18 Aug 2026

With an estimated two thirds of the country’s population being under the age of 35, Botswana seeks to utilise this youth demographic dividend to propel the transformation of the economy, and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is a critical partner in that regard.

Those were the views expressed by Minister for State President, Defence and Security, Mr Moeti Mohwasa on Friday at the Office of the President, while welcoming a visiting party from UNICEF, the organ of the UN tasked with developmental needs of children across the world, particularly in developing countries.

Mr Mohwasa noted that UNICEF had been a long-standing partner to Botswana, having established a country office decades ago and collaborating with government and other development stakeholders in shaping some national policies and programmes on areas such as healthcare and child nutrition.

With government now working to train school-going children and the youth to be job ready and entrepreneurial so as to contribute towards the ambitions of the 12^th National Development Plan (NDP 12) and the Botswana Economic Transformation Plan (BTEP), partnership with UNICEF continued to be vital, the minister said.

He urged UNICEF to assist Botswana in its programmes geared at not only reducing youth unemployment, but to ensure the youth became the engine of economic growth.

For her part, the Minister of Youth and Gender Affairs, Ms Lesego Chombo also reiterated that UNICEF had been a consistent partner, working closely with her ministry on the reform of policies such as the Youth Development Fund (YDF), and the National Service Programme (Tirelo Sechaba), as well as to expand mentorship and economic inclusion initiatives.

Ms Chombo said government was pleased to explore further partnerships with Generation Unlimited, the unit of UNICEF launched in 2018 with the aim to connect the world’s youth to transition from education and training to productive employment, entrepreneurship and social impact.

Generation Unlimited acting chief executive officer , who is based at the organisation head office in New York City, United States of America, Dr Nadi Albino said they worked with representatives from the public sector, technological companies and others in private enterprise, as well as young people’s representatives to offer innovative ideas on how to improve opportunities for the youth.

She lauded Botswana for already having policies that aimed to put the youth at the centre of the national development agenda, and said Generation Unlimited could assist with global best practice on availing private sector partners willing to share their research and development and technology on areas such as artificial intelligence, industrial parks, agro-processing and other commercial avenues.

UNICEF Botswana country representative, Dr Kimanzi Muthengi said they were working with multi-sector partners within government and industry to seek solutions to ensure the youth have better economic access and become key anchors that drive the economy.

To that end, he said they worked with the Ministry of Child Welfare and Basic Education to promote early childhood development, child welfare and justice and with the Ministry of Youth and Gender Affairs to promote Generation Unlimited programmes as well as youth and gender inclusion.

He said they candidly acknowledge the high levels of unemployment among out-of-school youth, something he said together with government and private sector partners, they were willing to tackle in order to ensure the national economic transformation envisioned by NDP 12  and BETP, as well as the UN which has declared the decade spanning 2027-36 as the International Decade of Strengthening Peace for Future Generations. ENDS