Managing rural development in Botswana
| Author | James Leach |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230010402 |
| Published date | 01 October 1981 |
| Date | 01 October 1981 |
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT, Vol.
1, 265-270 (1981)
Managing rural development in Botswana
JAMES LEACH
Rural
Development
Adviser
SUMMARY
Rural development
in
Botswana has proceeded using
a
non-directive approach. During the
period 1973-1979 sectoral programmes for promoting development
in
rural areas have been
administered by executive ministries, but,
in
addition, there has been non-executive
machinery devoted to achieving a co-ordinated approach to development
in
rural areas.
The
emphasis in the work
of
the non-executive rural development unit was to promote
communication and co-operation, and the success of the programme
so
far is partly
attributed to this approach. The article points to additional lessons to be learnt from the
experience
of
using this approach.
How often has the cry gone up, ‘If only headquarters would organize themselves;
we can get on together perfectly well
in
the field, and get things done-the trouble
is at the centre’! The search for improved co-ordination, or better still, integrated
rural development goes on. This is a brief account of the efforts
in
one country,
Botswana, over the 6 years 1973-1979, to organize its rural development
programme in accordance
with
national development objectives. No two countries
are alike; each has a different combination of natural environment and history.
Nevertheless other people’s efforts are usually interesting and an attempt will be
made to draw some conclusions from this experience. The six years 1973-1979
span the first phase of Botswana’s current rural development programme, starting
with
the publication
in
1973 of a policy paper on rural development (Chambers and
Feldman, 1973; Botswana Government, 1973), and ending
in
1979 with the
election of a third Parliament and the commencement of the fifth National
Development Plan.
BACKGROUND AND POLICIES
With
a population estimated at 763,000
in
1978, 643,000 live
in
rural areas, and
120,000
in
the four large towns, situated along the railway line which runs up the
eastern side of the country. The rural economy revolves around the beef cattle
industry, though the poorer majority subsist principally upon income transfers from
migrant labour
in
South Africa or from workers
in
the four towns of Botswana, and
upon extensive and risky growing of sorghum, millet, maize and cowpeas. In recent
years, a start has been made on tapping mineral resources-diamonds,
James Leach was Rural Development Adviser in the Ministry
of
Finance and Development Manning,
Botswana
from
1973-1979.
0271 -207518 1/040265-06$01
.OO
0
1981 by John Wiley
&
Sons, Ltd.
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