Botswana Vice President to launch Botswana Demographic Dividend Report
15 March 2018
Author: Evans Chumo
The report reviews Botswana's demographic and economic opportunities and challenges and identified key policy options to optimise the chances of earning a maximum DD to accelerate the achievement of Botswana's long-term development aspirations outlined in its long-term strategy, Vision 2036. Photo: UNFPA Botswana

On 16 March 2018, the Vice President of the Republic of Botswana, Hon. Mokgweetsi Masisi, will officially launch the Botswana Demographic Dividend study report at the Gaborone International Convention Centre, Gaborone, Botswana. Titled Opportunities and Policy Actions to Maximise the Demographic Dividend in Botswana, the study analysed Botswana’s population dynamics and age-structure changes in the medium to long-term, and the implications that these aspects will have on the country’s ability to maximize its demographic dividend (DD). The study was carried out by UNFPA Botswana, AFIDEP, and the Development Policy Research Unit (DPRU).

The study also reviewed Botswana’s demographic and economic opportunities and challenges; modelled the DD using the National Transfer Accounts (NTA) methodology; and identified key policy options to optimise the chances of earning a maximum DD to accelerate the achievement of Botswana’s long-term development aspirations outlined in its long-term strategy, Vision 2036. As spelled out in this strategy, Botswana aspires to graduate from an upper-middle-income country to a high-income country with prosperity for all, and the report poses urgent and game-changer policy options that, if implemented, will enable the country to take full advantage of the DD to achieve this aspiration.

The launch will bring together development stakeholders from government, development partners, civil society, academia, the private sector, youth agencies and individual representatives in the Botswana development space.

The study report will be made available on the AFIDEP website shortly after the launch.