Innovativeness is attainable

*DIKGANG PHILLIP MAKGALEMELE | Tuesday March 11, 2008 00:00

In fact David Nelson once said 'Stop assuming that a thing which has never been done before cannot be done at all'. This statement fits well with our Vision 2016 commitment of being an innovative and productive nation. After being reminded on the importance of being innovative, I spent the weekend reflecting on these statements especially trying to figure out the extent to which we have applied the spirit of being innovative in economic diversificitation.

In fact I then recalled that our 2006 and 2007 Independence day celebrations theme was 'economic diversification, the key to sustainable development'. Appreciating the fact that a theme is not an event but a process, I then interrogated my thoughts further trying to ascertain whether we have been innovative enough as a nation in order to attain the ideals of this theme, especially in the context of a rural setting.

Economic diversification to me means a lot of things. The concept itself calls on us to be innovative first and foremost, that is why many Batswana, especially the youth, ventured into new business projects over the last 10 years especially in the areas of information communication and technology, finance and investments. Our economy at one stage went into motor assembling, at the Hyundai assembly plant. In a village just like in a town and/or city, it is imperative that some people are innovative in terms of generating new business ideas, and diversifying existing businesses so that they can employ others. But what is also key is that each village must have an economic diversification plan and how they are going to attract investors to come to the village. The good starting point is that some of the potential investors in our respective villages are our children who may have established businesses elsewhere in the country and can be attracted to replicate such and invest at home.

The first innovation for me is that each village must have an economic diversification strategy. In developing this strategy, each village must amongst others ask the following questions: what is our understanding of economic diversification; are we as a village abreast of various policies and programmes which have been developed to fast track economic diversification; are we promoting the utilization of such policies; are we aware of various bodies that support businesses; do we ensure that our children are properly guided through their education to appreciate that they can in fact contribute towards economic diversificiation; since each village is rich in history, do we ensure that the history is preserved and shared with the youth who could utilise it to venture into tourism and eco-tourism business projects; does each family promote BOTHO as defined in Vision 2016, since BOTHO is key towards the success of businesses.

We must ask ourselves whether agriculture as the mainstay of rural development is taken seriously and practiced as a business. Do we for example keep the right head of cattle and deploy good management practises, and sell at an appropriate time to ensure profitability; does the way we rear the head support economic diversification, for example selling at the right age and reinvesting the funds for re-stocking and diversification, and investing in other businesses such as buying shares in the stock-exchange; or do we just keep the cattle in order to admire and kill them during weddings and funerals?

We must ask ourselves whether the way we practice agriculture as parents can motivate the youth to venture into agriculture and diversify the villages economy. On the other hand, do we as parents convince the youth that agriculture still remains an untapped business opportunity that can diversify the village economy given its comparative advantages like market access and basic infrastructure already developed and owned by the parents. If positive answers can be secured for all these questions, innovativeness towards economic diversification can be achieved.

I hold a strong view that with a high degree of innovativeness, economic diversification can be attained even at the village level. The following is food for thought. We need to develop a menu of comparative advantages presented by our village (a case for investors to come and invest at the village level), and this shall include heritage sites, infrastructure, population size, businesses already in place; the working class population and planned developments. We also need to undertake research on obvious business opportunities that exist, this is key for those wishing to go into business to access and attract 'village FDI'. There has to be a clear information mechanism for information on various government policies and programmes, and market opportunities as presented by various trade agreements. This can be disseminated through means such as debates at a community hall on topics such as 'how can rural biased policies contribute to village diversification', announcements through a loud speaker on at least one policy per week (e.g BOCODOL programmes), and weekly presentations at the church, for example 15 minutes at the end of each church service. The successful BNF evening class room teachings concept can be remodeled to concentrate on teaching the youth about business opportunities and economic diversification at the village level.

Part of the innovativeness must be to create partnerships with key professionals who have committed themselves one way or the other to supporting innovativeness and economic diversification.  For example the 2007 theme for teachers day is 'the teacher, the key partner in achieving national prosperity and well being'. For me such a theme presents an opportunity for a village to negotiate partnerships with professionals such as teachers, first to convince them to be innovative in agreeing to evaluate their theme after every three months, with the final evaluation at the next teachers day, as well as  selling to them some ideas that can help in village diversification with clear partnership areas and roles. Innovativeness must also include replicating what is working for other villages. For example in the Letlhakeng Sub District, 24 villages came together to form the Letlhakeng District Development Foundation Trust (LDDFT). The LDDFT mandate is executed on the ground by Village Community Trusts where Village Leadership Councils (VLC's) are formed to oversee implementation. VLC's comprise of chairpersons of various committees in a village.

Last but not least, the innovativeness must include an acknowledgement that jealousy of one another in business does exist, and therefore commit ourselves to supporting each another at the village level.

The 1999 citizen economic empowerment conference acknowledged that TLB (tshele, lehuha, buhitlha) was an impediment to business initiatives, and by extension to economic diversification. It is one thing to have a policy and the other to have fellow citizens 'economically disempowering others'. 

In fact out of frustration President Festus Mogae in the 2005 and 2006 State of the Nation address, spoke on this issue, urging us to compete as a team. In his 2005 address he decried the pull him/her syndrome (TLB), and many more Batswana have spoken against TLB with no action taken. Therefore a key innovation in a village setting towards economic diversification would be dealing with TLB and mobilising everybody to compete as a team.

*Dikgang Phillip Makgalemele is BFA President. He writes here in his personal capacity.