Botswana

WELCOME TO BOTSWANA: FEEL IT AND ENJOY IT

Botswana is located at the center of Southern Africa, bordering South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The country was once the world’s poorest among African countries since 1966 when it gained independence. The small landlocked country rapidly became one of the world’s development success stories. The country has mineral (diamond) wealth, good governance, sensible economic management and a relatively small population of more than two million people. Furthermore, Botswana is expected to still be at the top of the middle-income countries by 2036.

Political Context

Botswana is a multi-party democratic tradition. Like many African countries, Botswana hold general elections every five years. The Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) is a ruling part and has been in power since 1966. In October 23, 2019 the country held its 11^th general elections, with His Excellency President Mokgweetsi Eric Masisi. The new cabinet was announced on November 6, 2019 and the current Minister of Finance and Economic Development Honorable is Dr. Thapelo Matsheka.

Economic Overview

Botswana has a stable economic growth since independence, with slight fiscal and sensible policies as key roles in fostering the economy. More recently, however, the limitations of Botswana’s diamond-led development model have become more apparent: growth is slower, and the country has limited job creation. This means unemployment still affect some youths in the country.

Furthermore, the country achieved strong growth of 4.5% in 2018, growth is estimated to have slowed to 3.5% in 2019 that reflect the effects of weakened global demand for diamonds alongside severe droughts affecting the region.

However, the global pandemic (COVID 19) which has caused many restrictions in many things in many countries, Botswana is also one of those countries expected to experience a profound impact on its economy, particularly on the diamond industry and tourism.

The diamond industry is an important driver of growth of Botswana economy because it contribute largest to government revenues that account 80% of export earning, the expected reduction in activity is estimated to result in a 1.2% growth contraction in 2020. Growth is predicted to stabilize at just over 4% by 2022 as global demand recovers and thus create conditions for a reduction in extreme poverty levels.

Social Context

It is very indispensable to comprehend that and extrapolate that living conditions for Botswana improved, and this means that poverty has reduced in the country. Additionally, the share of the population living on less than $1.90 a day at the 2011 Purchasing Power Parity declined steadily from 29.8% to 18.2% between 2002–03 and 2009–10, and to 16.1% in 2015-16. This transformation can be attributed mainly to a combination of increasing agricultural incomes, including subsidies, and demographic changes.

Progress in poverty reduction has been accompanied by improvements in shared prosperity. The growth rate of consumption per capita between 2009–10 and 2015-16 for the bottom 40 percentile of the population was 0.42% annually, and this is higher than the growth rate of the top 60 percentile. However, Botswana’s performance was only in the middle of the worldwide shared-prosperity distribution.

Inequality has also reduced in Botswana. Between 2010 and 2015, inequality, measured by the Gini index, fell from 60.5% to 53.3%. Among factors associated with Botswana’s declining income inequality, the key one is regional convergence due to fast growth in rural areas and demographic changes. In contrast, Botswana remains one of the world’s most unequal countries in Africa.

According to statsbots.org, the recent Botswana Multi-Topic Survey: Labour Force Module Report indicates that the unemployment rate has gone up by 3.1 percentage points from 17.6% to 20.7% with youth unemployment posing a critical challenge. . Addressing these challenges will require improving the quality of infrastructure (water and electricity), essential basic services (education, health, and social safety nets), as well as accelerating reforms to the business environment and effective support for entrepreneurship.

On the other hand, according to the world bank, Human Capital Index (HCI) scores Botswana at 0.42. HCI raise awareness and action to improving the level and quality of government investments in child health, nutrition, and education given their strong links to labor productivity and economic competitiveness. Botswana’s HCI score suggests that a Motswana child born today will only be 42% as productive when she grows up as she could have been if she had enjoyed complete education and health. Education expenditure is among the highest in the world and includes the provision of nearly universal free primary education but has not created a skilled workforce.

Source: https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/mozambique/overview

Updated by FOBDA 2020