Botswana: Minister of Youth and Gender Affairs in the government of Botswana, Lesego Chombo recently met the Head of the EU Delegation to Botswana and SADC. The meeting hosted on Monday afternoon, was hosted with the aim of solidifying the partnership between The Ministry of Youth and Gender Affairs and EU for gender based Violence
The head of the EU delegation said that they were very excited for the partnership. The two organizations will be working on finding solutions to Gender issues and youth dynamics. The work will be done at both national and SADC regional level.
Petra Pereyre, who is serving as the Head of The European Delegation spoke about the goals of this project. He claimed that the values and priorities of the Ministry align with the EU.
As such, the two organizations have entered into a strong collaboration towards achieving a common goal. The two organizations dedicated to Botswana’s youth welfare. They are working together to deal withgender issues that the nation is currently experiencing.
She highlighted that, the EU has established a number of transformative programmes for this project. The spotlight initiative is one of the programmes on this list. The Programme helps in dealing with gender issues.
The Programme also works towards educating women and girls on sexual reproductive health. The issue of human rights is also a major cause of concern across the SADC region.
The EU has been the backbone of Botswana’s education system together with elevating Botswana’s employability rate in the past years. Petra Pereyre, highlighted that the Union will focus on offering skills development programmes.
The green and digital transformative initiatives are also a part of the partnership. They will be provided to youth to equip them with the best possible opportunities and help create economic diversification.
Clèment Boutillier, EU Head of Cooperation outlined that the union is open to offer partnership opportunities such exchange programmes which will promote peer to peer exchange between youth within the SADC region.
Boutillier has announced that this programme will help them in eliminating gender issues among youth and the future generations. Minister Lesego Chombo claimed that economic diversity can serve as a solution to the problem of Botswana youth’s unemployment frustration. The economic diversification of the country will simultaneously eliminate several issues.
The major issues in question are mental and reproductive health, crime and substance abuse.