31/05/2026
CEMEBA shall see how to assist this ministry with it's Youth Employment Strategy, to realize it's vision in this area. Tens of thousands of jobs and our financial resources have been exported to South Africa by our state owned mines and Energy parastatals for the longest time without any scrutiny. CEMEBA shall therefore bring that to an end.We shall unlock many jobs from mining and Energy sectors to bring back the much needed jobs meant for Batswana.
BOTSWANA'S NATIONAL YOUTH EMPLOYMENT STRATEGY 2026–2031 STRATEGY VALIDATION SESSION - COMING SOON
Botswana stands at a pivotal crossroads. With a young, dynamic, and rapidly growing population, the nation has the potential to transform its demographic reality into its greatest economic advantage. Under the visionary stewardship of Honourable Lesego Chombo and the Ministry of Youth and Gender Affairs, the government is preparing to validate a landmark document — the National Youth Employment Strategy 2026–2031 — a comprehensive blueprint designed not merely to address youth unemployment, but to fundamentally reshape how Botswana grows.
At its core, the National Youth Employment Strategy is a comprehensive, actionable blueprint designed to harness the demographic dividend in order to realise a more productive, prosperous and inclusive nation that will benefit every Motswana, in country and at large.
This is a living, action-oriented framework, crafted in direct consultation with young Batswana themselves, that maps a clear path from the current landscape of youth unemployment to a future of shared economic prosperity. It recognises that lasting development cannot be handed down from above; it must be co-created with the very generation it seeks to empower.
What sets this strategy apart is its fundamental philosophy: young people are not the problem to be solved, they are the solution to be unleashed. The guiding principle, by the youth, for the youth, and with the youth, signals a generational shift in how government approaches the challenge of youth economic inclusion.
Young people are not the problem to be solved, they are the solution to be unleashed. This strategy places them at the centre of Botswana's economic transformation.
Why Now? The Urgency Behind the Strategy
Botswana's youth, broadly defined as those between the ages of 15 and 35, constitute the majority of the national population. Yet youth unemployment remains one of the most pressing socioeconomic challenges facing the country. A mismatch between the skills produced by educational institutions and the needs of the labour market, combined with limited entrepreneurship infrastructure and restricted access to capital, has left many talented young Batswana under-utilised.
Globally, nations that have successfully converted their youth bulge into a demographic dividend, South Korea, Singapore, Rwanda, did so through deliberate, coordinated, and time-bound strategies. Botswana's National Youth Employment Strategy is Botswana's own answer to this global imperative.
The timing of the strategy, with implementation beginning in 2026 and extending through 2031, aligns with Botswana's broader national development aspirations, including Vision 2036, which envisions a prosperous, productive, innovative, and compassionate nation.
Relevant Skills for a Competitive Labour Market
To ensure Botswana's education and training institutions produce graduates with skills directly relevant to current and future labour market needs that are also globally marketable. This goal addresses the critical disconnect between academic output and economic demand, building a generation of graduates who are not only locally employable but competitive on the world stage.
Youth Enterprise & Employment Absorption
To stimulate, support and revitalise youth-led enterprises and incentivise existing businesses to absorb young employment seekers. This goal acknowledges that job creation cannot rest on government alone, it must catalyse a private sector partnership and entrepreneurship ecosystem that creates sustainable opportunities from within communities.
Inclusive Participation Across Botswana
The strategy is designed to benefit every Motswana, in country and in the diaspora, ensuring that no region, gender, or background is left behind. It embeds equity as a foundational principle, recognising that inclusive growth is both a moral imperative and an economic necessity.
What Success Looks Like by 2031
The strategy defines two clear long-term outcomes against which its success will be measured. These outcomes set the benchmark for accountability and give every stakeholder, from government ministries to individual youth, a shared definition of victory.
Enhanced alignment between skills acquired by youth in academic, technical and vocational institutions, responsive to the evolving needs of the labour market, producing graduates who are genuinely job-ready and globally competitive.
A measurable reduction in youth unemployment rates driven by coordinated action across government, the private sector, civil society, and the youth themselves, making unemployment the exception, not the norm.
A generational shift in youth economic agency, where young Batswana are not passive recipients of opportunity but active architects of Botswana's economic future, in the country and across global markets.
The Demographic Dividend: Botswana's Window of Opportunity
The demographic dividend occurs when a country's working-age population grows larger relative to dependants, creating a window for accelerated economic growth. Botswana's youth bulge is precisely that window, but it will only open if strategic investment is made now.
The 2026 - 2031 strategy is designed to capitalise on this window before it closes, transforming a demographic reality into a development advantage.
Validation: Honouring the Promise of Co-Creation
The upcoming Youth Employment Strategy Validation Session is the embodiment of the strategy's own philosophy. By bringing together young Batswana, educators, employers, policymakers, civil society and development partners to interrogate and refine the draft strategy, the Ministry of Youth and Gender Affairs is ensuring that what gets adopted is not a document written about young people, but one written with them.
This validation process invites critical engagement. It asks participants to probe whether the goals are ambitious enough, whether the outcomes are measurable, whether the pillars are adequately funded, and, most importantly, whether the lived experiences of young Batswana across all districts, backgrounds and circumstances are genuinely reflected in the text.
Honourable Lesego Chombo's leadership of this process signals a ministry that understands that effective policy is participatory policy. The validation session is an act of democratic accountability, placing the draft strategy before the very constituency it seeks to serve and inviting honest scrutiny.
The goal is not merely a signed document. The goal is a strategy that enjoys genuine buy-in from youth organisations, the private sector, academic institutions and communities, because only a strategy with broad ownership has the resilience to be implemented through changes in political cycles and economic conditions.
The Road Ahead
A Nation Invested in Its Own Future
The National Youth Employment Strategy 2026 - 2031 is, at its deepest level, an act of national faith. It is Botswana declaring, through policy and investment, that it believes in its young people, not as a burden to be managed, but as the very engine of the prosperity that lies ahead.
The challenge, of course, is implementation. Strategies are only as powerful as the institutions that carry them, the funding that sustains them, and the political will that protects them. Botswana's history of prudent governance and its track record of translating mineral wealth into human development provide a foundation of confidence. The question is whether this generation of policymakers and young citizens can build on that foundation with the boldness and discipline the moment demands.
For every young Motswana who has felt their ambition constrained by a lack of opportunity, every graduate who has felt overqualified for what the market offers, every entrepreneur who has struggled to access capital, every student who has wondered whether their studies will lead anywhere, this strategy is a direct response. It says: we see you, we have heard you, and we are building a system that works for you.
The validation sessions are just the beginning. What follows, if the commitment holds, will be five years of coordinated, measurable, accountable action that has the potential to change not just employment statistics, but the entire arc of Botswana's development story.
The brighter future referenced in the strategy's title is not a metaphor. It is a plan. And it starts now.
