MINISTER KGATHI BRIEFS PRESS ON UPCOMING POVERTY ERADICATION WORKSHOP AT QABO This morning the Acting Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, the Honourable Shaw Kgathi, in his role as the Chairperson of the Cabinet Poverty Eradication Sub-Committee, briefed members of the media on this week’s Poverty Eradication Workshop, to be be held at Qabo village in the Ghanzi District from the 14th through the 16yth of May. At the briefing the Minister was joined by two other members of the Sub-Committee: the Assistant Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Honourable Gaotlhaetse Matlhabaphiri, and the Assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development, Honourable Keletso Rakhudu, In his opening remarks the Acting Minister observed that the event at Qabo, whose theme will be “Poverty Eradication: Towards Dignity for All,” will be the eighth and, for the time being last training workshop of its type. Similar workshops were previously organized in Diphuduhudu, Sehunou/Motshegaletau, Struizendum, Dikhukhung, Chanoga, Damchujeena and Jamataka. As with the previous seven workshops, it is expected that the workshop will host some 1000 participants during the three days, who will receive basic training in skills designed to assist them to successfully start up and operate their chosen vocational projects. Amongst the skills which will be imparted are: • Effective production processes; • Effective marketing strategies; • Basic financial literacy; and • Effective networking and clustering. Their training will, moreover, be of hands on variety, designed to further empower participants in such areas as: • Mindset change • Business planning • Costing and pricing • Quality assurance • Effective production processes • Effective marketing and sales strategies; • Basic financial literacy and financial management; and • Value and processes of networking and clustering. Minister Kgathi further emphasized that, while the Qabo event will be the last in the series of regional training workshops of such magnitude, it certainly does not mark the end of our training and mentoring efforts. He noted that in moving forward there will be other workshops, but their content and scope shall be different. In this respect Government is of the view that we have now reached a point where the time has come to move beyond what has been the initial or start up stage in our collective efforts into a broader focus of mainstreaming continued efforts to eradicate poverty not only across Government but also society. There will thus, he affirmed, be a need for further outreach to the private sector and community based organisations in exploring potential partnerships to sustain the many small and micro businesses which are now being incubated for the youth, remote area communities and people with special needs and living with disabilities, as well as those who have been identified as deserving a hand out of poverty. The Minister further noted that already Government is collaborating with the Anglo American Corporation in the development of an Enterprise Development Framework and Implementation Plan to increase productivity and overall performance of the SMEs. He also stated Government’s intent to work with local authorities to ensure that there sufficient on the ground monitoring and evaluation capacity. Government further remains committed to the creation of markets for the produce from the beneficiaries. Currently there are 53 designated market places across the country for regular monthly Market Days. The Minister noted that in taking a deliberate decision to eradicate abject poverty Government recognised that it was neither socially fair nor economically sustainable for the fruits of prosperity to leave out some. Government is therefore committed to addressing head on the issue of poverty in all of its manifestations. It is against this backdrop that it has hereto been the aim of the poverty eradication programme to ensure that all able bodied Batswana step out of poverty and that every Motswana should actively participate in the growth process and embark on the road to wealth creation. The minister concluded his opening remarks by reporting that 8,721 beneficiaries have so far been assisted, which translates into over 34,884 family members benefiting from the programme. Altogether a total of 15,494 beneficiaries have been mobilized.
Posted on: Tue, 13 May 2014 13:53:23 +0000
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