Transform the Economy to Create Jobs

The economy has been growing on average at 3.8% per annum over the ten years to 2017, which is well below the target necessary to address the triple crises of unemployment, poverty and inequality. 

Young people alone account for over 50% of the unemployed. Botswana is the third most unequal country in the world, behind Namibia and South Africa. Corruption is rampant. It denies Batswana access to basic services, as well as opportunities for economic and social advancement. 

As the UDC, we commit to building an economy that works for all. The economy we envisage, grows at a sustained real rate of 6-8% per annum. Its growth is inclusive, job rich, and pro-poor. We will modernize our infrastructure – rail, road, telecommunications, water and connectivity – to build a strong backbone for a high performance economy and spark a construction boom. We will reform the business environment to accelerate domestic investment and increase inflows of foreign direct investment. Above all, we will invest in building first rate human capital to set Botswana firmly on the path to readiness for the 4IR. 

Our unwavering aim is to create 100,000 decent jobs in 12 months, and build an economy that sustains a Living Wage of P3000 per month comfortably. An important part of our strategy is reopening BCL and 

correcting the injustice its ill-advised closure visited upon the nation as a whole and at a more intense level, the people of Selibe Phikwe and neighboring villages. 

SMME development and citizen economic empowerment

A UDC government will adopt an aggressive approach to the development of SMMEs and the informal sector in order to accelerate job creation and empower citizens. Botswana’s SMME sector contributes far less to employment and GDP than its potential. We would like to see a SMME sector that accounts for 40-60% of GDP and an even bigger share of employment. We will, through a package of interventions - on access to finance, access to markets, skills, technology and business development and support services – 

remove the critical bottlenecks on the growth and development of SMMEs. We will also promulgate a Citizen Economic Empowerment Law.

Replace Ipelegeng with a labour intensive public works programme

We will introduce a Labour Intensive Public Works Programme that imparts artisan skills, develops community assets such as paved roads, small scale dams, storm water drainage systems and culverts, 

does afforestation and pays a Living Wage.

The political philosophy of the Umbrella for Democratic Change rests on human rights and developmental  

approaches to issues of Labour and Employment. We place the wellbeing of workers at the centre of  

development thought and practice in a conscious and deliberate way. The UDC also believes that the state  

has a moral obligation and responsibility to protect the rights of workers to:

a) Unionize, organize and strike 

b) A living wage, collective bargaining and social security 

The Current Reality Labour relations in Botswana are characterised by an entrenched state-centric anti worker culture that deliberately fragments and divides the labour movement. Its features include: hostile and draconian legislation and workplace policies that violate the human rights of workers  

and the core values of decent work; high and persistent joblessness, most acute among women and youth; weak to absent unionisation outside the public sector, including in the tourism, farming and domestic services sectors; gender inequality and absence of women friendly legislation, policies and support structures in many workplaces; lack of awareness and sensitivity to the special needs of the youth,  

young women, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, albinism, differing sexual orientation and gender identities, refugees and economic migrants. Though Botswana is an upper middle income country with  

immense mineral wealth and natural resources, it has to date not performed to its potential and labour has borne the brunt of this underperformance through unemployment, precarious employment, and slave wages. This is primarily a result of adherence to neo-liberalist policy orthodoxy and “trickle down” economics. This approach has failed to build an inclusive economy

The UDC promises Botswana’s workers a stakeholder economy in which workers get a fair share of the benefits of prosperity and have a say in how the economy is managed. We will transform the Labour and Employment sector using the seven pillars of Job Creation; Labour Market Economic Policy nexus; Education and Labour Market Outcomes; The Living Wage and Decent Work; Workers’ Rights, Industrial  

Relations and National Social Dialogue; and Social Protection.

The UDC Will

Create decent jobs: We will build an economy that creates 100,000 jobs in 12 months and comfortably sustains a Living Wage of P3000 per month and Old Age Pension of P1500 per month. 

To this end we will: 

• Create sustainable jobs in the priority labour intensive sectors of Mining, Manufacturing, Public Works and Infrastructure, Education, Health, Agriculture and agro industries; Tourism, Arts and Culture. This includes creating critical upstream and downstream linkages among related components of Mining, Agriculture, Tourism, Arts and Culture etc.  

