Sustainability of Social Security in Botswana

Authors

  • Kgomotso Jongman
  • Sethunya Molosiwa

Keywords:

Social security, Social protection, Social welfare, Sustainability

Abstract

Botswana was ranked second poorest country at independence from Britain in 1966. The country has seen a steady movement from a state of poverty to be among the most developed in the sub-Saharan region and earned the upper middle-income countries title in the past 54 years. This has been due to so many factors but mostly due to steady democracy that has seen 12 undisturbed elections, good fiscal policy and mostly the modest approach to life by the population. The infrastructure development has been seen, education, health systems and other developments. Despite all these, Botswana still experiences the poor countries issues such as high unemployment, high poverty incidences, illnesses such as HIV and AIDS, malnutrition among the under 5s and teenage pregnancies. This has led the government of Botswana to come up with strong social security programmes in Botswana which Kalusupa and Letsile (2012) believe is the strongest in Africa. These programmes include among others, public works (Ipelegeng), old age pension, school feeding, and destitute programmes. This paper is looking at the sustainability of these programmes considering that Botswana is a mono-economy country that takes most of its revenue from diamonds.

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Published

2022-01-10

Issue

Section

Articles