The Voice (Francistown)
Chedza Simon
24 July 2007
Income poverty is likely to be achieved by a few countries by the year 2015, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFP) has said.
UNFP National Economists, Sennye Obuseng revealed at a meeting hosted by Botswana Coalition of Non Governmental Organisation (BOCONGO), that a few countries in Africa and globally are likely to achieve eradicating income poverty which one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
He said for this goal to be achieved, countries must be committed to the eradication of poverty and human deprivation. The National Economist said the nations' performance criteria against a development agenda is inspired by global consensus because it fulfills sovereign obligations.
Obuseng said to reduce extreme poverty and hunger, there is need to reduce the proportion of the population living below the poverty line, by half. He asserted: "Poverty headcount ratio has been reduced from 47 percent in 1992 to 30.3 percent in 2002. This shows that global target will easily be met while domesticated targets will not be met. The second target is to reduce by 50 percent, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger, which has virtually been achieved.
Botswana, Obuseng said, has achieved access to ten years of basic education and that the country has improved the quality and relevance of education. "There was need to eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and at all levels of education no later than 2015. This has been achieved," said the National Economist.
The other target, according to the UNFP, is to achieve reduction of gender disparity in access to and control of productive resources by 2015. The third target for Botswana is to reduce discrimination and violence against women and the incidence of rape by 50 percent by 2011.
Millennium Development Goals also aims to raise women's participation in leadership and decision-making positions by at least 60 percent by 2016. Obuseng said: "Botswana is essentially open to partnership. There is trade liberalisation, with SADC free trade protocol, which enables a regional free trade zone. There is SACU, a customs free zone that establishes a large regional market and provides an optimal structure for collecting and distributing customs revenue. The Cotonou Agreement, which accords African, ACP countries preferential access to the EU, is another way to achieve this goal. The AGOA, also accords some Batswana goods duty and quota free access to the United States."
Meanwhile, BOCONGO Programmes Manager, Barulaganye Mogotsi, said civil society is the realm in which citizens associate with each other in order to ensure that government and state institutions respond to their needs and are accountable.
Mogotsi said for government needs CSO if it is to respond to citizen's desire and needs, while these organisations need government to protect its freedom to associate. The Programmes Manager said since poverty is a cross cutting issue all civil society organisations's activities contribute to poverty eradication. "These vary from creating voice for the poor through lobbying to empowering the poor through participatory development processes. NGO sector contributed immensely to household income by improving livelihood sources through Skills development," said Mogotsi.
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