| Overview : The Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development (MYSC) has been mandated to undertake the process of empowering the youth of Botswana holistically. One of the flagships programmes that the Ministry offers is the Youth Development Fund (YDF), which is aimed at promoting active participation of youth in the socio-economic development of the country. YDF also encourages the youth to venture into sustainable and viable income generating projects with a view to create sustainable employment opportunities for young people. Through this scheme, unemployed youth are offered funds up to a maximum BWP100, 000 (for individuals) and up to maximum BWP450,000 (for youth industry/cooperatives) to start businesses of which 50% is a grant and the remaining 50% is an interest free loan. Annually, Government invests BWP 120 million on this programme. In recent years, significant challenges relating to the survival rate of YDF funded projects have been noted. In 2015, MYSC YDF Tracer Study found that only 40% of YDF funded projects survive the first 18 months of their operation. Other challenges noted included: lack of entrepreneurial and business management skills, lack of technical support and mentoring, poor repayment rate, administrative deficiencies including poor monitoring controls to manage performance of the funded projects and limited resources within the programme. In view of the above-mentioned and in response to the expressed needs of MYSC, the UNDP has agreed to engage the services of an experienced business consultant who will; Develop a new training course, called youth entrepreneurship development training course (YEDTC) which will focus on TWO key aspects: (a) How to write a business proposal, and (b) How to establish and run a business successfully from the start. |
