Kasane Workshop Report

7/23/2019 Kasane Workshop Report

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KASANE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION

WORKSHOP

REPORT

Introduction

The Chobe district is one of the areas highly frequented by tourists in Botswana

largely because of its diverse and unique Wildlife, there is an inherent need to

ensure that this national treasure is protected from environmental degradation

hence the need for us to have hosted the 6th episode of the Bona Botswana

Workshops. The 6th edition of the workshops saw us heading out to one of

Botswanas leading tourism hubs in the form of !asane in the Chobe district. "s

usual, in preparation for the workshop, we sent in one of the organi#ers early to

arrange the necessary logistics before the event. $reparations for the workshop

were commenced weeks in advance with con%rmations from various government

departments as well as non&governmental organi#ation such as the Chobe 'istrict

Council Chairman, the BT(, Tribal "dministration, 'epartment of Tourism, Botswana

)uali%cations "uthority, Botswana *uides "ssociation, +inistry of outh, -ports Culture as well as members of the !asane and Chobe community.

Through this report, we seek to evaluate the said workshop with the ob/ective of

ensuring that we improve and learn from the e0perience gained there. While the

workshop managed to reach its set targets and ob/ectives, the participants arrived

late essentially leading to the program having to start late. "ll of the entities

earmarked to make presentations on the day made it on time and managed to

present and interact with the delegates. The program managed to run smoothly

with the opening remarks being delivered by the !gosi.

The audience was engaging and had a variety of questions for the variousstakeholders who presented e1ectively ensuring that we achieve the mandate of

informing the community and young people in particular through the workshops.

The workshop was hosted at Cresta in !asane. Below is an analysis of the

evaluation of the workshop in !asane.

Chaen!es



2. The cost factor was another challenge as we had to spend more 3by sending

in a delegate earlier4 to ensure that the proceedings were a success. The

participants trickled in slowly and did not observe the stipulated time,

something that led to the program being started later than the scheduled

time as we waited for the audience and some of the presenters to make their

way down to the venue. We could not reach the all the number of people wehad targeted and reached 5 out of the 78 targeted participants.

Achie"e#ents

(ut of 28, the workshop has been rated as an 9 with the other being reserved due

to the shortcomings listed above. :n spite of the challenges alluded to above, we

managed to achieve what we had set before ourselves and even e0ceeded our

e0pectations as the discussions were lively and interactive, the !asane community

was well represented with various demographics 3youth, elders, women4 being in

attendance. The following are the achievements of the +aun Workshop;

2. "ll the presenters that had con%rmed participation at the event attended and

arrived on time for the event. The presentations given during the workshop

were thought provoking and managed to resonate with the ideals of the

community as well as the area speci%c theme we had selected for !asane.. +embers of the community were able to share their ideals and aspirations

with the presenters as well as to pose well thought out questions essentially

ensuring that the presenters have an idea of the mandate they were

presenting on5. There were a total of $% #e#&ers of the audience that attended the

workshop, a %gure that e0ceeded the attendance of most of the workshopswe have hosted in other locations or areas, the audience further represented

a wide array of sectors with representation coming in from the private sector,

<on&*overnmental (rgani#ations, parastatals as well as *overnment

departments who will all contribute towards spreading the mandate shared

with them at the workshop.'( The closing remarks by the =onorable Council Chairman of the Chobe 'istrict

Council were indeed inspiring and focused on the need for the community to

take an active involvement in the conservation e1orts being spearheaded by

*overnment as well as for the youth to take an active interest in uplifting

their livelihoods through the tourism sector given the fact that their district is

inundated wildlife, which has been a ma/or attraction for tourists.

Wa) *or+ard2. +oving forward we will stress to stakeholders the need to respect time and to

ensure that they arrive on time before the audience. This we hope will ensure

that the program runs as scheduled essentially avoiding a situation where

those who arrived early have to wait for long period before the

commencement of the program.



. =aving hosted si0 workshops and preparing for another in -hakawe as the >th,

participants once again underscored the need to increase the number of

workshops to cater for other locations that were not included in the original

25 locations of the workshop in order to e1ectively ensure that the bene%ts

reach out to other communities and young people in the country. They noted

that 25 locations in a country as big as Botswana were few and that thestakeholders should consider increasing the number of locations.

5. +oving forward, invitations to stakeholders and other audience members will

be handled by both the $hiri Tourism team and Botswana )uali%cations

"uthority to ma0imi#e on the numbers and leave no room for

disappointments. The strategy paid dividends during the !asane workshop as

B)" assisted us reaching out to a larger demographic of people such as

academic institutions and the media. The invitation list will be compiled and

shared with Botswana )uali%cations "uthority.7. The audience for the coming workshops should be varied to include youth

groups, community leaders, government departments, entrepreneurs and

other interest groups.

