Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the south and southeast, Namibia to the west and north, Zambia to the north and Zimbabwe to the northeast. Being a country of slightly over 2.4 million people, and roughly the size of France, Botswana is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. It is essentially the nation state of the Tswana people, who make up 79% of the population.
The Tswana ethnic group were descended mainly from Bantu-speaking tribes who migrated southward of Africa to modern Botswana around AD 600, living in tribal enclaves as farmers and herders. In 1885, the British colonised the area and declared a protectorate under the name of Bechuanaland. As decolonisation occurred, Bechuanaland became an independent Commonwealth republic under its current name on 30 September 1966. Since then, it has been a parliamentary republic, with a consistent record of uninterrupted democratic elections, though as of 2024 the Botswana Democratic Party has been the ruling party since independence. As of 2024, Botswana is the third least corrupt country in the continent of Africa.
The economy is dominated by mining and tourism. Botswana has a GDP (purchasing power parity) per capita of about $20,158 as of 2024. Botswana is the world's biggest diamond producing country. Its relatively high gross national income per capita (by some estimates the fourth-largest in Africa) gives the country a relatively high standard of living and the second-highest Human Development Index of continental Sub-Saharan Africa (after South Africa). Botswana is a member of the Southern African Customs Union, the Southern African Development Community, the Commonwealth of Nations, and the United Nations.
Food activism[edit | edit source]
Solar cooking resources in Botswana]
News and comment[edit | edit source]
We created the first AI-powered solar electricity backup system for houses in sub-Saharan Africa, The Conversation (Jan 25, 2022)
2009
2009 SEED Award winners: South Africa, Namibia and Botswana: "Biocultural protocols - community approaches to Access and Benefit Sharing". Civil society organizations have mobilized efforts to develop bio-cultural protocols with different local indigenous communities which will help to provide a model whereby local communities can share the benefits if local resources and expertise are developed for market purposes.[1] May 12
Environmental issues in Botswana[edit | edit source]
Botswana faces two major environmental problems: drought and desertification.
The United Nations Development Programme claims that poverty is a major problem behind the overexploitation of resources, including land, in Botswana. To help change this the UNDP joined in with a project started in the southern community of Struizendam in Botswana. The purpose of the project is to draw from "indigenous knowledge and traditional land management systems". The leaders of this movement are supposed to be the people in the community, to draw them in, in turn increasing their possibilities to earn an income and thus decreasing poverty. The UNDP also stated that the government has to effectively implement policies to allow people to manage their own local resources and are giving the government information to help with policy development. W
External links[edit | edit source]
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