, cautioned on the need to move swiftly from word to action. 

“Talking is the easier part, and the most difficult is moving from word to deed, and I am happy that you have generated a lot of things you want to further refine and develop ideas and proposals from,” he said. 

He said Botswana was looking at two critical areas in green economy and agriculture that was alive to the challenges of current climate situation. 

“We want to engage in climate smart agriculture and ecotourism that we want to power from renewable energy,” he said. 

Mr Boko said currently, Botswana relied on 99 per cent fossil fuel energy and plans were that by 2030, 50 per cent of the energy should be from renewables. 

He said the country was also interested in harnessing the digital economy, especially that it was one area that could be instrumental in bringing young people to play part in the economy. 

He said that would need to be coupled with skills development to better position the youth.  “This will also ensure efficiency and curb wastage that comes with inefficiency. Such technology will also help augment human efforts,” he said. 

He said government stood ready to welcome any sustainable partnership in investment. UN Under-Secretary-General and ECA Executive Secretary, Mr Claver Gatete said they had identified and agreed upon 18 areas of interest that they were willing to assist the country on.  “We will go back, work on them and see how together with our partners, can come up with a proposal to work with the government of Botswana,” he said. 

Some of the areas of interest identified include digitalisation of data and statistics and SmartBots connectivity project among others. Mr Gatete said they would also be of service to government in the digitalisation of Lobu Small Stock Farm. 

He said this would be more handy as the country could benefit from the demands of smallstock in the Middle East. 

Mr Gatete also talked about the digital identity, which he said would help in planning for services due to readily available data in population and the e-governance. 

He said UNECA would also help formulate enhancement of accountability, efficiency and performance of the public sector, including public enterprises. 

“This one requires reform, otherwise it has the potential to bring almost everything down, so it is very critical,” he said. 

Mr Gatete also advised against clustering the sectors of finance and planning under one ministry, suggesting that planning was better placed under the Office of the President to provide vision before execution. 

He also cautioned about the social protection system, which he said could lead to financial wastage if not properly monitored. 

The objectives of the retreat was to strengthen collaboration between government and UNECA in support of the development and transformation of the country.It also sought to identify areas of collaboration, key priorities and projects that could be supported by UNECA as well as discuss and agree of modalities of implementation, monitoring and evaluation framework of the agreed priorities and projects. ENDS