Botswana is doing very well with regard to achieving the Millennium Development goals (MDGs), however more can be done in areas 4 and 5 of the MDGs, revealed Anders Pedersen the United Nations Resident Coordinator.
Pedersen said current maternal and child mortality rates were not encouraging and, therefore, much effort is needed to reduce them drastically in order to achieve the desired target by 2015.
Goal 4 aims at reducing child mortality among children below five years by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015, while MDG 5 seeks to improve maternal mortality by three-quarters within the same period. For MDG 4, only five countries are on track to achieve the target of reducing under-five mortality rate by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015.
Pedersen appealed to Junior Chamber International, a youth organisation to take up the initiative and achieve the MDG’s 4 and 5.
“JCI Botswana should pay attention to 4 and 5 of the MDGs because enough has been done on the other MDG’s,” said Pedersen. He was also in support of JCI and UN Botswana carrying out the waste management project on July 6th and 7th in Gaborone and Jwaneng.
“We are willing to partner with JCI in their projects on waste management to achieve them,” he said.
Pedersen said though Botswana is faced with numerous challenges, the country continues to be on the right path of development. He also said the country fully utilises resources to benefit the people.
Botswana committed herself to the MDGs because the country recognizes that to make meaningful and lasting progress against poverty, quantum gains are required in education, health, sustainable use of environmental resources with which it is renowned, investment, technology and equitable South-South cooperation to promote flows of trade.
