Have you seen someone wallowing in poverty because odds are stacked against them? Either the Government is not availing enough resources for them to earn a decent livelihood, or their parents died and left them a legacy of poverty, or it was that teacher who said something that discouraged them from being who they wanted to become in life. Yes, for such people; success in life is out of reach because somebody did not do something to enable them.
The National Human Resource Development Strategy (NHRDS) recognises Personal Responsibility in channelling our efforts towards improving the quality of our livelihoods. In other words, if we exercise Personal ResponsibilityÔÇöthat is to pull ourselves by the bootstraps, we cannot remain marginalized no matter our backgrounds, height or educational levels.
On Friday this week, HRDC was invited to deliver a keynote address at a workshop organised and facilitated by the University of Botswana on the community-based organisations formed and run by your typical village men and women, a majority of whom barely went past standard seven. But who said to eke a living, one should have a number of degrees below their belt? Aren’t we seeing enough evidence today with skyrocketing rates of university graduates roaming the streets that education, while it remains most important is not the answer? To survive requires a practical approach at viewing life and embracing decent ways to earn it.
The examples drawn from the groups that produce bread syrup, candy and body lotion from the morula fruit or the medicinal herbs of monepenepe and sengaparile must serve as inspiration for many others who are looking at Government or some corporation to provide a job that can attract a monthly salary. The lesson to acquire from the men and women of Kgetsi ya Tsie, Thusano Lefatsheng and Dibapalwa Nageng from the villages of Lerala, Kaudwane, Moshupa and Gabane is that they learnt quite early on in life that ‘mpha, mpha o a lapisa, motho o kgonwa ke sa gagwe,’ as the old adage goes. They have risen above the odds that could otherwise keep them under the oppression of poverty by providing daily bread for their families, at the least. This is in line with the NHRDS which HRDC is mandated to drive in order to catapult Botswana as a nation that recognizes its talents and help in nurturing them so individuals can unleash their potentials.
It is therefore reasonable that when citizens are making serious attempts at improving the quality of life like the men and women I saw at this workshop, institutions that are formed to support such initiatives and spirit like the University of Botswana and HRDC gravitate toward them with ease. “In each personÔÇöthere lies in a talent. You are a resource on your own,” HRDC Acting Chief Executive Dr Patrick Molutsi told the participants. So much rings true in that short statement and that is why HRDC and UB as institutions that can help nurture the talents for these men and women to realize their potentials have come to the party. It may have taken the University of Botswana which has existed for decades to embrace such undertakings by the once vibrant Thusano Lefatsheng with their sengaparile breakthrough, but we are grateful that finally they have awoken to the reality that indigenous knowledge must be preserved and documented for use in future development of our country.
Both UB and HRDC engage in research work and what a better way than to engage with these communities for purpose of finding ways that can help them unleash their potentials in the natural resources that they are using for their products? Both UB and HRDC can help the village men and women to chart ways in which they can create employment for themselves and their communities, lasting jobs that are stable because they are anchored on social innovation, rather than technological innovation. The difference between the two is that while it is all good to set up businesses inclined toward technological innovation especially in this era of digitalisation, findings point to more disadvantages of such enterprises vis a viz those that are modelled on social innovation. Take an example of the news about the diamond sector and how closure of shops has left hundreds if not thousands of workers in the lurch.
HRDC as the driver of the NHRDS is therefore seeing to it that universities and other research institutes do not embark on research that only focuses on what happened in the past, but also encourages research that is focused on what shall be done going forward to develop the nation. Hence transfer of skills and knowledge does not only become integral, but imperative for research institutions to embrace. The missing link between the research institutes and indigenous knowledge cannot be left to continue as we aspire to be a productive, innovative and prosperous nation by 2016 and beyond. After all, the harnessing of indigenous knowledge to respond to both formal and informal job creation remains our single most choice if we must rise above abject poverty.
These men and women shall serve as reliable sources of data-gathering for researcher by explaining the challenges they meet in collecting the natural resources that they turn into finished products. The worlds of academic research as an empowerment tool for social innovation is borne out of such partnerships, resulting in equitable development that is mapped collectively. Not only do such partnerships bridge the gap between the poor and the wealthy citizens; the feedback that ordinary people provide researchers can at best inform the outcome of the curriculum that our own tertiary students are taught so they can practically come out and match the job market needs, hence aligning the disproportionate mismatch between theory and practical work.
