Partnership To Help Districts� Sustainable Development

Lerato Maleke | Monday March 10, 2014 16:02

 

Presenting the ministry’s 2014/15 budget proposals in Parliament on Thursday, Peter Siele said the partnership was with the United Nations Development Programme and the Commonwealth Local Government Forum.

The partnership is known as the Local Economic Development Policy framework. “While Botswana has over the years made strides in economic growth and political stability, the country continues to face challenges of poverty and unemployment,” he told Parliament.

“Once complete, the framework will assist districts to exploit local economic opportunities for sustainable development.”

Last year, it was revealed that Francistown had been identified as one of the pilots of Local Economic Development.

Meanwhile, local authorities are set to receive a financial boost in the 2014/15 budget, according to the proposals Siele laid before Parliament. The minister is proposing a 15% increase to local authorities’ revenue support grants in the new financial year, to P3.05 billion.

“The increase in the grant is to cater for councillors’ terminal benefits, maintenance of facilities at local authorities, food supplies and provision of allowances for headmen of arbitration,” Siele said.

According to his proposals, Gaborone City will get the lion’s share of the revenue support grant with P200.5 million, followed by Francistown with P137.6 million, Lobatse with P88.3 million and Selebi Phikwe with P79 million.

Gaborone’s proposed grant is 33% higher than in 2013/14, while Francistown’s budget represents an 11% increase.

In districts, the Central District eclipses all other allocations with a proposed budget of P681.5 million or nearly one third of the total allocation for district councils. Other leading districts include North West with P338.5 million, Kweneng with P337.6 million and Southern with P301.5 million.

Overall, Siele proposed an eight percent increase to the ministry’s recurrent budget to P4.5 billion. “Part of this increase is for the newly established Department of Rural Development,” he said.

By Thursday, parliamentarians were still debating the proposals.