Extreme household poverty is a major factor causing families to break down and drastically reduces their ability to offer quality care to children, the SOS Children’s Village has found out. As a result, SOS Children’s Villages have embraced the idea that achieving Economic Empowerment for disadvantaged households will be one of the most effective ways of addressing the root causes of household poverty and family breakdown.

This week, SOS Children’s Village Botswana hosts participants from Denmark, Sweden, USA, Norway, France, China, Netherlands, Belgium, UK, Germany, Japan, and Bulgaria among others in a Validation Conference of the report of the global research on Economic Empowerment programming across the Federation of SOS Children’s Villages. SOS National Director, Kitso Motshwari says Botswana has been selected to host the conference because it is seen as one of the best benchmarks on economic empowerment through the various programmes in place. He added that the creation of the Ministry of Entrepreneurship is also seen a step in the right direction and a driver to a knowledge-based economy. “In East and Southern Africa Region, the government of Botswana is the highest in terms of domestic government contributions towards the welfare of children,” Motshwari said.

According to Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mabuse Pule, children continue to live in situations where they are exposed to vulnerabilities due to extreme poverty that their families and households experience. “Poverty has a lifelong impact on children’s health, social, emotional and cognitive development, behaviour and educational outcomes. Children born into poverty are more likely to experience a wide range of health problems including poor nutrition, chronic disease

and mental health problems,” Pule said. He added that across their lifespan, residents of impoverished communities are at increased risk for mental illness, chronic disease, higher mortality and lower life expectancy. “Children make up the largest age group of those experiencing poverty, thus more children are likely to be denied the opportunity to develop to their full potential if the situation is not changed,” Pule said. In order to overcome this challenge, there is need for deliberate actions and commitment meant to promote the Economic Empowerment of vulnerable households within the different countries. While in the past 20 years, SOS has implemented innovative activities and service to address poverty at the household and community levels, the intended impacts on the lives of children and households have not been fully achieved. He implored SOS and member countries in the Federation of SOS children’s Villages to have concerted efforts in ending child poverty. Pule said the main challenges facing member countries include inadequate capacity and expertise in the area of Economic Empowerment, prevailing socioeconomic environment, policy bottlenecks within countries where SOS operates, lack of research data, inability as a Federation to forge relevant partnerships with government agencies, civil society organizations, corporate establishments, the private sector and other organisations. He said vulnerable households need to be empowered in a range of areas such as skills and capabilities, decision-making within the household and wider community, access to and control over resources and ability to organize themselves with others to enhance economic

success. The research results recommend that economic empowerment must go beyond just financial support to include capacity-building, social and educational aspects. For example, grants for start-up capital in developing countries are often too small, therefore does not sustain small businesses. “The fact is caregivers, peasants, entrepreneurs and small business owners cannot easily access finance to expand their business, the face problems of collateral, high interest rates, extra bank charges, inability to evaluate financial proposals and limited financial knowledge,” the report says. In addition, the report recognizes that there is need for advocacy related to the concept of a living wage. It also recognizes the fact that there is still a large gap between the local minimum wage and living wage, and almost no conversation on this across regions of the developing world.