Africa-Press – Botswana. Ambitions of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) are aligned to that of Botswana government of developing a knowledge-based society, empowering youth and women as well as nurturing democratic principles.
President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi expressed the sentiments during a courtesy call by UNDP Regional Director for Africa, Ms Ahunna Eziakonwa-Onochie at the Office of the President yesterday.
He observed that the UNDP had programmes and projects that served the needs of the country. The President appealed to the organisation to continue providing the country with the best assistance.
He said the country was determined to continue with what it was doing to serve the interests of the people, empower them fully to use their knowledge to drive the development agenda.
“The development agenda is focused on among others heightening professionalism to develop people with professional competencies for efficiency in service delivery,” President Masisi said.
He said the country was dealing with the challenges of sharpening the skill base for its people by perfecting education and skills training.
He noted that government was also engaged in programmes to empower women to take up leadership positions in the political landscape, adding…‘the rigorous election process of selecting candidates for political positions had over the years been difficult for women to go through’.
Dr Masisi added that even though the country had adopted automatic succession so that whoever was the Vice President would automatically replace the President at the end of the two five-year terms, the system still appeared to have a hindrance to the succession plan.
He said the current arrangement was that the Vice President must have a constituency.
He said Botswana was a full member of the United Nations, guided by the strong principles of peace, democracy and stability.
Dr Masisi also spoke of democracy as an important ingredient to the country’s growth and relations with the world.
“We are committed to transparency, honest development and sharing what we do best. We want to trade in personnel. We are where we are because of continuous improvement,” he said.
In an interview, Ms Eziakonwa-Onochie said Botswana was one of the most peaceful countries in the continent and had also enjoyed successive peaceful democratic transitions.
She also credited the country for doing well in terms of running and developing its economy.
Ms Eziakonwa-Onochie said she and President Masisi discussed good practices in terms of economic diplomacy, governance and how to structure services to other countries.
“We also spoke about some of the country’s challenges and the role that UNDP and the UN system as a whole could play in supporting home grown solutions to the experienced challenges. I had also wanted to understand the country’s development vision and the strategy for achieving sustainable development goals,” she said.
Her meeting with President Masisi also touched on youth issues particularly, the need to continue investing in young people to enable them take the country and the continent to another level through innovation, technology and talent.
She said this also included the need to increase the space for women, particularly in political participation and how it was critical to sustaining peace and development.
The Regional Director’s official mission in the country will include high-level engagements with various members of government and women leaders to enhance partnership opportunities.
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