Pitfalls in the Reset and Reclaim Agenda
President Mokgweetsi Masisi’s Reset Agenda is said to have had its fair share of challenges. The Reset Agenda’s objective is to improve service delivery.
Vice President Slumber Tsogwane has revealed that one of the biggest challenges so far has been mindset and behaviours that do not generally support high performance and move away from the entrenched performance culture that the Reset seeks to change.
He stated that the envisaged National Mindset “RESET Campaign will go a long way in addressing this problem as it will touch every individual across sectors to change the way they currently conduct business. The campaign, according to Tsogwane will take place in the first quarter of 2023/2024 financial year.
“The other challenge particularly relating to Priority 1 was resistant mindset as shown by slow uptake of COVID-19 vaccine by some members of the public due to misinformation, misconceptions about the vaccines and cultural beliefs. The Digitalisation drive, although progressing well is hampered by lack of fast internet connectivity across the country," he said, adding that government is however addressing this through several initiatives.
The Reset is expected to address the prevailing challenges of unemployment, poor projects implementation, poor work ethic, corruption, low productivity and declining global competitiveness that can see the country grow to a high-income country, the vice president said.
Updating Parliament on the Reset Agenda, Tsogwane stated that there are Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) tools in place to drive the Reset Agenda, and broadly the National Vision. He explained that some of the tools in use are Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), dashboards, checklists and monitoring plans. The Vice President who is also Leader of the House in Parliament said monitoring tools are also used to gather qualitative and quantitative data.
He indicated that the choice of tool will depend on the type of information needed, the resources available and the specific monitoring goals and objectives being observed.
Tsogwane added, “the National Monitoring and Evaluation System (NMES), which is a comprehensive performance management framework which facilitates effective delivery of national policies, strategic plans, programmes and projects is the anchor of the Reset Agenda. The national M&E framework and tools have been cascaded from Vision 2036 to permeate through the National Development Plans of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).”
He pointed out that the implementation of the Reset Agenda emphasises the cause-and-effect relationship between Annual Plans’ stakeholder/customer outputs and National Development Plans and Vision 2036 outcomes. The M&E tools in the Transitional National Development Plan (TNDP) are a clear testimony of the Reset of the performance management that is transformational, Tsogwane said.
He revealed that the restoration of monthly Annual Performance Reviews at all levels of the DAs will significantly improve the performance monitoring in Government. This is further enhanced by the strengthening of the in-depth capacity building, institutionalisation of data management and evaluation across Government.
Tsogwane said the call for Botswana to Reset was necessitated by the slow pace and poor quality of delivery, resulting in the country not delivering the National Development Plan (NDP) 11 outcomes to expectations, a situation that would compromise the attainment of Vision 2036.
"It was a clarion call to all citizens and residents of Botswana, to reset ourselves as individuals and as a nation towards a high performance culture. The five priorities will be the anchor of our transformation to galvanise the pace of change, as well as the quality of delivery.”
According to Tsogwane, there has already been notable progress on the Reset Agenda since 2021. He said the formulation of the NDP 12 has been deferred to Financial Year 2025/2026 as part of the reset to the planning process to align national planning with the electoral cycle.
Consequently, a two-year Transitional National Development Plan (TNDP) has been formulated for implementation, while transitioning to NDP 12, which will now start in April 2025, coinciding with the electoral cycle, Tsogwane stated.