Vision 2016 - A long term vision for Botswana

Vision 2016 - A long term vision for Botswana is a multi-sectoral national vision identifying the major challenges that will need to be met in order to realize the Vision and proposes a set of strategies that will meet them. The principles and goals of the Vision will form the starting point for all future National Development Plans and mid term reviews, and will guide the formulation of future national policies.
The policy addresses food insecurity and its elimination through agricultural development, sustainable growth and economy diversification especially under semi-arid and marginal environments. Another objective of the strategy is the making of agriculture and forestry more productive and sustainable. To this end, the strategy promotes the use of modern agricultural technology, strengthening of systems of agricultural research and extension services to farmers, and reformation of land tenure and land allocation systems.
Reduction of rural poverty will be achieved through the equal distribution of key natural resources and country assets between the people and community involvement in the use and preservation of their environmental assets. The wildlife of Botswana will also be managed for the sustainable benefit of the local communities and in the interests of the environment as a whole.
Disaster preparedness is another objective of this strategy. To this end, measures will be put in place to deal effectively with the impact of drought on the population and plans will be prepared to deal effectively with other natural disasters such as floods or forest fires.
A high-level institutional mechanism - a Vision Council - is established to monitor and evaluate the effective and timely implementation of the Vision by all stakeholders. The Council should consist of all the major stakeholders in the Vision and will have statutory powers to collect information, call authorities to account, and to guide and monitor the policies during implementation. Although there will be government representatives in the Council the civil society and the private sector representatives will be in the majority. The council will have working committees that monitor the progress in each of the main strategy sections of the Vision and report on a regular basis in a public and transparent manner. The Council will publish its findings widely by issuing periodic progress reports and recommendations to public and implementing agencies. There will be a national conference to review the Vision every two years in order to allow more stakeholder participation, and to review progress.