This report was commissioned by the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Office
in Gaborone, the Botswana Government (GOB)
and the United Nations Environmental Programme
(UNEP) Africa Office in Nairobi. The principal
aim of the project is to promote knowledge and
awareness of poverty environment (PE) and climate
change (CC) linkages by policy and decision
makers, civil society and the media. The Poverty
and Environment Initiative (PEI) Botswana will aim to
support a wider debate and dialogue on such links,
in order to influence discussions regarding policies,
plans and budgets, on the role that environmental
and climate issues could play in reducing poverty.
The terms of reference (TOR) for the project
were-:
(i) (i) to develop an advocacy an communication
strategy whose objectives are aligned to the
PEI Botswana programme;
(ii) to identify stakeholders and their perceptions
and come up with ways of influencing them;
(iii) to develop messages targeting
stakeholders;
(iv) to list the themes for social debates and make
recommendations on how PEI could engage in
these debates;
(v) to identify tools and activities for
communicating messages;
(vi) to develop an action plan, indicating roles
and responsibilities, timelines and possible
partners linked to the achievements of the key
results.
The full text of the TOR is attached (Appendix A1).
The PEI Botswana project is part of a series
of interventions being undertaken by the UN
agencies to support mainstreaming of poverty
environment and climate change issues in
development in Africa and Asia between 2010
and 2015. PEI seeks to enhance the contribution
that sustainable management of environmental
and natural resources makes towards poverty
reduction, sustainable economic growth, food
security, and broader achievement of NDP10 and
the UN Millennium Development Goal (MDGs).
During that period, a number of activities and
for which a range of process methodologies and
tools have been prescribed, will be applied. One
of these is the development of an advocacy and
communication strategy that promotes knowledge
and raise awareness of poverty, environment, and
climate change issues.
PEI Botswana’s main focus, which is to integrate
environmentally sustainable natural resource
use into national and sectoral development
processes, has everything to do with the national
development agenda - as spelled out in the above
policy platforms. It should inculcate knowledge
and environmental education in its communication
processes with a view to informing all stakeholders
about the importance of preserving environmental
resources for future generations.
An advocacy and communication strategy
identifies stakeholders that have a vested interest
in a particular issue. The foregoing PEI Botswana
strategy articulates the concerns of key stakeholders
in sectors which are critical to environmental
mainstreaming in and outside Government. It
outlines the messages and the channels through
which such messages could be communicated,
as well as the activities and the likely costs of
implementing such activities.