Volume 1 - Government of Botswana

2.5 This paradigm shift reflects the
recognition that population as a factor and a
beneficiary of development is central to social
and economic planning and, therefore, must be
integrated into the mainstream development
planning process. As a result, Government
adopted a comprehensive, multi-sectoral
National Population Policy in 1997. The Policy
provides a framework to ensure that the
dynamics of population and development are
taken into account in mapping out long term
prospects. Since the impact of policies and
programmes cannot be evaluated realistically
within the medium-term time frame, a long
term planning perspective, such as Vision
2016, is necessary. The National Population
Policy has been reviewed to align it with the
latest developments, including the MDGs.
2.6 In 2000, the Government of
Botswana, along with other governments,
signed the Millennium Declaration. Most
importantly, the declaration committed
Botswana to alleviating extreme poverty and
its related socio-economic problems. The
Declaration commits countries to achieve
eight goals by 2015. These include:
“eradicating extreme poverty and hunger”;
“achieving universal primary education”;
“promoting gender equality and empowering
women”; “reducing child mortality”;
“improving maternal health”; “combating
HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases”;
“ensuring environmental sustainability”; and
“developing global partnerships for
development.”
2.7 The resource needs to achieve these
goals are substantial. The 2005 United
Nations World Summit of the Millennium
Development Goals recognised this challenge
and called on countries to “develop and adopt
by 2006, and implement comprehensive
national development strategies to achieve the
internationally agreed development goals and
objectives, including the Millennium
Development Goals.” Botswana has
undertaken a detailed inventory of the full
range of public interventions and investments
needed to meet or exceed the MDGs, along
with the associated costs of doing so, and
the most feasible way of financing these
interventions. This MDG needs assessment
and costing exercise is, therefore,
fundamentally about the meaningful
integration of MDGs into National
Development Plan 10 to ensure that
Botswana accelerates progress to achieve
both the National Vision 2016 objectives
and MDG goals. Some details of the
progress made with respect to the MDGs are
provided in the following section.
PROGRESS TOWARDS THE
MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT
GOALS (MDGS)
2.8 The MDGs to be achieved by 2015
overlap considerably with the goals of
Vision 2016. The report of Botswana's
Millennium Development Goals Based
Strategies has provided estimates of the cost
of the programmes needed to reach the
MDGs. These have been incorporated into
National Development Plan 10 to the extent
possible, given the public expenditure
strategy adopted on the basis of the
government revenue that will be available
during NDP 10 (see Chapter 6). Progress
towards the MDGs includes the following:
• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
The proportion of people living below
the Poverty Datum Line fell from 49
percent in 1993/94 to 30 percent in
2002/03, and is estimated to have
declined further to 23 percent by the end
of NDP 9. The percentage of children
under the age of five, who were
underweight for age, was reduced from
12.4 percent in 2000 to 4 percent in
2006.
• Universal primary education. In 2004, the
net enrolment rate for the primary school
age group, those between 7 and 13 years,
was 98.5 percent. The Ministry of
Education and Skills Development
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