Delegate: Ms. Kenewendo
9. Ms. Kenewendo (Botswana), speaking as her country’s youth delegate, said that youth unemployment was a significant challenge in Botswana and that poverty was a problem, especially in rural areas. The prevalence of HIV/AIDS was decreasing, but the disease had already had a negative impact on productive labour, orphaning many children and leaving many people destitute.
40. Botswana had been the third poorest country in the world in 1966 but had come to be a middle-income country through collaboration with Governments and multilateral agencies from all over the world. In developing its youth organizations, Botswana was focusing on the areas of management and administration, substantive ideas and resource mobilization.
41. Botswana was willing to collaborate actively with youth departments and organizations across the globe and wished to learn from and share its experiences with others. The success of the national development programme would depend on the success of youth empowerment and development initiatives.
42. Her Government allocated 30 per cent of the annual national budget to education. Substantial resources were also used to provide credit facilities to young people for agriculture and small businesses, while a national internshipprogramme was available for university graduates. All ministries had youth officers to deal with youth-specific issues and significant efforts were made to provide sports infrastructure and promote community-level participation in sports.
43. She reiterated an open invitation to the global community to engage in mutually beneficial partnerships in youth development. The participation of youth delegates offered opportunities for planting the seeds of global integration and lasting friendships among nations, while providing useful training to the leaders of tomorrow.
UN Doc.: A/C.3/64/SR.4
Cite as:
UN Doc.: A/C.3/64/SR.4, 21 October 2009, p. 6, Youth Delegate Search: https://youthdelegatesearch.org/botswana-2009/, doi: 10.17176/20221018-194309-0.