Resource information
There are countries in Asia, Europe, the
Middle East and even a few such countries in Africa that are
using non-renewable resources to drive development and have
not experienced conflict. South Africa, Namibia, Botswana,
and Zambia are such typical cases in Africa. Instead, the
presence of significant minerals in Botswana is associated
with economic development and democracy as well as peace.
This paper applies the "resource curse", thesis to
the case of Botswana, a country that is rich in minerals,
yet it has realized positive development thus avoiding
conflict and 'the resource curse'. The focus of
this study is to examine the experience of Botswana in using
natural resources to promote equitable development and
thereby avoid conflict which often results from selfish
private or ethnic group interests that elsewhere have used
natural resources to the exclusion of other groups in
society. This study specifically looks at the conditions and
factors that facilitated the absence of internal conflict in
the extraction of natural resources in Botswana. The key
questions answered are: what contextual conditions and
factors facilitated the peaceful extraction of natural
resources in Botswana?; and were these factors unique to
Botswana or can they be replicated elsewhere?. The first
chapter gives introduction. The second chapter deals with
the socio-political setting of the chiefs' rule during
the pre-colonial and colonial periods. The third chapter
discusses Botswana's democracy and how it has evolved
not only to democratize society but also to become a
management culture of good governance for defining how the
natural resources will be utilized for the country's
development. Chapter four outlines the mineral resource base
of Botswana and the policies and strategies used by
government in ensuring that such resources were used for
public good rather than the self-interest of either the
leaders or mining houses. Chapter five focuses attention on
cases of local conflicts relating to mineral and other
natural resources around different parts of the country.
Chapter six brings the issues together to explain
Botswana's democratic and mineral dividends in
attaining a high development success rate. Chapter seven
presents conclusion.