ISSUES ,ROU-HT *ORTH DURIN- THE WORKSHOP

!asane as the tourism hub or capital of the country proved to be one of the most

interactive of all the locations we had been to, the audience was lively and asked

appropriate questions while the presenters were in their element. There were

various issues put up for discussion during the workshop that the presenters and

the audience brought forth. Below is a summary of the various issues that cropped

up during the workshop;

2. The Chobe Tribal "uthority was the %rst to give the welcoming remarks? the!gosi welcomed the delegates to the Chobe district and to the village of

!asane in particular. !gosi pointed out that in todays global environment, the

management and sustainable utili#ation of natural resources is a ma/or

challenge facing *overnments and their national economies. :n this regard,

countries all over the world, including Botswana, have placed a premium on

such resources and have implemented a number of measures to ensure

sustainable utili#ation. :n he noted Botswana, wildlife is among these

resources, and its e1ective management has attracted international tourists,

thereby making tourism one of the ma/or foreign e0change earners for the

country and an important socioeconomic growth sector. =e pointed out the

need for young people to re@ect on how they can bene%t from the tourism

sector in a sustainable manner given the various opportunities availed to the

youth by the *overnment.. The 'epartment of Tourism presentation brought forth the need to ensure

that tourism development should not be in con@ict with e1orts to conserve

the environment and as such, they as a department liaise with other

departments such as the 'epartment of Anvironmental "1airs and Botswana



Tourism (rgani#ations who work towards ensuring that developments do not

negatively a1ect the environment through instruments such as

Anvironmental :mpact "ssessments as well as licensing of operations

respectively. The various tourism licensing categories under the 'epartment

were e0plored where it was noted that certain activities or licensing

categories were solely reserved for citi#ens such as +okoro safaris and'omestic *uest =ouses popularly known as Bed Breakfasts. This it was

noted was to ensure citi#en economic empowerment. :t was further brought

to the fore that :ndigenous !nowledge -ystems should be utili#ed by the

youth in particular to generate income, an e0ample being that of cultural

tourism where the youth can share our culture with tourists in return have

under their ambits as well as the requirements needed to ensure that one

gets licensing for the tourism they would seek, various questions were

brought forth from the audience that delved into the need to ensure that

there were categories that were e0plicitly reserved for citi#ens. )uestions

emanating from the audience revolved around the fees applicable for each

licensing category as well as whether there are any special rates or fees for

young people given the %nancial challenges they are facing. The audience

further noted that some of the requirements for licensing such as having an

operational oce and a @eet of cars for tourists put a lot of burden on citi#ens

and thus should be reviewed, in answering the 'epartment of Tourism noted

that they reali#e the challenges faced but highlighted that people can in

essence share oce space to reduce the rental costs while they were

lobbying for those without cars to be able to utili#e rental cars for purposes of

licensing. This it was noted was meant to reduce the burden on citi#ens.5. The Botswana Tourism (rgani#ation gave a presentation on their mandate as

well as their various incubation programs, the presentation further delvedinto how A" can assist prospective entrepreneurs penetrate the market

through Business plan formulation as well as business advisory services.

)uestions from the audience were amongst others whether A" also catered

for people wishing to go into dry farming, the audience further asked whether

A" had attained the land in <0araga and what the said land was going to be

utili#ed for since it has been lying idle for some time and the community was

not given access to it. There was further a question on how many people

bene%t from A" services and it was highlighted that their annual target

countrywide is 7 888 people.7. The Botswana )uali%cations "uthority made a comprehensive presentation

on the training and accreditation standards as well as the requirements for

one to get their quali%cations accredited inclusive of accreditation for trainers

in line with the said standards.D. )uestions emanating from the presentation were amongst others whether

B)" could assist in terms of Eob hunting for people whose quali%cations had

been accredited and it was noted that B)" served as a regulator and



accreditation body and that Eob placement "gencies were the relevant

entities to assist in /ob hunting.6. "nother question emanating from the B)" presentation was on whether

those without quali%cations but e0perience in guiding were being accredited

as well as the criteria being used to accredit the said. :t was noted that the

said people fell under the category of Fecognition of $rior earning orFecognition of Current Competencies. "nother question resulting from the

presentation sought to establish the fees paid when one was looking to

accredit their quali%cations, the question was addressed at length and the

audience managed to grasp the various payments for provisional registration

and full registration.>. "nother question that was raised bordered on whether B)" looks at whether

the institution is focused on practicals as opposed to theory. "s comments

coming from the audience, it was highlighted that Botswana )uali%cations

"uthority needs to engage in e0tensive consultations to avoid any

misunderstandings as is currently the case with the new standards for guides,

B)" however maintained that consultations were indeed done and that more

consultations were being undertaken as evidenced by the workshop and prior

meetings to keep the community abreast with developments.

Concusion

!asane was welcoming? from entering the district right into the entry point of the

village we were greeted by elephants, impalas and other wildlife species that

showed us the importance of conservation and the need for its priority. The

proceedings of the workshop saw the audience attentive and inquisitive e1ectively

ensuring a highly interactive forum. " ma/ority of the delegates as it is with other

places we have been were young people who were highly interested in

implementing what they had learned from the workshop. :t was noted that such a

platform 3the workshop4 was key mainly due to the fact that it brought various

stakeholders who would have been otherwise dicult to access individually.

$reparations for -hakawe are well underway? the event will be hosted on the 5 rd of

Euly 82D at the -hakawe -ub and Board Chambers. $reparations for the workshop

will be shared between the Botswana )uali%cations "uthority and $hiri Tourism

Consortium to ensure the e1ective delivery of the mandate of the workshops.

We look forward to a successful workshop in -hakawe and can only learn from the

challenges faced in organi#ing the said workshops. We are grateful for the advice,mentoring and support we have and continue to receive from the 'epartment of

Anvironmental "1airs <AG team and the Botswana )uali%cations "uthority Bona

Botswana workshop teams, we further look forward to continued advice on how to

ensure the e1ectiveness of the impact of the workshops.



KASANE IN PICTURES

Mr( Ntana . ,TO /resentationK!osi Sa#o0a . Weco#e

Mr( ,aetetse . D(O(TMr( Moi+a . ,1A /resentation



Cho&e District Counci

Chair#an Mr( Kachana .

Audience /a)in!

Audience /a)in!Audience /a)in!

Documents

Kasane Workshop Report