From National to People’s Poverty in Changing Policy Regimes

Abstract

Today, any analysis of poverty in Botswana must invariably examine it as a problem that affects some sections of the population, such as rural small farmers, the aged and the unemployed. However, at independence in 1966, poverty was a characteristic that defined the country as a whole, including particularly the emerging modern state, which did not command even basic resources to cover its budgetary needs. Not surprisingly, therefore, Botswana’s first attempt at poverty alleviation involved a strategy that focused on aggregate income growth and not on any specific target group of poor people. This strategy would be part of planned development interventions in which the state would play a significant role in marshalling scarce resources to engineer growth and transform the material conditions of the populace. As reflected in the Transitional and succeeding National Development Plans, the strategy aimed for rapid and sustained economic growth with the immediate objective of giving the country budgetary independence and meaning to its sovereignty. It was also a strategy for nation building.