National Policy on Disaster Management

The National Policy on Disaster Management is a national sectoral policy of Botswana. Its main objectives include (1) to establish and maintain optimum systems for dealing with disasters other than drought/famine in Botswana and to integrate these systems into normal ongoing development activities at national, district and local levels, achieving these, as far as possible, within national resource capacity; (2) to create a framework which facilitates the preparation of plans and legislation for the effective implementation of disaster management in Botswana and its legitimacy; (3) to outline the responsibilities of different personnel at different levels in the implementation of the disaster management programme; (4) to establish a set of working definitions for the disaster management programme in Botswana; and (5) to ensure that the disaster management policy is consistent with policies from other sectors and the objectives of the National Development Plan.
The Policy relates to the following actual or potential disasters prevalent in Botswana: floods, veld fires, pest infestations, epidemics, animal diseases, severe weather (including hailstorms and lighting strikes), refugee influxes, transport accidents, industrial explosions, urban fires, industrial pollution and chemical spillages.
According to the document, the National Disaster Plan guides all levels of society in disaster management and mitigation. The overall national responsibility for disaster management rests with the Office of the President. The overall coordinator of disaster management in Botswana is the Deputy Permanent Secretary within the Office of the President. S/he is responsible for convening and chairing at regular intervals the National Committee on Disaster Preparedness responsible for developing a disaster management strategy for Botswana and for overseeing the implementation of disaster plans and activities. The Committee consists of Deputy Permanent Secretaries from Ministries, together with representation from the Botswana Police, the Botswana Defence Force, the Botswana Red Cross Society and representatives of non-governmental organisations and United Nations agencies as appropriate. The review and monitoring of the policy on an agreed regular basis is entrusted to the Office of the President and the Committee.