Botswana fast-tracks efforts to achieve MDGs
Lerato Maleke | Wednesday September 3, 2014 16:11
Spearheaded by the United Nations (UN), the eight MDGs which range from halving extreme poverty rates to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, form a blueprint agreed to by several countries and development institutions.
With the 2015 deadine fast approaching, all involved stakeholders countries have kick-started efforts to formulate a post MDG agenda. The Ministry of Finance and UN held a consultative meeting yesterday to identify priority issues deemed pertinent in respective sectors for consideration, as part of the Botswana Position on the post 2015 development agenda.
UN resident coordinator, Anders Pederson, said it was important for all stakeholders to join the bandwagon and contribute to developing the new agenda.
“We owe it to our nation, as partners in development within government, the private sector, civil society organisations, development partners, the academia and other stakeholders, to ensure that Botswana inherits a national development framework which subscribes to the set global framework while at the same time is mindful that it does not compromise our aspirations and ideals as a nation,” Pederson said.
He further explained that the post 2015 Development Agenda builds on progress achieved through the current eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) established after the United Nations Millennium Summit of 2000. “While tremendous progress has been made through the implementation of the MDGs targets and indicators, the MDGs initially faced criticism for not sufficiently covering all aspects of social development dictated to the developing countries,” he noted.
Pederson reminded participants to bear in mind the important lessons learnt in Botswana to pave the way forward.
“For instance extreme poverty has been reduced by more than half from 23% in 2002/2003 to 6.5% in 2009/10; primary school enrolments consistently remained high, around 90% for the past 15 years and improved to the current 93% (2012),” he said. He pointed out that efforts to fulfill gender balance goals were commendable as the enrolment of girls and boys at levels of education system.
Perderson said progress has also been made in reducing HIV prevalence among women of child-bearing age (15-49 years) and children born to HIV positive mothers.
He said most Batswana access safe drinking water, which is above the average of all middle-income countries. Pederson said that the country made great strides in attaining the information and communication technology (ICT) targets as witnessed by the continuous rollout of the broadband Internet service to reach the remotest parts of Botswana.
He revealed that key players in the ICT industry had recently extended connectivity to government schools in order to facilitate learning. He, however, said this doesn’t imply that Botswana should be complacent, as more needs to be done to improve locals’ quality of life.
“As we prioritise Botswana’s post 2015 development agenda, let us ensure that the fight against poverty and inequality results in reductions in the corresponding level of unemployment,” he noted.
Pederson also said there are still challenges besieging the health sector. He pointed out child and maternal mortality as a niggling issue stagnated over the MDG period before substantial progress was recorded in the 2011 Population and Housing Census.
Pederson advised government to establish innovative ways to curb the rate of new HIV infections cases and cover the cost of anti-retroviral treatment, which is anticipated to escalate in the next few years.
He also said that the spread of communicable and non-communicable diseases should be countered and strong linkages between poverty and environment, particularly in rural areas, be closely monitored to minimise the negative impact of climate change.