In working on ameliorating living conditions in Botswana, there still remains a lot of work to be done, especially on improving women’s rights. For housing opportunities, organizations and the government in Botswana are still working on providing access to housing to meet the rise of people moving to cities. One positive development is the significant decrease in poverty. In the article below, the positive and negative trends of the country will be presented through the top 10 facts about living conditions in Botswana.

Top 10 Facts About Living Conditions in Botswana

1. The unemployment rate for women remains higher than the unemployment rate for men. Of the girls and women who are unemployed in urban areas, 48 percent of them aged 15 to 29 did not have employment in 2009.
2. There have been significant strides in reducing poverty and ameliorating living conditions in Botswana. From 2002 to 2010 poverty decreased from 30.6 percent to 19.4 percent, mostly in rural areas. One of the causes of this decrease is the government bolstering incomes for people working in agriculture and demographic changes. The result of this was 180,000 people who have gotten out of poverty. Of this number, 87 percent were from rural areas. However, 50 percent of the population in the country still lives below the international poverty line of $60 per month.
3. Beginning in 1981, Botswana has affirmed the human rights to water and sanitation. Section 57 of the Public Health Act helps officers to provide the purity of water for drinking and domestic purposes by the public. There have been reforms in sanitation in a period from 2008 to 2013 from the review of the Botswana National Water Master Plan as well as in water supply, wastewater services and resource management.
4. Working on achieving the Millenium Development Goal 1 (eradicate extreme poverty and hunger), Botswana has been made substantial progress towards zero hunger. One area of research is weight-for-age children. The Botswana National Nutrition Surveillance System oversees this part of the research. The information records that there has been a substantial decrease in child malnutrition. Child malnutrition has gone down from 14.6 percent in 1993 to 4.3 percent in 2008. Botswana has strived to support the connection between nutrition and development, demonstrated by providing free meals in public schools.
5. Starting in 2011, Project Concern International (PCI) has been helping to improve the quality of life in Botswana. Botswana is the country with the third largest HIV prevalence in the world. In total, 21.9 percent of the population is infected with HIV. Yet, there have been significant strides in the antiretroviral treatment program, completely free for everyone.
6. In 2017, the GDP in Botswana was $17.41 billion. Botswana’s GDP value in the world economy totals to 0.03 percent. Value of GDP in 2017 was the highest ever, and the lowest value of the country’s GDP was $0.03 billion, recorded in 1961.
7. There has been a sharp increase in urban growth in Botswana. One issue that impoverished people in Botswana face is lack of access to land and housing. Possible solutions for this problem are the construction of squatter settlements, public housing and service and self-help housing.
8. Around 60 percent of the population lives in the cities. As a result of this high percentage of urbanization, there is a difficulty in providing substantial access to quality housing in urban areas.
9. The health system is made up of the public, profitable private and nonprofitable profit sector. The public sector provides 98 percent of all health care. In addition, referral hospitals, primary hospitals, clinics and health posts administer health care. Shedding light on Botswana’s health system is an analysis carried out by the World Health Organization (WHO). The report made the claim that providing universal coverage of health care is key to striving for an equitable health system. As of yet, there has not so far been a way developed to finance a health system to provide all people in the country with equal access to health services. One initiative working to improve people’s health in Botswana is the IntraHealth International CapacityPlus initiative that seeks to increase access to data on the health workforce in order to bolster teaching skills to the health workforce and boost retention.
10. The education system aims to provide high-quality education to its students. In primary schools, 86 percent of the children who began enrollment in school have a probable chance of moving on to the fifth grade. Students have the assurance of having at least 10-year long education. Half of the students go for two years of additional schooling to receive the Botswana General Certificate of education. After completing secondary school, there are opportunities to seek out vocational training and opportunities in higher education.

While there is room for efforts to be made to improve living conditions in Botswana, the country has made significant progress. Specifically, it has almost cut the poverty rate in half from 2002 to 2010. With more work, Botswana can continue to see an improvement in living conditions for its citizens.

– Daniel McAndrew-Greiner

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