The UN has claimed credit for what it says is a role it played in influencing Botswana government to increase spending during the 2024/2025 financial year.
Finance Minister, Peggy Serame’s budget spending proposals of P102 billion is a historic high, according to some observers.
This is contained in the just released UN Results Report for Botswana. During the budget allocation, minister Serame said the P102.28 billion included P72.61 billion for the recurrent budget and P29.77 billion for the development budget.
Her speech at the time also acknowledged the country’s developmental partners for the continued support of the country’s development agenda, adding that their assistance over the years had helped Botswana to deliver on her aspirations.
According to the report: Through the Integrated National Financing Framework (INFF) and SDG Financing Initiative, the UN has been able to influence the government to increase budgetary resources towards the social sectors (and the SDGs).
“The 2024/25 budget marks a 23.5 percent increase compared to the previous year’s budget, with marked increases across education and human development, health, sustaining livelihoods, research and development and infrastructure development,” the report reads in part.
The UN says in addition, to supporting the informal sector, a revolving fund with an initial capital injection of approximately US$14 million has been set-up to boost entrepreneurship.
It says while additional fiscal outlays by the government are a welcome initial step toward investing in the SDGs, the progress of results will need to be monitored. The UN says the road to sustainable development is challenging, and it requires unyielding dedication and a spirit of continuous improvement.
“In line with the Government’s call for a ‘mindset change’, the UN leadership in Botswana has committed to reflect on our mindsets and to provide feedback to government and other development partners on where we feel that our collective efforts can be optimised.”
The UN indicated that; “ Mindset Change, or “A re chencheng” in Setswana, is a process that requires deep introspection, respectful challenges, robust debates, and a clear idea of where we want to go.”
Regarding Botswana’s position amongst its upper middle-income peers, the UN said on some indicators Botswana fares well, for instance on terrestrial protected areas (% of total land area).
However, the UN says, unemployment levels are much higher than the UMIC average as well as seats held by women in National Parliament.
“There are other indicators where Botswana lags behind its peers, such as maternal mortality rate. In general, Botswana’s social indicators (i.e., health, education) and poverty levels are significantly worse than those of its peers.
This presents a paradox,” the UN says. It says, on the one hand, Botswana is an upper-middle income country with low levels of debt and a high average income level. On the other hand, Botswana has high levels of unemployment, poverty and inequality. Moreover, education and health outcomes are not commensurate with the level of spending toward those sectors.
The UN also indicated that it also played a key role in women’s economic empowerment which was “strengthened through support provided for Government’s implementation of the 2017 National Response Strategy to the US-African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and the 2023 Temo Letlotlo programme.”
“The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) was assisted to develop the National AGOA Response Strategy that will enable Botswana to take advantage of and realise the full potential of the AGOA trade initiative. The Strategy, inter alia, seeks to reinvigorate the Buy Botswana program and encourage local producers to supply the market at competitive prices and quality,” the UN says. It says in 2023, women entrepreneurs benefitted from Government’s restriction of the importation of school uniforms by initiating textile projects to supply schools in their communities.
“The Strategy has boosted employment creation, with the number of jobs increasing by 38 percent, from 2535 in 2022 to 3500 in 2023. Prior to the import ban, local business traders imported school uniforms, thus exporting employment opportunities that could have served local community members and improve their livelihoods,” the UN says. It says one of its agencies, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) supported Government’s launch of the inclusive agricultural production programme, Temo Letlotlo, which creates economic opportunities for
women through commercial farming.
