What are the main impacts
2. What are the main impacts
The Ministry of Local Government
on people’s lives?
and Rural Development through the Department of Social Protecion Extreme poverty in Botswana was computes a payroll every month esimated at 6.4 per cent in 2009-10, a and sends it to BotswanaPost with reducion from 23.4 per cent in 2003. the equivalent payroll total cash for However, general poverty was sill payment of beneiciaries countrywide. esimated at 19.3 per cent and stuning
among young children at around 30%. The pension and other SP programmes, complemented by drought response and recovery measures, have undoubtedly contributed substanially to the reducion in overall levels of economic poverty and related
There are Pension Oicers in the deprivaions. The SP system has quite districts who atend to the queries reliably directed resources towards of the elderly and refers them either meeing basic consumpion needs and to Headquarter or BotswanaPost for for nutriional, educaional and other appropriate acion.
human development investments.
Botswana: Universal old-age pensions
naional budget, the intensifying iscal pressures linked to luctuaions in diamond revenues have raised concerns around the inancial sustainability of the current package of SP measures. At the same ime, this is having a posiive beneit of increasing the Government’s focus on issues of programme eiciency and impact. More broadly, Botswana is now considering the ways in which the diferent components of its SP framework could be more ightly woven into a strategic whole. This is taking place within the wider objecive of building a more coherent and efecive poverty eradicaion strategy, supported by beter data and research on the causes of poverty than exists at present. Major policy concerns are centred on the desire to promote greater self- reliance (ipelegeng) among ciizens who are “able to help themselves”. This is balanced by the need, ariculated in the naional “Vision 2016” statement, to maintain a “compassionate and caring society”. While these concerns may lead to adjustments in exising programmes, the greater beneits for Botswana’s naional objecives to eradicate poverty and improve income distribuion are likely to low from a strategic vision for Social Protecion that coninues to relect the principles of consensus-seeking and social jusice on which this society is based. The universal old age pension is a strong and central expression of this vision.
Arguably, it has also contributed to the maintenance of a society with high levels of social harmony and cohesion. However, very limited evaluaion work has taken place in the sector; and the impacts for older people, their relaives and other beneiciary groups have not been rigorously assessed through either quanitaive or qualitaive means. Some analysts suggest that there may
be considerable scope for obtaining greater impacts for Botswana’s poverty reducion and human development Goals from its exising SP spending. This could be achieved, for example, through stronger inter-agency coordinaion and the uilizaion of a uniied naional social protecion beneiciary registry. This could facilitate impact monitoring, the introducion of more eicient delivery methods. In the case of the old age pension, however, the simple, clear and universal approach appears to deliver a modest but reliable beneit which coninues to be of paricular importance to recipients in the greatest need.