A new report by the Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis (BIDPA) has unmasked how government socio-economic programs are making the poor poorer as well as increasing levels of poverty in the country. The report, titled “Evaluation of Socioeconomic Programs in Botswana” and commissioned by the Ministry of Finance, details how the programs rob the poor of an opportunity to graduate from the bondage of poverty and instead fuel a dependency syndrome.
According to the report, “Evidence from the literature, program data, and key informants point to the high number of Poverty Eradication Program (PEP) project failures.” The report states that, “This is attributed to a litany of challenges, including poor project conceptualization and implementation, death of beneficiaries for individually funded projects, poor business management, inadequate project monitoring, weak program coordination, poor work ethic, lack of commitment, and project neglect by beneficiaries.” In addition, the report says, “data pointed to, among others, a shortage of staff, lack of market access, inadequate monitoring and evaluation, lack of policy coherence and uncoordinated development efforts, as well as inadequate profiling of beneficiaries and dependency syndrome.”
There's more to this story
But to keep reading, we need you to subscribe.
Investigative journalism is an indispensable part of a healthy society, but it's also expensive to produce. We are reliant on subscriptions to fund our work, and while you can enjoy most of our stories for free, a small number of premium features are reserved for subscribers.
You can subscribe for one week, a month or a full year - the choice is yours.
Save 77% on an annual subscription. Click here to find out how.
Existing subscribers can log in to keep reading here.
