Botswana puts youth at the heart of government

The Southern African state of 1.7 million people is implementing a policy of placing youth officers in every government ministry and department.

“It is a strategy to ensure that young people are actively supported by all government ministries. The services offered by ministries need to be sensitive and accommodating to young people,” says Shadreck Boitshwarelo, Principal Youth Officer in the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture which has been assigned the task of co-ordinating youth mainstreaming in line with ministries and other sectors.

Mr Boitshwarelo is visiting London this week (mid-November 2008) with his colleague Kealeboga Kelly Motlogelwa from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). UNFPA-Botswana initiated the visit to learn about pioneering youth mainstreaming work done by the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Youth Affairs Division and to explore a possible strategic partnership in supporting Botswana’s government. UNFPA-Botswana is providing both technical and financial support to the national youth mainstreaming process, at the request of the government. UNFPA in Botswana supports the government in Sexual and Reproductive Health and HIV Prevention, Population and Development including Gender.

Dr Fatiha Serour, Director of Youth Affairs at the Secretariat, says that mainstreaming youth issues is “key to national development as it not only integrates the concerns of over 50 per cent of the population, but also benefits from their contribution.”

Despite its status as a middle-income country, unemployment is a major concern in Botswana, where youth make up 40 per cent of the population. Mr Boitshwarelo believes that lack of work underpins most of the problems faced by young people. “They go through the education system and then at the end of high school, those who are not able to proceed to tertiary education have nowhere to go. They have to survive and many of them join the unemployed which causes all sorts of problems like alcohol and substance abuse, crime, teenage pregnancies and HIV/AIDS.”

The Government of Botswana has, however, come up with schemes to address the problems of unemployment including the ‘Out of School Youth Grant Scheme’ that helps youth to start small businesses in which they can also employ other young people, and the ‘Young Farmers Fund’ which is geared towards encouraging youth to go into farming.

Ms Motlogelwa, whose work focuses on supporting government and organisations that support youth in the area of sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS as well as other needs of young people, says the government has put the issues of young people at the top of its policy agenda as reflected in the coming National Development Plan. “Although 17.1 per cent of the population is living with HIV/AIDS, strides have been made in reducing the infection rates among the youth; however, it still remains a particular problem among the young women and girls,” she explains.

She adds: “Mainstreaming is about investing in young people as future leaders who know their own rights and responsibilities as well as those of their peers. Young people have to have a voice in policy and decision-making at all levels. They have to be able to access information, relevant skills and required services. UNFPA-Botswana is keen in partnering with organisations such as the Commonwealth that have a similar vision in ensuring the development of young people.”

Mr Boitshwarelo says the issue of access to equity is important: “Young people feel disadvantaged, when services don’t reach them and hence having focal persons in all ministries will allow for a multisectoral approach to addressing youth issues.

The Government of Botswana established the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture in 2007 and next year, as the modern Commonwealth celebrates its 60th anniversary year with the theme ‘thecommonwealth@60: serving a new generation’, the government will also be establishing a Department of Youth.

“Making youth issues an integral part of government policy and programme is what the core of our work is. We look forward to working with Botswana, to support them in their mainstreaming efforts so that Botswana could represent a model for other Commonwealth countries to learn from,” says Dr Serour.

Secretariat Links:

• Country Profile: Botswana
• Youth