On the 1st September 1, 2021, BNYC published a national Call for Proposals that sought to mobilise and provide funding support to interested partners for implementation of projects (addressing priority areas including; Social Skills Development, Comprehensive Sexuality Education, Leadership Development, Alcohol & Substance Abuse) in the following catchment areas; Central - Serowe, Palapye, Selebi-Phikwe, Tutume, Southern – Goodhope, Mabutsane, Kweneng – Letlhakeng, North West - Shakawe, Sepopa, Seronga and South East - Ramotswa. I am writing on behalf of the young people who applied for the BNYC Youth Grant but have since been turned down without advancement of reasons by the BNYC Administration. For purposes of my contention regarding the BNYC Call for Submissions and evidence thereto, I am aware of two organisations who submitted their applications in Mabutsane and Ramotswa.
The project proposal in Mabutsane sought to integrate youth into community building, problem solving, activism, and stewardship over time. The Youth Empowerment Pathways Project is an initiative that seeks to increase youth knowledge in leadership, problem-solving, communication and negotiation skills and to allow them to build better relationships and connectedness with their peers, families and communities.
The project would also increase youth confidence to assert, claim and exercise their rights and responsibility as they aspire to access empowerment opportunities. Mabutsane as one of the rural areas with grinding poverty, its people are in dire need of empowerment initiatives such as the one of BNYC. There are no existing youth clubs or organisations in Mabutsane which can play a significant role in capacitating youth to eventually uplift their socio-economic status. The Youth Empowerment Pathways Project proposal has been crafted to address these wanting matters in Mabutsane.
In Ramotswa, the proposed project intended to provide innovative “tools” for preventing and addressing the phenomenon of substance use disorders/ illegal drugs in Botswana, based on the principles of Self-Help premise. The project also sought to provide support towards people in recovery from substance use disorders in Ramotswa. Albeit these most relevant proposals, BNYC has rejected them without providing justification to that effect. I find the negative – response by BNYC not only, disingenuous but also showing lack of serious intention by BNYC to drive meaningful development and to turn things around.
This kind of policy summersault is not only chicken-hearted but gives unimpressive picture about BNYC and Ministry of Youth Sport and Culture on delivery of their mandate.
As far as I am concerned, the BNYC Youth Grant is an intervention sponsored by UNDP meant to respond directly to the problems facing the youth in Botswana. Having identified a total of eleven villages to implement the youth empowerment initiative it only made logic for each village to be funded, especially for those that did submit their proposals for funding. It therefore beats common sense that only 10 organisations/ villages have been approved for funding as alluded to BNYC.
Mabutsane has since been rejected despite having shown interest in the call for submissions. What I read into this Mr President is - the decision to disapprove the Mabutsane youth project by BNYC is driven by partisan political motivation. In fact I equate this as utter irresponsible and iconoclastic vile handling of national development programmes by government officials! In effect the UNDP`s money is being utilised for political expediency on the part of government officials and this is a cause for concern.
Both the BNYC and MYSC under your tenure, Mr President has no direction and no actualisation of the vision of the National Development Plan 11 and Vision 2036 as well as the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. It even seems the two structures do not have regret for their failure to better lead, serve, and contribute effectively to the development of the nation.
In spite of numerous and sound development visions, policies and programmes articulated in Botswana Youth Policy and National Action Plan for Youth, there is poor implementation under MYSC partly because of poor delivery service by BNYC staff.
BNYC has continued to fail to mobilise marginalised youth and provide them with an opportunity for optimism, positive growth, creativity and social cohesion in harmonious structural reforms. I can’t help but conclude that their articulation of visions in colourful and expensive development plans, policies, programmes, etc., is mostly for hype and public relations.
Rather than offer bright opportunities for all youth, Botswana is rapidly becoming a land of failed people, with corruption, kleptocracy and unemployment characterising the country’s political leadership. Instead of a free and democratic society, we have injustice and insecurity conundrum characterised by heists committed by youth, child abuse, gender violence and extra-judicial killing. Today, the country is worse off under your watch, Mr President. Patriotism is a stranger to an average Motswana’s lexicon.
Unemployment has occasioned sophisticated crimes and social vices of alarming dimensions, leading to palpable security conundrum, manifested in youth restiveness, cultism in schools, unprecedented wave of armed robbery, drug addiction and the attendant mental derangement, etc.
The incidence of hazardous and exploitative child labour, poor nutrition and health, commercial sexual exploitation, girl prostitution, sexually transmitted diseases, juvenile abortion, teenage motherhood and child abandonment, youth drug addiction, delinquency and crimes with the danger of the youth becoming hardened criminals and various other vicious means of livelihood, remain nagging symptoms of underdevelopment and deepening poverty in Botswana. With the Botswana population quite young (where youth constitute two thirds of Botswana’s total population), it is very regrettable that majority of them encounter grinding poverty where many of them cannot even afford basic needs.
In spite of numerous incidents of youth involvement in anti-social behaviour, putting youth interest first and committing to Botswana’s development visions and programmes by the BNYC staff is not a matter of concern. It is discomforting that the BNYC does not appear to appreciate the seriousness of the situation.
This leaves me with no choice but to associate the response by BNYC as a sign of corrupt and weak management. This poor handling of national development initiatives by bureaucrats perpetuates the growing poverty symptoms among youth of Botswana.
The level of impoverishment is getting more acute and the pain of the ever-growing legion of the poor has become very unbearable. Your government Mr President is awash with captivating development visions, policies and plans, but corruption-induced failure of implementation of development projects on the part of the technocrats and political leaders is responsible for underdevelopment in the country. Mr President, corruption in your government is Botswana’s number one enemy. Corruption is responsible for nearly all the pains that we now experience as a nation and as individual Batswana.
Corruption in Botswana rubbishes good development dreams, visions, policies and plans and keeps development crawling. Corruption has put so much money in the pockets of a few privileged people and rendered the vast majority of the people poor.
It is in respect of this predicament that I decided to sensitise you as the Number One country’s leader on the evils of development project abandonment and policy summersault by BNYC with the expectation that you hold them accountable to their promises.
Proffering a solution, I urge you to pay attention to your Cabinet, particularly the MYSC. To be frank with you Mr President, failure to find permanent or long lasting solutions to the problems facing youth in Botswana is already resulting in deep-seated resentment and anger amongst many young people and is leading to feelings of despair and hopelessness. Such attitudes are an antithesis of democracy and economic growth.
And this is as a result of a democracy under your captainship, which is without improved quality of life and therefore making the generality of the citizenry useless, nonsensical, empty, unsustainable and an unforgiveable insult to the people’s intelligence!
Yours in defence of the five national principles of Botswana, namely – unity, botho, self-reliance, democracy and development.
*GAONTEBALE MOKGOSI is a community development practitioner
