The Economic Diversification and Inclusive Growth Portfolio, as an integrated programme, is implemented across different sectors and institutions in Botswana with the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry as the lead Implementing Partner with various responsible partners. The Ministry is leading on the Economic Diversification Drive Strategy and the Regulatory Impact Assessment, with the latter aimed at creating an enabling business environment for the ease of doing business in Botswana.
The other responsible partners include the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, which is leading on the Decentralisation Policy and Local Economic Development Framework; Ministry of Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration (Poverty Eradication Coordination Unit in the Office of the President), which is leading on the National Poverty Eradication Policy and Multidimensional Poverty Approach; Ministry of International Affairs and Cooperation, which is leading on the South-South & Triangular Cooperation; Botswana Investment and Trade Centre, which is leading on the Botswana Exporter Development Programme; Business Botswana, which is leading on the private sector development agenda; and the Botswana Chamber of Mines, which is the partner on the Supplier Development Programme.
The Programme has six strategic contributing outcome areas to both the United Nations Sustainable Development Framework (2017-2021) and the Country Programme Document (2017-2021). The six areas are:
1. The policy environment strengthened to promote economic diversification and inclusive growth in Botswana;
2. The policy environment strengthened to promote the multidimensional poverty measurement;
3. Institutional capacity strengthened to plan and implement Local Economic Development;
4. Institutional capacity strengthened to design and implement the Supplier Development Programme for SMMEs development;
5. Institutional capacity strengthened to design and implement a revised Economic Diversification Drive Strategy and Exporter Development Programme; and
6. Enhanced enabling environment to facilitate the participation of the informal sector into the economy.
Significant achievements have been recorded since the implementation of the Portfolio commenced. Some of these achievements include the following:
• The successful review and evaluation of the Botswana Exporter Development Programme (2013-2017), the Local Economic Development Framework (2013-2017) and the Economic Diversification Drive Strategy (2011-2016).
• The development of a roadmap to guide the drafting a revised Economic Diversification Drive Strategy.
• The ongoing work on the development of a revised Botswana Exporter Development Programme, which is now in the final stages.
• The finalisation of the South-South & Triangular Cooperation Strategy, which has been reviewed, now being updated and thereafter will be approved by the Cabinet.
• The full operationalization of the Supplier Development Programme and the successful recruitment and training of national consultants to support the capacity development of small, micro, and medium enterprises in the mining, agro-processing, and infrastructure (projects) sectors. Textile and leather sectors will be added later.
• The finalisation of a draft National Poverty Eradication Policy and Implementation Plan, which are now being reviewed by relevant sector ministries before approval by the Cabinet.
• A comprehensive training for national technical persons on the multidimensional poverty approach and the development of a National Multidimensional Poverty Index.
• The full operationalization of the Regulatory Impact Assessment System within the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry. The system is expected to allow decision makers to understand both and cost and benefit analyses of existing and new legislative decisions on the business environment. To date, several Ministries have been sensitized on the RIA tool, with two comprehensive training workshops undertaken to enhance the capacity of key actors. The Ministry anticipates sharing the proposed System with Cabinet by early September for approval.
• The finalisation of a draft Decentralisation Policy, which is going through the final stages of review by the Steering Committee and thereafter will be submitted to Cabinet for approval.
The apex body of the private sector in Botswana, Business Botswana (BB), was supported under this programme to develop a six-year strategic plan (2018-2023). One of the interventions in the plan is to develop a Market Intelligence Information System, which has now been finalised, contents loaded and ready to be launched by BB.