- We welcome the improved public engagement mechanisms used by Ministry of Finance in reflecting the aspirations of the Government of Botswana. Consulting with the youth and other stakeholders reflects a commitment to public participation. Notably, the improved ways of communicating to the public enhances inclusion and opportunities for the public to appreciate and contribute to the work of the Ministry. Whilst media reports previously alluded to the engagement of external stakeholders outside of the country, we believe citizens are best placed to guide and co-create priorities for government. Botswana is home to many skilled professionals thought leaders that have not been incentivised, included or engaged to contribute to the development trajectory of their country. They should be prioritised equitably and through transparent processes that enable accountability and independence in meaningful participation or engagement.
- We welcome the review of the National Policy on Disaster Management of 1996 to incorporate the impacts of climate change. This should incorporate the structural issues underlying climate disasters including land desertification, biodiversity, carbon emissions, fossil fuels [particularly multinational corporate driven], loss and damage. We further call on the need to incorporate public health measures for pandemics, and notably; guaranteeing universal health coverage including sexual, reproductive health and rights in humanitarian and disaster situations.
- We welcome efforts to strengthen the Draft National Anti-Corruption Policy, calling for ensuring all forms of [social, economic, physical] reprisals for whistleblowing be included, along with safeguarding for whistleblowers and their immediate families. This will ensure adequate follow-ups and justice. We further call on ensuring that all participants, enablers and observers of corruption implicated with repercussions in line with global best practice and to eradicate the culture of corruption noted by the Minister of Finance.
- We are weary of the drive for revenue collection via fees and levies, which have a history of poor accountability and utility. This might not only incur sunk, maintenance and change related costs, but impact on affordability for citizens. Batswana have already paid too much for government to further draw from already unequal income levels. Whilst the collection at locally authority levels are a concern, the underlying causes should be investigated to better understand levels of affordability for Batswana. Streamlining should align with individual tax revenue collection processes to ensure those most left behind are not as negatively impacted.
- We welcome the focus on artificial barriers of entry in selective sectors. Whilst this is a commendable start, it narrows the potential to diversify citizen empowerment and participation in the economy. It also absolves the interventions needed to improve consumer protections, citizen participation and economic diversity in financial services and tourism that continue to profit off of Batswana’s labour, consumerism and limited financial literacy for optimal household financial management. Moreover, strengthening institutions does not equate to universal access to information and use of services that could be immediate solutions, such as the BITC led one stop shops built for foreign investors and not the country’s citizens. We express concern for little information on how oversight institutions will be revitalised to remove corruption and political patronage, which have been the biggest impediments to Batswana’s progress aside from administrative burden.
- We call on a more equity driven approach to the government’s new approach to foreign investors. Acknowledging the need to incorporate the respect human rights, environment and clear corporate social responsibility in Botswana and elsewhere, as a human rights-based government would want consistency without compromising values to ensure long-term sustainability in Botswana. This would also need to incorporate capital investment requirements in lieu of current laws that allow for capital flight with ease. Furthermore, a model for community, employee and citizen participation should be inbuilt to ensure wealth creation and investment beyond just profit making, emulating the Debswana partnership as a model to emulate in our country’s history.
- We hope the repurposing of Botswana Power Corporation will result in more affordable, energy efficient and mixed transmission for citizens, particularly renewable energy, with clear parameters for corporates as contributors and consumers. We welcome a 30% reduction in electricity costs along with the integration of renewable energy in the national grid. More efforts should be made to ensuring equitable access across locality, land tenure and socioeconomic standing.
- We are disappointed with the reliance on the private sector or model approaches for housing solutions. Whilst there are fiscal challenges, we acknowledge that more progressive alternatives can be used that do not rely on land ownership as a foundation. This is not equitable as not all Batswana have land. Those most left behind would not have the means of long term financial security and protections. This would be aligned to moving away from the brick-and-mortar model for financing mentioned by the Minister of Finance. Noting this particularly for sex workers, people with disabilities, informal traders, women and girls in their diversity.
