Disgruntled Community Development officers want a shift in the way development plans are formulated in Botswana, with the current ‘top-down approach’ neither community driven nor sensitive to the needs of the people.
To achieve this, Botswana Community Development Practitioners Association (BCDPA) President, Thomas Mpenya, revealed they have proposed ‘much-needed’ changes in the draft National Decentralization Policy and as well as a review of local government regulations.
“We want the Ministry to come up with an instrument/Act that deals specifically with community development issues, which will also state the role and mandate of a Community Development Practitioner,” he explained.
Mpenya told The Voice that presently, practitioners are often mistaken for social workers.
“But we’re not. Our cadres have studied both Adult Education and Community Development at reputable universities, yet they remain unemployed. We believe there’s a mismatch and someone is doing what we should be doing,” moaned Mpenya.
It’s not all doom and gloom, however, as he noted the Ministry now has a Traditional Affairs arm, which should open-up employment opportunities for his cadres.
Mpenya, who leads an association founded in 2022, says they also want a full department headed by a Director at Ministerial and Council levels, not a division as is currently the case.
He explained this is in line with the European Union sponsored research on Community Development in Botswana, whose report was embraced by former Minister of Local Government, Lebonaamang Mokalake.
“The formulation of an instrument shall help Community Development Practitioners not to work in a vacuum. Social workers for instance use Children’s Act, Public Health Officers uses Public Health Act, while the Community Development officers work in a vacuum when implementing their mandate, which is not healthy for the profession,” he said.
The BCDPA President said their cadres are ready-made ‘mobilizers, facilitators and change agents’ that can provide the link between communities, public sectors, civil society, private and parastatals.
For the proposal to work, Mpenya believes there should be a review of the Development Plan approach.
“The current development plan only considers and recognises the National Development Plan (NDP) and District Development Plan (DDP), without appreciating that traditionally communities used to plan at community level.This is why we propose a Community Development Plan (CDP) which should be coordinated by the Department of Community Development in collaboration with other local community structures such as dikgosi, Village Development Committees,” he said, adding Community Development Officers would be responsible for the CDP’s successful implementation.
