Kutlo Motseta
25th July 2025
The United Nations-Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), launched its Southern Africa sub-regional office in Gaborone.
The UN-habitat is an initiative which is intended to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities, with a focal point on human settlement and urbanisation.
The transformation agenda is meant to promote fundamental human rights, the cornerstone of which is the right to dignity. This right is closely linked to and is immediately preceded by the right to life, followed by other socio-economic rights such as the right to housing and sanitation.
The universal right to decent human housing affects many Batswana who live in townships and lack decent housing infrastructure.
The UN Habitat Executive director, Anaclaudia Rossbach, noted that 73% of Batswana live in urban areas.
“This urban phenomenon is bringing pressure on housing and infrastructure services,” she said.
The National coordinator for UN-Habitat, Ms. Weenyan Yan, said that well planned urbanisation programs are an important driver for economic transformation.
President Adv. Duma Boko, the keynote speaker, reiterated Botswana’s commitment to multilateralism.
“This occasion ranks significant in our country’s dedication to multilateralism. We are committed to multilateralism and hosting international organisations … and those supporting regional efforts,” he said.
“Decent basic housing is a human right,” he added.
He invited the Ms. Rossbach to join him on his national official trips as he attempts to implement his government’s national agenda to provide basic sustainable housing.
The president promised the nation that the government would deliver 100 000 houses for low-income earners before the April 2028, in compliance with his government’s agenda for national economic transformation, a program which forms a cornerstone of his presidency.
