Economic Development Of Botswana Research Articles

CHALLENGES HINDERING YOUTH PARTICIPATION IN AGRICULTURE IN BOTSWANA

This study investigates the challenges faced by youth engagement in agriculture in Botswana. A well-structured questionnaire of 132 individuals was utilized for data collection. The study identifies challenges hindering youth engagement, including limited capital, land, infrastructure, and technology access. To enhance youth involvement in agriculture, the study calls for government intervention in correcting negative perceptions and creating a conducive environment through policies that directly address the unique challenges the youth face. Ultimately, such measures can pave the way for increased youth participation, the nation's food security, and economic development in Botswana's agricultural sector.

Services as a Determinant of Botswana's Economic Sustainability.

In 2015, the services sector contributed about 58 percent to the gross domestic product (GDP) in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), which was a significant increase from the 47.6 percent observed in 2005, and a shift from the mining, agriculture, and manufacturing sector. This increase calls to support services as the catalyst for sustained economic development as indicated by the structural transformation and modernization theories. The main objective of this paper was to examine the relationship between and the impact of services on the economic development in Botswana and make recommendations on how Botswana can apply well-directed policies to improve its services sector and diversify its impact on other sectors and GDP, making it less reliant on mining which is vulnerable to price volatilities. The paper applied econometric modeling and results of the Autoregressive-Distributed Lag (ARDL) Bounds test for cointegration indicate that services and other industries services, agriculture, industry, mining, and investment impact GDP over the short and long run. These variables impacted GDP and converged to equilibrium at the speed of 46.89 percent, with a percent change in services in the short and long run impacting GDP by 0.328 and 0.241 percentages, respectively, and the outcome of the Wald test indicated causality from services to GDP growth. The services sectors have contributed over 40 percent to the country's GDP from 1995 to the present, though the sectors have not gone without challenges with limitations such as limited infrastructure development; poverty and inequality; unemployment of over 20 percent; disease, which has dampened productivity; and lack of proper governance and accountability, which has created a habitat for an increase in cases of corruption in state and private entities. The findings of the study with the lessons learned from other studies with similar findings recommend that the government of Botswana should formulate suitable policies and strategies for services diversification. This is by expanding the market for the sector in areas such as tourism that were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, escalating investments by instituting strategies to attract and grow domestic and foreign investments, and improve on management of institutions and resources.

Economic development and road traffic fatalities in two neighbouring African nations

IntroductionThe rapid growth of Botswana’s economy since independence in 1966 has brought more tarred roads and vehicles, accompanied by an escalating road crash fatality rate. We tested the hypothesis that motor vehicle crash fatality increases resulted from, rather than just corresponded with, annual gross domestic product (GDP) increases. Data from Zambia, adjacent to Botswana, were used for comparison.MethodsAnnual social and economic indicators and motor vehicle crash fatality rates in Botswana and Zambia were accessed from 1960 to 2012 and analysed using vector autoregressive analysis and Granger causality tests.ResultsIn Botswana, annual changes in per capita GDP predicted annual changes in motor vehicle crash fatality rates (p = 0.042). The opposite was not observed; annual changes in motor vehicle crash fatality rates did not predict annual GDP changes. These findings suggest that GDP growth in a given year caused additional road traffic fatalities in Botswana and that, on average, every billion dollar increase in GDP produced an increase in the rate of road traffic fatalities. In Zambia, annual GDP changes predicted annual fatality rate changes three years later (p = 0.029), but annual changes in road crash fatality rates also predicted annual increases in per capita GDP (p = 0.026) three years later, suggesting a correlation between trends, but not a causal effect of GDP.ConclusionRoad crash fatalities increased in recent decades in both Zambia and Botswana. But the rapid economic development in Botswana over this time period appears to have driven proportionate road traffic fatality increases. There are opportunities for newly emerging economies such as Zambia, Angola, and others to learn from the Botswana experience. Evidence-based investments in road safety interventions should be concomitant with economic development.

