Productivity, competitiveness in the workplace worrisome
Pini Bothoko | Monday March 4, 2024 06:00
The objective of the policy is to provide a framework for addressing national productivity and competitiveness challenges in a holistic and coordinated manner. Moreover, it will also help propel Botswana’ economy towards high income status through productivity improvement, a requisite for economic growth, employment and improved livelihood.
Delivering a statement on the recurrent and development budget proposals to the Committee of Supply in Parliament recently, Labour and Home Affairs Minister, Anna Mokgethi said the Institute of Development Management (IDM) report of 2023 shows that Botswana continues to get low ratings on global competitiveness.
Mokgethi stated that as Botswana moves towards achieving the aspirations of vision 2036, productivity and competitiveness are significant cornerstones of this transformative agenda. “This is not only necessary for economic growth but also employment creation and improvement of livelihoods.
It is necessary, therefore, that productivity and competitiveness in the workplace be attended to with the attention that it deserves to make a complete turnaround of the situation,” she said. The minister also stressed the need for citizens to commit to a willingness of understanding that productivity in the workplace is a condition of the mind. IDM had indicated that the comprehensive research used economic literature, international, national and regional sources and feedback from the business community, government agencies and academics to assess the competitiveness of Botswana and other countries in the 2023 ranking. The rankings evaluate business environments that support international investment decisions, domestic economic growth and assess the impact of various public policies.
IDM further noted that the rankings evaluate the efficiency of infrastructures, institutions and policies that encourage sustainable value creation by enterprises. The rankings indicated that Botswana is struggling to improve its overall performance on the rankings and that out of 64 countries selected for evaluation other countries in the bottom 10 in the rankings include Jordan at 54th position, Peru at 55, Mexico at 56, South Africa at 61, Argentina at 63th position to mention but a few. Botswana got position 59, slipping from position 58 in 2020 and position 61 in 2021.
Back in 2008 the country was rated 56th out of 134 countries, dropped to 66th in 2009, 76th in 2010 and 80th position in 2011. According to the 2023 results, factors that resulted with low rankings for Botswana this year, include high cost of doing business, high rate of unemployment, low levels of economic diversification, poor implementation of projects, programmes and policies, negative mindset and poor work ethic. For years Botswana has been battling to improve its rankings in global competitiveness experiencing a back-to-back nosedive in its global rankings.
Meanwhile, Mokgethi stated that the ministry has developed the national migration policy and its implementation plan is being finalised something that will serve as an overarching framework for coordination of migration governance to ensure safe, orderly and regular migration. “The policy will be finalised by March 2024. For my Ministry to have achieved the above milestones, it was due to the continuous technical and financial support from our social and development partners, and we wish to sincerely express our gratitude for assistance rendered,” she said.
Furthermore, she said the government continues to implement the Botswana Decent Work Country Programme (DWCP) 2020-2024, a joint programme of the tripartite constituents (government, the business community and labour movements) through which the International Labour Organisation (ILO) delivers support to its member states. Mokgethi stated that priorities for the programme are the creation of sustainable and decent employment, the enhancement of social protection and conditions of work and strong labour market governance institutions.
She said projects under the programme are at different stages, pointing out that with creation of sustainable and decent employment an implementation plan for the National Employment Policy (NEP) is being developed. “The plan is aimed at promoting productive, gainful and decent employment for Batswana led by the private sector. “In an effort to improve employability of young graduates, my ministry continues to provide a platform for young graduates to acquire work readiness skills and good work ethics through the national internship programme,” she added. The minister revealed that as at December 31, 2023 the programme has enrolled 3,789 against the targeted 4,118, which translates to 92% noting that since inception of the programme to date, a total of 11,455 of interns were absorbed into employment. Mokgethi also said the revised national internship guidelines were approved in December 2023 to allow for the placement of interns in the private sector and international organisations and also to include technical and vocational education training graduates in the programme.
She said, “I note with satisfaction that the Ministry continues to receive requests from the private sector for placement of interns. In a quest to improve the flow of information between job seekers and openings to enhance employability, the Ministry has been undertaking employability trainings with critical stakeholders to equip the jobseekers, more especially youth with soft skills.” Mokgethi added that to date, 20,238 has undergone the training in various locations around the country and the ministry through the technical and financial support of ILO implemented a project titled a ‘Just Transition to a Greener World of Work’ from September 2021 to September 2023. “The main outcome of the project was to develop an action plan to serve as a guide on the next steps that we need to undertake to ensure a just transition towards environmentally sustainable economies and societies.
“This is with a view to optimise employment creation through investments into environmentally sustainable production and consumption and management of natural resources and minimise the negative impacts of the transitions which can include the displacement of workers and possible job losses,” she said. Regarding social protection, Mokgethi said the tripartite, through the BDWCP is working on coming up with a social protection system for the world of work of which several options, including unemployment insurance fund, occupational broad-based pension scheme and unemployment stipend as forms of social protection systems will be explored. On matters regarding minimum wages, Mokgethi said the government recently adjusted the minimum wages for 2023-2024 financial year to cater for amongst others, inflation and the increasing cost of living for an average worker.
She said in an effort to improve the minimum wage system, the government and social partners will, in the coming financial year, undertake a comprehensive review of the system with a view to categorise the various sectors of the economy. Mokgethi said this will take into account the uniqueness of the sectors and emerging or new forms of work for realisation of decent work in Botswana.