25 Feb 2026

 The Ministry of Youth and Gender Affairs is committed to ensuring that all Youth Development Programmes (YDF) not only serve national development objectives but also act as a meaningful springboard for young people into sustainable livelihoods.

 Answering a parliamentary question Monday, Minister of Youth and Gender Affairs, Ms Lesego Chombo said they had thus embarked on reviewing and remodelling the YDF with the aim for it to be inclusive, impactful and to create meaningful employment. 

Minister Chombo said the ministry would align the YDF with strategic sectors identified under the twelfth National Development Plan (NDP 12) and the Botswana Economic Transformation Programme (BTEP). 

“These programmes must particularly contribute to economic diversification, support employment and value chain development, enhance citizen participation in high-growth and underrepresented sectors and promote innovation, export potential and digital enablement,” she said. 

Accordingly, she said the ministry would prioritise areas with higher scalability, productivity and multiple effects, including among others, agri-business, manufacturing and agri-processing, digital and creative industries, tourism value chains, renewable energy as well as and knowledge-based and innovative-driven ventures.

 Ms Chombo further said prioritisation did not equate to restriction, adding that YDF was not designed to confine young people to a prescribed list of businesses.

“Innovation often emerges outside conventional categories, and it would be counterproductive to stifle entrepreneurship creativity by over-regulating sector entry,” she said.

 She added that the objective was not to dictate what youth must do, but to ensure that youth enterprise development contributed meaningfully to Botswana’s transition towards a diversified, high-income and export-driven economy, while allowing room for entrepreneurship ingenuity and responsiveness to local demand. 

Furthermore, she said the ministry had over the years funded a total of 44 day care centres, out of which 27 were operational, located in Maun, Kasane, Mochudi, Palapye, Masunga, Francistown and Shashe Mooke, while others closed due to high rentals and shortage of pupils, in Tonota, Middlepits, Otse, Mahalapye, Shoshong, Gumare, Shakawe, Serowe and Moiyabana. 

Shoshong MP, Mr Moneedi Bagaisamang, had wanted to know if the ministry did not see the need to prioritise funding youth day care centres through the YDF programme, considering that many youth had studied Early Childhood Education and many day care centres were owned by foreigners. BOPA