The Effect of Access and Quality of Education on Economic Development in Botswana

The study investigates whether or not access and quality of education contributes to the development process and economic well being of Botswana by (1) examining the impact of access to education on economic development, (2) establishing the relationship between quality of education and economic development and (3) testing the causal relationship between education and economic development. The study uses time series data from 1980 to 2014 which was analyzed using vector error correction model and vector auto regression approaches to test both long and short run relationships respectively. The paper provides a strong background on the political economy of education in Botswana since independence to date as a departure from our current understanding in literature. Findings show that the level of access to education has a positive and significant effect on the level of economic development; there is bidirectional causality between quality of education and the level of economic development; unidirectional causality moves from economic development to access to education. The study suggests that access to education should be complemented by enhancing more employment creation to forester long term development and private investment in inventory and tangible assets should be enhanced. Attracting more foreign direct investment and maintaining low inflation improves quality of education in the short as they work through enhanced economic development.

Contingency in Economic Development: Theory versus Narrative in the Case of Botswana

The paper has an empirical and methodological purpose. It argues that on methodological grounds historical narratives have superior powers of explanation than the theory-driven analyses encountered in mainstream economics. This is partly because narratives employ actual behavior, collective action processes and conditions instead of hypothetical ones and are able to explain contingent events that often dominate changes of complex social phenomena such as economic development. The economic development of Botswana is a case in point where human agency, unique collective action processes and conjunctions of circumstances play a major role that shaped political processes in a way that growth orientation became the favored policy-choice for the government. These circumstances include unfavorable geographical conditions, colonial neglect, and the survival of a unique traditional society, leadership and the discovery of diamonds at the “right” time and the “right” place. Botswana’s story of growth supports the more general contention that economic development depends on highly contingent events where an explanation is best approached by narratives.

Effective Transportation Technology Transfer Operations for Economic Development in Botswana

Technology Transfer (T2) centres have emerged in many countries all over the world as effective agents and catalyst for improvements in disseminating experiences, technologies, best practices and innovations. There is a generally perceived link between the state of development of a country's transportation systems and the extent of technology usage and availability of technical information in that country. To keep the pace with the new technologies, the transportation sector needs information and knowledge that will enable it to advance their processes, incorporate new products into existing programmes, and increase technical know-how that produces positive change and economic development. This paper intended to discuss the innovative strategies adopted in operating transportation technology transfer centre in Botswana. Strategies adopted to achieve the objective were establishing and maintaining a transportation database and website accessible by transportation engineering professionals; publishing and disseminating quarterly T2 newsletter; hosting 6th Africa T2 conference; identifying training programs for the stakeholders. In conclusion, the paper highlighted the outcome of operating T2 centre to enhance transportation through effective technology transfer operations for economic development in Botswana.

Economic Development in Pre-Independence Botswana, 1820-1966: Historical Trends, Contributing and Countervailing Factors

This paper examines the trajectory of economic development in Botswana between the years 1820 and 1966, when it achieved independence. First, I review the historical trends in the country’s economic and social development indicators. I then proceed to analyze what factors have encouraged or hindered economic development in Botswana: In particular, I focus on the roles of physical geography, climate, disease ecology, economic and political institutions, geopolitical relations, demographic trends, as well as on ethnic divisions and cultural belief systems. Finally, I discuss how prepared Botswana was for modern economic growth when it gained independence in 1966.

Financial and Non-financial Institutions and Small Business Development: The Botswana Experience

Small, micro and medium sized enterprises play an important role in the economic development of Botswana. It is a proven fact that job creation is one of the important contributions of small business in Botswana. SMMEs account for almost 50% of formal employment. The two important ingredients for business development are finance and skill. Small business enterprises in most countries suffer from financial constraints and lack of entrepreneurial skill. There has been a crucial lack of business start-up training in Botswana, which has led to small business failures. The study covered fifty selected small businesses in Gaborone who received financial and training assistance from major financial and non-financial institutions. The objective of the study was to identify the financial and non financial institutions that exist to assist SMMEs in Botswana and also to determine the role played by these institutions in generating business interest among Botswana and also entrepreneurs. The study also looked at the level of awareness among entrepreneurs about the types of assistance offered by these institutions. The study revealed that although of late, SMMEs are receiving financial and training assistance from recognized institutions in Botswana, there is still room for improvement. Lack of knowledge about the existence of financial and training institutions in the country has also contributed to the poor performance of these business enterprises. African Journal of Finance and Management Vol.12(2) 2004: 61-71

