Rural development a challenge - PHK
| Tuesday June 4, 2013 00:00
Ke a dumedisa bagaetsho.
It is gratifying to be part of this very important occasion marking the first national consultative forum on Rural Development Pitso. I am particularly pleased to be officiating at this Pitso as Chairperson of the newly reconstituted Rural Development Council. The timing of this Pitso therefore, with the theme 'Rethinking Rural Development: Moving more towards sustainable livelihoods and indigenous knowledge systems' could not have come at a better time.
As a brief background to the Council, I should indicate that, the Rural Development Council, or RDC for short, was established through a Presidential Directive back in 1972 following the initiative by Government to develop guidelines on how to address issues of rural poverty in Botswana.This gave birth to the 1973 Rural Development Policy, which focused more on Livestock and Agriculture Development, Education, Health, Relationship between Central Government and Local Authorities, District level Organisations, Community development and Coordination of extension services.The policy gave way to the current rural development structures as coordinating machinery at national, district and village levels.
The RDC was subsequently established to serve as the highest national consultative body mandated to promote and coordinate rural development across various sectors and levels within Government, as well as across the various stakeholders within our economy.The Council in other words served as 'Government watchdog' on rural development agenda. As a Coordinating body, the RDC had no executive mandate for project and programme implementation since those were, and to a large extent still are, responsibilities of line ministries.
At the time, rural development was the highest government priority as approximately 70% of the country's population was attached to traditional farming. To put more emphasis on this commitment the first President of this Republic, Sir Seretse Khama stated in his message in the 1970/75 National Development Plan that and I quote, 'the greatest challenge ahead of us is undoubtedly that of rural development'.This challenge called for a pronounced need for development amenities that included rural industries, better rural roads, improved water supplies, rural health care, and cooperatives for self-reliance, agencies and institutions critical to advancing rural development.
It was, therefore, befitting that Government focused on rural development to improve basic social services and raise living standards in rural areas. A deliberate effort was thus made to provide resources and set in motion structures to drive and coordinate rural development programmes geared towards improvement of the standard of living in the rural areas.In this regard, a number of rural development initiatives including Botswana Enterprise Development Unit (BEDU), National Development Bank (NDB), Roads Training Centre (RTC), Brigades, Community Development Centres were established under the auspices of the Rural Development Council.
It is through such initiatives, and many others that got introduced with time, that the RDC played a pivotal role in their operation, hence the Council is credited for the significant achievements, since its inception in 1972, to the improvement of the standard of living in the rural areas.Notwithstanding these, there have been a number of impediments to the successful operation of the RDC. Setting up of new Government Ministries and departments with mandates bordering on what hitherto was the mandate of the Council has meant that some programmes and initiatives for rural development implemented in the rural areas never got integrated in the RDC agenda, a challenge which has led to duplication and overlapping of activities in the rural areas.
As alluded to earlier, a lot has been achieved in terms of providing some infrastructural elements of rural development. However, the same cannot be said with respect to the livelihoods elements of rural development, or livelihoods. This means that a concerted effort must be made in addressing these softer elements for the maximum benefit of our rural communities.Rural communities must be mobilised and empowered to be enterprising in order to enable them to appreciate the basic services that have been and, continue to be provided for them, not as an end in themselves but rather, as a means and leverage to achieve outcomes that would impact positively on their livelihoods.
To this effect, the Council has organised this very important Pitso, as a forum to dialogue and share its new roadmap with key stakeholders in an endeavour to re-focus the mandate of the Council and to further position the RDC to remain steadfast and relevant to the contemporary situation.The Presidential Directive Cab 27 (B) 2012 REV. 1 which redefines how henceforth rural development should be understood, advocates for a strong focus on the softer elements of rural development.This requires coordination of efforts to transform our rural communities to a level where they can not only identify, but also take advantage of opportunities in the evolving technology and credit infrastructure to advance their socio-economic status.
I must emphasise that we need to come out of this workshop with an elaborate operational plan to guide the Council to provide an effective oversight role in the general implementation of rural development policy.To that end, I urge you to earnestly discuss the topics that will be laid before you and proffer recommendations and strategies that should guide implementation of the rural development policy.During this gathering we will be privileged to benefit from presentations on selected topics, from the academic and practical perspectives, meant to stimulate our thinking and discussions as we reflect on the subject matter of the theme.
Following the presentations, I understand participants will be arranged into smaller groups for more focused discussions at which you will probe more on how the proposed paradigm shift to rural development should empower the rural communities to actively participate and take full control of the envisioned change.May I implore all of you to join and assist us in our effort to develop strategies to operationalise the envisaged and improved new rural development livelihood approaches. In doing so, we should as well appreciate, in particular, the indigenous knowledge systems and the innovative contributions made by the rural communities in addressing issues they grapple with on a daily basis.
The basic difference with the new approach to the Rural Development mandate is that I am not looking for academic studies or theories of rural development, I want us to look at all the regions of Botswana and determine the comparative advantages of each region to see how best communities in those regions can best be assisted to undertake projects on the basis of what they know best and improve upon such traditional knowledge, e.g. for Kgalagadi, a small stock abattoir and growing of sengaparile could be cases in point.
For the Ngamiland and Chobe areas, fishing, tourism enterprises and the 'koma' are cases in point.In areas where there are rivers and dams feasibility studies should explore the potentials like big scale horticulture and processing plants. Other areas might require road infrastructure, power and water etc. Funding for such projects can and should be multi-pronged. E.g. Public Private Partnerships, public funding through Ministries and Departments for budgeted projects and programmes such as land servicing, sewerage, sanitation, storm water drainage.
These should include Community Associations or Trusts through possible funding by United Nations Agencies, donations from development partners, companies or private foundations' corporate social responsibility.The Ministry of Trade and Industry is vigorously resuscitating the Cooperative Movement whose main hurdle is lack of good and honest management even where financing is not a problem. The Internship Programme and other training progrmmes will and should create a pool of emerging managers who would be further moulded to assume higher management positions.The Brigades and Technical Colleges are also potentially producing candidates for buttressing business enterprises in the rural areas.
As I conclude, Director of Ceremonies, I wish to thank all of you for having appreciated the need to participate at this Pitso and also your respective departments and organisation for ensuring that you are part of this very important occasion. Pula!