- We call on the revitalisations of BAMB and BMC to replicate the BTCL model, listing and trading reserved for citizens with government as majority shareholder. Notably, making provisions for social contracting, government subvention and equitable civil society engagement and enablement through these mechanisms for sustainability purposes. In addition, ensuring a singular vehicle prioritising development and social investments to complement government’s efforts and NDP 12 and beyond. Whilst this could be housed in the Fund of Funds, a similar model could be adopted specifically for state social programmes and contracting with equitable, transparent and independent avenues for access.
- We further call on the need to ensure state owned enterprises focus on their mandates, particularly from a development perspective. We believe these should be state vehicles for eliminating poverty, strengthening citizen participation and stimulating economic activity – not making profits beyond inflation or bank rate linked margins. Including the separation of Botswana Railways’ property portfolio to ensure concerted efforts on diversifying and ensuring reliable, disability friendly public transport for all citizens and tourists. This is critical for any nation committed to inclusion, ease of trade and internal mobility.
- We welcome the increase in hospital bed capacity in rural areas and hope that overall capacity across the country can be increased. This should be supported with an increase in laboratory, specialty, sign language, braille, and mental health capacity/infrastructure. We believe these can be augmented by porter cabins and mobile clinics to reduce waiting times, and increase access particularly for home-based, rehabilitative and palliative care countrywide.
- We note the comparability to developed nations and hope that this will be a new standard even for comparing governance shortcomings. South Korea and Luxemburg have advantages of fully benefiting and taking advantage of the second and third industrial revolutions, globalization for their corporates and notably for Luxemburg, regional economic blocs and cooperation that have thrived off of multi-country mechanisms that ease trade, skills exchange, labour markets, investment flows and colonialism.
- We welcome comprehensive efforts to Technical and Vocational Education and Training. We call for the inclusion of out-of-school youth and those who cannot advance to higher levels of schooling. These should have comprehensive provisions for people with disabilities, mental health, career guidance and partnership with the private sector to streamline talent transfers. The deployment to the maintenance of buildings should not be the only avenue worth exploring, it should include expanding accessibility where non-disability friendly, along with targeting sectors critical to citizen empowerment where barriers of entry might be exceedingly high.
- We note the splitting of health budget allocations for primary health care improvement (P492m) between national and local authorities, noting that the overall allocation is still less than the 15% of the Abuja Declaration. Interestingly, no percentage Is allocated to the Ministry of Health budget compared to other allocations. This should be a priority given the recent bill on Universal Health checks.
- We call for the investigation of private sector health referrals [and engagement, including commodity and infrastructure procurement] to ensure elimination of waste and increased transparency. We commend the increase in health practitioner staffing by the Ministry of Health and further call for the acceleration of addressing workforce concerns and protections in light of intentions to increase service provision hours. We call for commitment to universal health coverage including decreasing out-of-pocket costs for patients, strengthening integrated care and reviewing the differentiated primary health care model to accommodate under resourced settings in an equitable manner.
- We further call on dedicated allocations to ensuring the health provisions, enablement and success of key populations, namely sex workers, substance users, and LGBTIQ+ persons including harm reduction and gender affirmative health.
- We note the social welfare provisions with the following: a concern that there is no explanation or timeline on not meeting the UDC’s commitment to increasing Tandabala to P1800 per month. Whilst the increase to P1400 is commendable and long outstanding with realities, transparency should be reflected with clear intention for meeting electoral promises in the near future. We welcome the P300 monthly allowance for newborns, however express concern for the targeted aspect that remains unclear. Ensuring social welfare for all and not just those who are “deserving” means discriminatory practices, bias, human error and exclusion are eliminated from this commitment. Similarly, we express concern that the focus is only on students – noting that students have caregivers and siblings that might be out of the school system. We reiterate our call, 6000 in person petition and half-a-decade-long advocacy for universal access to sanitary pads for all Batswana that menstruate.
- We welcome closing digital connectivity gaps, however note lack of commitment to reducing costs of internet access for consumers [and not just providers] to unlock productivity, digital work productivity and innovation. We further express concern for limited avenues for countering misinformation, disinformation and technology assisted gender-based violence as connectivity and the use of AI are increased. Furthermore, we question the safeguards in data protection, surveillance and foreign influence where internet providers are owned by questionable global figures that have influenced elections, foreign policy influence and digital security capacity in their own countries – leaving room for interference in our own.
- We welcome improvements in financial transaction enablement, hoping this will reduce consumer-related costs. In addition, we hope that criminal and fraudulent activity safeguards will be improved in line with advancements.
- We are concerned that the Ministry of Finance relied on the World Bank’s Doing Business Report, more specifically “Business Ready” report: a new iteration of its ‘Ease of Doing Business’ report that raised several concerns. These concerns included regular changes in methodology, continuously evolving data subjects (regulations) and countries intentionally working to influence rankings. This made rankings harmful, especially for women who were structurally excluded without any means for accountability. We further note that rankings consistently exclude grassroots communities, who would often be considered outliers in data collection efforts. One example is the exclusion of LGBTIQ+ persons despite some economies having that data, especially with anti-LGBT protests – reflecting a climate for variant forms of violence against marginalised communities.
- We note with interest, the macroeconomic outlook focused on global powers and not just subregional instability in SADC. This reflects the country’s positioning and aspirations in trade, MICE, and energy. This leaves a gap in the government’s commitments to ACFTA and other regional instruments that are critical to the region’s aspirations. We also commend several instances of climate change mentions, with a concern for how Batswana will be protected through the built environment (including disability accessibility and eco-friendly), economic protection and recovery.
- We call for equitable approaches to tax legislative changes. This means those with significantly higher income and wealth pay higher taxes. In addition, working towards redistribution of wealth where exploitation and extraction are grossly experienced by the most vulnerable individuals in society in targeted sectors. Whilst corporate tax is long overdue, there should be provisions for exceedingly higher income brackets should be targeted. Whilst we support local authority resource mobilisation, we call for increased capacity for corruption prevention and citizen oversight to ensure local authority mandates and safeguards are a priority.
- VAT on digital trade will do more harm than good. Particularly for entrepreneurs and content creators that have not been earning an income. It is interesting that no country comparative was provided where this is a success. It compromises the need for innovation and digitalisation in new markets. We also note that Kazungula is not identified as a key trade avenue with bottlenecks, where truck drivers can wait for several days.
- In respect of vaccines, we call on the government to me more proactive in securing generic manufacturing intellectual property rights to safeguard the country’s health system and possibly export to neighboring countries. This will not only ensure infrastructure for pandemic preparedness, prevention and response measures, but also ensure avenues for collaborative research and development investments that can augment resourcing gaps in the country’s research capacity.
- We commend the support for the creative industry, hoping that all arts will be supported with a bias for those most marginalised and based in under resourced areas. We further commend the strengthening of the research and development ecosystem. Noting the need to accelerate research on advanced technology, governance accountability, humanities and health advancements. We note the need for strengthening the last two mentioned to strengthen community, empathy and Setho given the regressive declines in human rights standards, diversity and inclusion globally and within societal ills domestically. We further call on the private sector to similarly invest in research and development as is the norm in [their home and often] advanced economies. This is in line with notable shift from a knowledge-based to an “innovation-knowledge-export inspired economy”. This would require a landscape filled with think tanks, rich, timely and reliable government data, bilateral development partnerships and not just institution partnerships.
- We commend the strengthening of public finance expenditure, oversight and laws. We note with concern the leasing of government vehicles when there is a huge government fleet that is not optimally used across government departments. We further express concern that certain electoral promises on shifting agencies and departments out of the Office of the President will not be realised in the next coming financial year or near future. This could compromise trust and fulfilment of the new social contract from the electoral vote.
- We express concern that youth unemployment has been noted (38.1%) but with too few clear approaches on how to address this for current statistics. How can youth be gainfully employed? What avenues are the government intervening on or creating to ensure that this high figure is reduced?
- National Health Insurance remains unclear, without any timelines or possible allocation for feasibility. The insecurity in development aid has not been addressed, creating a gap of uncertainty on sustainability. Similarly, gender-based violence is noted without any notable financial investments to reflect the state’s commitment to prevent, mitigate and eliminate it.
- We further express concern for the labeling of a “New” Botswana. A country cannot ignore its history, precedence and culture which all serve as tenets that have withstood different political administrations. Whilst the most recent general election heralded a renewed vision, we have the same government systems, bureaucrats and red tape that have endured decades of poor accountability, corruption, land grabbing and interests of the elite that cannot be erased without radical and transformative interventions.