Improvement of marginal materials by flyash in road works

The national road network continues to play a fundamental and catalytic role in the promotion of social and economic development of Botswana. However, a combination of adverse climatic and geologic factors, such as scarcity of conventional road building materials, near absence of a non saline surface water, and climatic extremes have dictated the need for innovative engineering approaches to highway design, construction and maintenance. In recent years application of fly ash has been considered in road construction with great interest. Fly ash is a pozzolanic material, which in the absence of water combines with lime to produce a cementetious material with excellent structural properties. Attempts have, therefore, been made at Botswana Road Department in collaboration with University of Botswana to explore the feasibility of utilising fly ash alone to improve the physical and strength characteristics of locally available non-standard marginal materials. The results indicate that with the addition of fly ash plasticity decreases while California Bearing Ratio (CBR) increases for calcrete and other locally available marginal materials for road construction. With appropriate amount of fly ash and an adequate curing the material can be improved to meet the requirements of base and sub-base courses. Keywords: Fly ash, marginal materials, calcrete, plasticity index, California Bearing Ratio (CBR) Botswana Journal of Technology Vol.13(1) 2004: 7-12

The status and role of modern mapping technology in Botswana

This paper will address the development and application of modern mapping technology towards the sustainable and economic development of Botswana. Much of the data is already available in relational databases, but the greatest problem lies in processing the data and analysing geographical relationships. The paper will examine the impact of modern data acquisition and processing techniques on the provision of current spatially related data, one of the major tools for sustainable development. The concept and application of spatial processing and the dissemination of those data will be addressed, together with the current situation in Botswana concerning the provision and availability of spatial data. It will then centre about three case studies, based upon Geographical Information Systems (GIS). These will examine the relevance and application of GIS to health statistics, with particular reference to the spread of tuberculosis; the analysis of road traffic accident statistics to identify possible causes and accident black spots; and the monitoring, management and display of wildlife data in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.

Financial Institutions as a Facilitator of Economic Growth

This paper assesses the impact of financial institutions on the economic development of Botswana. As it is not sensible to depend on a single mineral (diamonds) for long-term economic emphasis towards the development of financial Institutions. Its is apparent that the influence of Financial institutions as more on household than development activities. Hence the Government of Botswana entered into banking activities. Government's realization of the need to separate its banking functions prompted the establishment of the Botswana Stock Exchange to float the capital market and the Banking Act In spite of all these action, the much needed assistance is not forthcoming from financial institutions. Hence the development of a suitable legal framework to channel deposits of the development purpose is suggested. Key Words: Africa Botswana, Banking, Finance, Capital market and Economic Development African Journal of Finance and Management Vol.10(1) 2001: 8-22

Academics, practitioners and all kinds of women in development: a reply to Peters

Peters' selective critique of the literature on women in Botswana' illustrates a divergence of perspective between academic research on the one hand and social policy research on the other. Conference between these endeavours is occuring, represented by the development academic (as in the case of Peters, employed by the Harvard Institute of International Development) who is, however, not actively engaged in applieddevelopmentwork. Peters' initial research interest was in the privatization of land tenure, a tendency with profound implications for the pattern of social and economic development in Botswana. She has made an effective contribution to the understanding of that process, 2 but in the article which provokes this brief response she has adopted a rather different focus, on gender differentiation. However, her argument misrepresents some of the works she reviewed and betrays both a disregard for the context in which the research was conducted and a lack of sensitivity to the practical and political constraints of working within the institutional framework of policy-making in a developing country such as Botswana. It is argued here that her pre-eminent focus on 'women' obscures the underlying processes of economic change and class stratification that shape gender and kinship relations. This brief rebuttal will attempt to correct some of the misconceptions arising out of Peters' critique. It relates mainly to those works cited by Peters which were ex-