• Recognise the Informal Economy as a critical component of the economy and as a driver of job creation. The UDC government will develop a package of interventions – regulatory reforms, support infrastructure, innovative products to deliver affordable credit, and extension services – to develop this sector. In doing so, we will Integrate and prioritise the needs and issues of women and youth in the Informal Economy.  

• Refocus National Youth Policy to embed youth employment creation with particular focus on young  

women. 

• Re-conceptualise the current Ipelegeng programme into a broad based public works programme that will build productive infrastructure assets such as roads, bridges, storm water drainage systems, dams, woodlands, small schools and create a pool of skilled workers within communities whose skills are employable beyond the  programme. 

Create an efficient labour market-economic policy nexus:  

The UDC will:  

• Ensure timely labour market data through annual Labour Force Surveys (LFS) and five-year informal economy surveys, with strong employment targeting into macro economic indicators. 

• Introduce a development-oriented Decent Work based, National Employment Policy (NEP) with sectoral employment strategies and quantitative targets for job creation. 

• Integrate structurally transformative, pro-employment, developmental macro-economic (Monetary, Fiscal and Supply-side) policy framework in which long term structural change places employment at the centre of development and growth and ensure that macro economic policy institutions (Finance, Trade, Investment and Central Bank subordinate short term demand management to long term development strategies, with sustainable development and inclusive growth at the heart of policy-making and practice. 

• Integrate Industrial, Trade and Investment policies, with emphasis on value chain and job creation and retention and integrate social clauses into contracts for public projects and public procurement.

Optimise education and labour market outcomes: 

The UDC will: 

• Adopt Education-with-Production (EwP); prioritise vocational skills from primary schools (work oriented); strengthen school-industry linkage to eliminate divergence of curriculum from work. 

• Integrate industrial attachment and business growth, strengthen on the job training, and monitor the  

development of priority skills, digitisation, technology and knowledge transfer, and skills transfer from  

expatriates to locals. 

• Develop a modern digital, integrated Labour Market Information System (LMIS) and Labour Market Research and Observatory, as a one-stop source of labour market information to guide job search/matching, demand supply planning (Industry-Training Institutions linkages),  employment services, Human Resource/Capital practices and regulatory compliance. 

Introduce a living wage: A UDC government will adopt a Living Wage of P3000 per month. The Living Wage will be 

(a)  immediately and judiciously introduced to avoid shocking the economy, reduce the burden on its inbuilt adjustment mechanisms, and allow measures taken to strengthen the economy to take effect; b) Exempt the informal, subsistence and domestic sectors, and (c) provide firms in distress with  a window to seek exemption subject to full disclosure and engagement with workers. 

In this regard, UDC will: 

• Legislate a National Living Wage Policy to combat wage inequality and guarantee workers decent minimum living standards,  

• Adopt and mainstream the Decent Work Agenda (DWA) as a key anchor in National Development Planning  Frameworks and Strategies (Bill of Rights, NDP).

Promote workers’ rights, industrial relations and national social dialogue. 

The UDC will reform legislation to entrench developmental and fundamental labour rights 

• Guarantee and facilitate enjoyment of unionisation rights for all workers in all sectors, in law and practice, including workers in vulnerable occupations (domestic, farm, retail and wholesale, tourism). 

• Allow and facilitate unionisation of prison officers in compliance with ILO codes and initiate reform of  

labour relations in the security services through national consultation and in compliance with ILO standards. 

• Integrate the Industrial court into the formal judicial system and create an apex Industrial Court of Appeal as  a special court to hear industrial disputes appeals.  

• Ratify and domesticate key ILO Conventions.  

• Review the Public Order Act to promote participatory mass democracy, dialogue and freedom of expression. 

• Review of the Pensions Act to facilitate early retirement in the interest of job creation for the youth and young women. Early retirees should receive funding, retraining and entrepreneurial support (including access to land)  for agriculture, manufacturing.  

Uphold social protection and social security 

• Develop a national social security policy and strategy, including the establishment of a Social Security Fund (NSSF) to harmonise, streamline and depoliticise Social Security, Social Protection and Social Assistance. 

• Separate social protection, community development and wage employment. 

Modernise labour market and dispute resolution 

• Overhaul the Employment Act, to among other things, entrench fair labour practices, align labour laws with national development strategies and policies, and achieve employment equity.  

Decent Jobs, Decent Lives