Working Paper

Sustainable Development Goals, Botswana: A Case Study of Gabane Village in Kweneng District

The main objective of the research paper was to use the Community Based Monitoring System (CBMS) methodology to determine progress on achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with a view of localising SDGs to Gabane village. Generally, the results reveal that poverty is prevalent amongst women, youth and children. Specifically, the working poor constitute 40.8% of the people leaving below the poverty line. Noteworthy, is that 50% of children under 5 years of age have no access to pre-primary education. Gabane residents are reluctant to participate in poverty-targeted government programmes as evidenced by a low participation rate. Last but not least, the results show a higher unemployment rate of 23.3 %( ILO or narrow definition) and 29.44% (broad definition) in Gabane. The majority of the unemployed were youth and women. The policy implications of the results are that the government of Botswana should review the current minimum wage legislation to ensure that the minimum wage is aligned to the cost of living so as to ensure decent wages. Finally, in order to ensure that early childhood is rolled out for all under 5s, the government should expedite the implementation of the Education and Training Strategy Sector Plan (ETSSP) of 2015-2020.