In Botswana, we live by Botho: “I am because we are.” For me, this belief offers a starting point for sustainability. A future worth building must protect the environment while respecting the dignity of everyone who depends on it. Conservation and community wellbeing belong together. Neither can endure if people are excluded, unsafe or unable to make their voices heard.
This understanding shapes my work as a communications specialist and gender and social justice advocate. In 2025, I co-founded Thari Ya Sechaba Organisation (TYS), a youth-led organisation in Gaborone. Our work focuses on women’s rights, children’s rights, empowerment and men’s mental health. We see these concerns as essential parts of building communities capable of sustaining themselves through change.
TYS offers a modest Botswana example of turning sustainability values into community action. Through storytelling, social media and direct dialogue, we bring difficult issues into public conversation. Our “Hold Space With TYS” dialogues create opportunities for engagement, while our International Women’s Day events draw attention to women’s experiences and rights. These activities connect advocacy with people’s everyday lives. The aim is to make participation possible, particularly for people whose concerns receive too little attention. Listening to those experiences can help organisations identify needs that a campaign alone might miss.
Our donation drives for a women’s shelter and the Red Cross add another practical dimension. They express a simple conviction: care must move beyond words. Supporting people facing immediate difficulties is part of working towards a lasting future. Social sustainability becomes meaningful when organisations respond to the needs around them, even as they pursue broader change.
Botswana’s environmental achievements provide an important backdrop. The Okavango Delta, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, symbolises the value of protecting ecosystems and wildlife. Yet our country also faces drought and water scarcity. An economy still heavily dependent on diamonds must explore more diverse opportunities, including green jobs that give young people a stake in the future.
These realities require us to connect environmental protection, economic opportunity and social inclusion. A young person’s ability to participate in development depends partly on being safe, supported and heard. Likewise, communities confronting environmental pressures need trust and cooperation. For organisations such as TYS, strengthening those human foundations is one contribution to Botswana’s wider sustainability journey.
At the Global Sustainability Forum 2026 in Tunis, a hands-on workshop called the Responsible Leadership Fresco helped me examine this connection more closely. I arrived thinking about sustainability through the activities we organise. The workshop encouraged me to look earlier in the process: at the choices leaders make before an event, campaign or project takes shape.
How do we listen? Whose needs influence our priorities? How do we respond when circumstances change? These questions matter because responsible leadership determines whether an initiative serves its community. I learnt that sustainability has more than one pathway, and that adaptability is essential. A useful approach must remain open to learning from the people it seeks to support.
I am taking that lesson home to TYS: listen first, stay flexible and shape our work around people’s needs. For me, meaningful activation is the movement from a shared value to a practical response, followed by reflection. An event matters most when its purpose remains connected to community realities, rather than ending when the gathering closes.
Our experience is still developing, but its central lesson is clear. Sustainability begins with how we treat people and grows through consistent action. Botswana’s future needs environmental stewardship alongside leadership grounded in dignity and care. I choose to lead with Botho, so that every girl, boy, woman and man can live safely, be heard and thrive.
About the author
Lebogang Botlhoko is a Botswana-based communications specialist, gender and social justice advocate, poet, author and public speaker. Botlhoko is Co-Founder and Chairperson of Thari Ya Sechaba Organisation (TYS), a youth-led organisation in Gaborone working on women’s and children’s rights, empowerment and men’s mental health.
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