Times Of Swaziland: THE STORY OF ESWATINI

THE STORY OF ESWATINI
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The Editor on 28/04/2021 07:50:00


Sir,
A lot of ground still needs to be covered before Eswatini can safely call
herself a ‘First World’ country. Even though a lot of people have grown
accustomed to this vision as part of the development discourse in all corners
and streets of Eswatini, still a majority of people miss the point that the
National Development Strategy (NDS) coined in 1997, is in fact, the country’s
First World status vision.
Well-articulated
The purpose of the NDS, which by the way is a well-articulated plan, was to
formulate a vision that would provide appropriate strategies for socio-economic
development as well as provide a blueprint for the formulation of development
plans for equitable allocation of resources. The key macro strategic areas of
focus included; sound economic management, economic empowerment, human resource
development, agricultural development, industrialisation, research and
development, and environmental management.
Development
It is 24 years later and the very same issues still resonate for socio-economic
development priorities for Eswatini. It is as if the previous governments simply
tossed the NDS aside and ran with their own construed development priorities
culminating in a collapse of our economy. Where did government drop the ball?
Like many policies and strategies, the country drops the ball when it comes to
allocating resources to implement what is written and promised to the nation on
paper. A policy or development vision without a serious and dedicated financial
commitment is simply a document to be signed and shelved so that it can collect
dust in many government ministries.
Here is the other problem, we still have the same officers who still make up a
significant part of the government system that is preventing traction towards
the promised First World status. There are just a lot of people who are still
part of the old governments. Running government should have been a relay race to
the First World vision, where the programmes stipulated in the NDS take priority
and seamlessly get passed on from one Cabinet to the next.
Implement
That way, government should not really start afresh every five years, it should
gain momentum every five years with fresh and new brains to cement and implement
the country’s development targets. The story of Eswatini is that every five
years, government leaves a huge dent on the country’s finances through their
remuneration and exit packages while progress on the NDS suffers. Moving
forward, every money spent by government needs serious justification on how it
contributes to and enhances the implementation of the First World vision.