Okavango Delta Management Plan - Ramsar Convention on Wetlands

Strategic Objectives
• To sustainably use the wetland resources of the <strong>Okavango</strong> <strong>Delta</strong> for the longterm
benefit of all stakeholders.
• to develop socio-economic opportunities to improve livelihoods of the <strong>Okavango</strong>
<strong>Delta</strong> stakeholders.
4.3 STRENGTHS-WEAKNESSES-OPPORTUNITIES-THREATS
(SWOT) ANALYSIS
The SWOT analysis involves close examination of factors that are likely to
constrain or limit achievement of the strategic objectives through a Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis. SWOT is a simple
framework for generating realistic and achievable sets of operational objectives and
associated management actions from a situational analysis. This approach to
evaluation focuses on internal and external environments.
The internal analysis is a comprehensive evaluation of the internal environment’s
potential strengths and weakness, whilst external evaluation provides the external
environment opportunities and threats.
When developing the operational objectives and the associated actions, the
interaction between the four columns of the SWOT profile become important. The
strengths can be leveraged to pursue opportunities and reduce threats, and at the
same time planners and managers can be alerted to the weaknesses that may need
to be overcome in order to successfully pursue the opportunities.
The weaknesses in general form the basis for the development of operational
objectives and actions using the available strengths and opportunities. The threats
become the risks or assumptions.
4.3.1 INSTITUTIONAL SWOT ANALYSIS
The SWOT analysis is given in Figure 4-1. The environmental profiling for the
institutional subsystem indicates that institutions with clear mandates are in
place. These institutions enjoy government support and some, such as government
departments and certain NGOs, have a relatively good financial base and access to
external funding. The major threat to the institutional strengthening is the zero
growth moratorium, which government has put on the public sector and competing
needs for financial support such as HIV and AIDS. However, with the advent of
privatisation policy, strong private sector, NGOs and Community Based Orga
nisations (CBOs), the manpower capacity could be augmented by taking advantage
of these opportunities and strengths.
Botswana being a stable country with a record of good governance and prudent
fiscal management as well as high credit rating, can benefit from opportunities for
external funding. These opportunities are to a large extent negated by the middle
income status of Botswana accorded by the international community.
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