In the 2019 General Election, Political Parties in Botswana underscored in their manifestos, a consensus that the time has come for the Botswana constitution to be subjected to a comprehensive but not a piece-meal review. Furthermore, in the 2021/2022 Budget Speech, the Government committed to implement the long overdue constitutional review. In December 2021, the President appointed a commission of inquiry on the constitutional review and prescribed its terms of reference to end no later than September 2022. The commission’s itinerary has been issued and consultations in village traditional meeting sites (kgotla’s) began on the 2^nd of February 2022 and will conclude on the 14^th of July 2022. It is therefore pertinent that civil society, through this action position themselves to support citizen engagement through mobilization, sensitization and capacity building for meaningful participation and contribution to this noble initiative.

The relevance of this action is also anchored on the realization by the applicants that while the centrality of inclusive civic engagement in the constitutional review process cannot be questioned, the established traditional approaches based on representation will not effectively serve the purpose for the envisaged constitution review process. Instead, a more grounded, localized, and intensive process of mobilization, sensitization and consultation that enables the free and informed participation and contribution of all citizens in their own spaces and vernacular languages will serve a better purpose. Participation through representative groups without thoroughly engaging the citizens in their contexts and diversity to capture their unedited voices will not achieve the objective of a people driven constitution.

It is therefore cardinal that civil society is effectively organized and coordinated through this Action to ensure that people initiate, develop the agenda, and elaborate the contents of a people driven constitution.

This action is further premised on the consensus by those that have voiced their concerns regarding comprehensive review of the constitution who ceaselessly propound that the constitution being the first law of the land, must be both comprehensive, inclusive, and broad in coverage in terms of including comprehensive human and cultural rights, socio- economic rights, gender equality, and ensure that the principle of “no one left behind” in all aspects of development are covered by the new constitution. The applicants realize that without effective coordination of civil society, there are high risks of other stakeholders, especially marginalized and hard to reach populations being left behind in the constitutional review process culminating in their voices not being heard and incorporated. It is therefore a strategic imperative for the applicants to commit to a deliberate process of mobilization, sensitization and capacity building to ensure that civil society meaningfully and optimally participate and contribute to the review process of the constitution.