Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Conclusion and recommendations
This chapter has argued that safari lodge tourism in the Okavango already gener-
ates significant pro-poor benefit.There was a significant increase in the number of
tourism businesses owned by citizens in the five years to 2005 and local nationals
already capture a large proportion of the annual payroll associated with the sector.
But the chapter also confirms the widespread view that, while tourism is the
mainstay of the Ngamiland economy, increasing the participation of Botswana
nationals - especially the local poor - remains an important challenge. The high
value end of the sector is still dominated by foreign ownership (sometimes in
partnership with rent-collecting nationals). This is probably a consequence of the
fact that tourism in the Okavango was historically largely developed by expatriates
and continues to rely on global linkages to secure market share. But it may also
reflect the absence of a strong domestic entrepreneurial culture as well as appro-
priate financial products to help citizens capitalize equity, especially in the high
value sector of the industry.
Citizens make up the vast majority of the workforce at each of the operations
surveyed but large disparities exist between the remuneration levels of expatriates
and citizens. Individual interviews and focus group discussions suggested a
number of reasons for this disparity. They include skills shortages amongst
Botswana nationals as well as reluctance amongst skilled citizens to work in the
remote areas where many of the Ngamiland's tourism enterprises are located.
More than 50 per cent of the citizen workforce at the surveyed lodges was
female but these women captured less than half the total citizen wage bill. This
'double disadvantage' gap is similar to patterns observed elsewhere in southern
Africa. It strongly reinforces the notion that women are at a disadvantage both as
citizens (compared to expatriates) but also as women (compared to their male
compatriots) and that gender (as well as race) plays a role in structuring patterns
of employment and remuneration in the Okavango.
From the above it is clear that employment equity in the Okavango's tourism
sector has lagged, especially at senior employment levels where the use of expatri-
ate labour is widespread. Given the fact that employment is by far the largest
pro-poor impact of the lodge sector (Mafisa , 2002), this is an area of high strate-
gic importance. Remedying this situation may be partially achieved through more
efficient implementation of current government regulation coupled with targeted
skills development initiatives. Weaknesses in the public sector's ability to adminis-
ter existing regulations must be remedied and strategic interventions promoted
that build the civil service's capacity in this regard.
Current tourism leases in the Okavango do not contain systematic provisions
promoting citizen participation. Using land allocation procedures and instru-
ments to promote greater domestic participation in a land-based sector such as
tourism is a widely used method in other jurisdictions. Within the Southern
African Development Community, countries such as Mauritius, Namibia and
South Africa have successfully used a combination of regulation, licensing and
conditional award of commercial rights to promote broad-based indigenous
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