Year: 2001
Type: report
Abstract: Lack of economic development has lead to a growing scepticism to grand economic\ndevelopment theories and strategies. The focus has shifted towards a more open-ended\nperspective where the local context and poverty alleviation are in focus. As a result,\nthe new key concepts in the discourse are livelihoods and urban-rural linkages. The\nacademic interest is focused on the question: how are African households surviving\ngiven their increasing difficult economic circumstances?\nIn the African context, Botswana is a special case. It is rich; it has a very small and\nrelatively homogenous population and has had a stable democratic development\nthroughout the whole independence period. Situated in the land-locked central part of\nSouthern Africa the peaceful and successful development of Botswana is quite an\nachievement. However, Botswana’s economic progress and development has not had\nthe anticipated spread effects, from the urban to the rural economy, from the privileged\nto the poor. Poverty amidst plenty is an often-used slogan to describe the present state\nof development in Botswana. The development processes is a differentiation process,\nand at the present stage a number of households live in utmost poverty, whereas\nGaborone was given the name Benz City because of the number of Mercedes Benz\naround. On this background on wealth and poverty, I will show how different groups\nof rural households are making a living; how the poor are managing to stay alive, how\nthe middle income households are planning for survival and security and how the rich\nare making sure they stay rich and continue accumulating wealth. In short, the main\nfocus of this report is the livelihood strategies of the rural households.
Author: Gerd Wikan
Institution: Hedmark University College
Language: English
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W40442799