21 Sep 2026

As global political leaders and high level political, development and socio-economic stakeholders converge in New York City, United States of America for the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA81), Botswana will use the week to motivate for a more just world system and for meaningful development partnerships and investment.

This was said by Minister of International Relations, Dr Phenyo Butale in an interview ahead of the UNGA81 schedule of meetings at the UN headquarters.

Dr Butale said Botswana’s position was that the UN system required reform in order to bring about a more equitable global system.
“Last year, President Advocate Duma Boko’s attendance at the General Assembly for the first time, marked our commitment for the need for the reform of the UN and other multilateral organisation.

This will continue as we believe that the world needs to coalesce around multilateralism, rule-based international order, respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity of countries. That will be the message we will carry forward,” he said.

He added that the country was concerned that there had been reversal of global cooperation with the rise of unilateral decision making and the rise in conflicts that were affecting the world’s social and economic order, whereas focus should be on unifying the globe around dialogue.

“The UN week is an opportunity for the world to come together and coalesce around common need and we will look to join others and give a push towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and collective decisions we have made that could be beneficial to us and the developing world,” he added.

He further revealed that President Boko, as chair of the Africa Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA), a coalition of African Union (AU) heads of state seeking to end Malaria by 2030, would host his counterparts and global partners to discuss progress and a way ahead, in the engagement of women, children and the youth as well as mobilising donor, domestic, public and private funding to combat malaria.

“The President would also have other high-level engagement. What we seek to achieve as Botswana is the economic diplomacy part of our foreign policy.

The President as the country’s chief diplomat will be meeting non-governmental and business leaders and potential investors since we want to move away from an economy whose growth depend largely on government expenditure. We seek to improve to financial inflows into the country,” Dr Butale said.

He said the President would also meet the new President of the UN General Assembly, Mr Kalilur Rahman of Bangladesh and also motivate Botswana’s interests to global captains of industry and markets including promotion of natural diamonds and other key elements of mining as well as other sectors such as healthcare.

One of the highlights of UNGA81 will be the election of the UN Secretary General, who would be the 10th person to assume the role of administrative head of the UN since its formation in 1945 and with seven candidates, two of them from Africa, Dr Butale was non-committal on Botswana’s preferred candidate.

“One of the key things to understand, is that for Africa to ever stand a chance, we have what we call an electoral pact that pairs countries of the Global South, the developing and emerging countries of Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and Oceania. These electoral pacts necessitate a rotation in who we vote for collectively. According to our reading, the rotation tells us that it is not Africa’s turn to run for UN Secretary

General, which explains why the AU has not endorsed a single candidate,” he said.

Again, he said Botswana would continue to engage diplomatically for the AU to agree on the way forward, being mindful of the electoral pact and not being prejudicial to Africa’s long-term interests. ENDS