WAVES
WAVES Natural Capital Accounting Partnership Programme - Botswana
Botswana has committed to a World Bank partnership on Wealth Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) with the coordination function delegated to the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP.
A Natural Capital Accounting Unit has been established within the macro-economic section to coordinate sectoral implementation of natural capital accounting (NCA) activities with two dedicated officers from the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning.
A functional and multi-sectoral Steering Committee at Deputy Permanent Secretary level brings together state and non-state sectors to oversee implementation of WAVES and to make decisions on priorities for NCA based on policy issues of national importance. The Steering Committee is chaired by the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning
What’s happened in the past two years?
Great strides have been made under the WAVES project institutional capacity in the accounting sectors for water, energy and minerals and macro-economic indicators. NCA units have been established at the Departments of Water Affairs, Energy Affairs, Geological Surveys (including Departments of Mines and that of Mineral Affairs). All these units are also supported by multi sectoral Technical Working Groups (TWGs) which has expanded the knowledge base to other supporting entities of Water Utilities Corporation, Botswana Power Corporation and Statistics Botswana.
At the centre of this programme is “putting nature at the heart of decision making,” to complement the widely used GDP to help them address challenges of social, human and, more importantly natural capital.
“GDP indicates if the economy is growing from one year to the next, while wealth accounts indicate if that growth is sustainable.”By fully accounting for a country’s natural resources policy makers are able to make better long term decisions for sustainable growth with more accurate information on its natural assets. (World Bank Sustainable Development Network, 2014)
The NCA initiative is also tied to Botswana's aspiration towards sustainable development captured in the Gaborone Declaration for Sustainability in Africa (GDSA).
For more information: http://www.wavespartnership.org/en/partners