World Bank proposes support for Botswana
Staff Writer | Tuesday December 1, 2015 17:04
The support will focus on private sector-led growth and jobs, strengthening human and physical assets and effective resource management.
A recent news release from the group says executive directors of World Bank Group institutions recently discussed the group’s CPF for Botswana for 2016-2020.
The new CPF will guide the World Bank Group’s support to Botswana in addressing its national priorities of eradicating abject poverty, reducing inequality and promoting job creation.
The CPF is firmly anchored in the priorities identified by the WBG’s Systematic Country Diagnostics for Botswana and the government’s national development plans.
World Bank Country Director, Guang Zhe Chen explained that analytical and knowledge products will be an important part of this CPF.
“They will provide the evidence required to make policies which will help Botswana achieve its development priorities that are also well aligned with the World Bank Group’s global goals of reducing poverty and boosting shared prosperity by 2030,” he said.
The CPF will assist Botswana in its diversification efforts away from the diamond sector and transition to a growth model that promotes development of a competitive and export-orientated private sector, and creates sufficient broad-based employment.
Through targeted investments, CPF will contribute towards bettering water supply and sanitation services, upgrading road infrastructure, improving equitable access to and quality and relevance of secondary and tertiary education, strengthening health services to address constraints hampering quality and efficient health service delivery, and enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of Botswana’s social protection system to support the poorest households, mitigate the impact of poverty, and allow for graduating from safety net programmes.
It also envisages a broad set of advisory services and analytics to address knowledge gaps in poverty, demographics, health fiscal space, education expenditure, trade and global value chains, water transfer, renewable energy and energy efficiency.
IFC will further explore opportunities for supporting small and medium enterprises, providing capital and capacity building to banks, supporting non-banking financial institutions and promoting financial inclusion. IFC aims to build on its success in financing solar power projects in South Africa by helping attract investors to renewable power projects in Botswana.
“We want to help private businesses be a driving force in diversifying Botswana’s economy,” Saleem Karimjee, IFC country manager for Southern Africa said. “There is tremendous potential for production of energy from renewable sources, and IFC will work to encourage projects that allow Botswana to export its abundant sunshine.”
This CPF represents a joint strategy of the World Bank Group comprising the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Finance Corporation and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency.