Mmegi

The high ambitions of the Transformation Strategy

From the streets: Batswana are frequently ranked amongst the world’s unhappiest people 
PIC: MORERI SEJAKGOMO
From the streets: Batswana are frequently ranked amongst the world’s unhappiest people PIC: MORERI SEJAKGOMO

Amongst the many hopeful targets revealed by the National Transformation Strategy, which was made available this week, is one that seeks to see Botswana move from the bottom, to the top 20 of the World Happiness Report. That depends on the numerous other targets, many of them steep. MBONGENI MGUNI & TIMOTHY LEWANIKA write

Under the tonnes of strategies, policies, projects and billions of Pula announced in the recent budget, lies the principle objective of improving the livelihoods of Batswana. Under that principle indicator is the basic, primal need to be happy.

The Ministry of Finance measures “happiness” through economic growth and associated sub-indicators such as employment creation, the level of wages, rate of growth in prices and other numbers. For technocrats there, the goal is essentially to ensure that opportunities and incomes in the economy keep up with the level of growth in the population, over time.

Editor's Comment
Ruling party should tread carefully on cadre deployment

But on the particularly sensitive question of cadre deployment, the BNF must tread very carefully.The issue deserves robust debate, not ideological enthusiasm. Recent public comments from the BNF leadership are reassuring: the party has said that government positions should be based on merit and competence rather than party membership, and that it does not have a specific cadre-deployment policy.That principle should remain firmly at the centre...

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