Raising Botswana's Human Resource Profile to Facilitate Economic Diversification and Growth

World Bank

Washington, DC

关键词: DIAMONDS;    ECONOMIC DIVERSIFICATION;    EDUCATION SECTOR INVESTMENT;    ENTREPRENEURSHIP;    NATURAL RESOURCES;   

RP-ID  :  93047

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Botswanaapos;s economic growth hashinged on its abundant natural resources, particularlydiamonds, which generate nearly half of its fiscal revenues.In terms of sustainable growth, this dependency on naturalresources poses the biggest challenge for the country. Toprepare Botswana forlife after diamonds,the governmentdeveloped a growth paradigm in itsvision 2016strategydocument (Presidential Task Group 1997), which suggests thatthe development ofnew economyskills will play anextremely important role in the country s future. Botswanais aiming to develop new engines of growth, supplementingthe diamond industry with manufacturing, financial, andtransport services, and transforming the country sentrepreneurship sector into a buoyant, productive, andinnovative private sector led by entrepreneurs withcutting-edge skills. A key ingredient of this strategy isthe development of a holistic approach to skillsdevelopment. Botswana has achieved high enrollment in basiceducation (90 percent in primary education) and thegovernment continues to invest a high share of grossdomestic GDP, almost 8 percent, in the education sector. In2010 11, expenditures on education amounted to 25 percent oftotal government expenditures. Nevertheless, a skillsconstraint is repeatedly cited as a major challenge forbusinesses in the country. In 2010, the Enterprise Surveyfor Botswana reported that of the 10 major businessconstraints, the majority of firms in the country reportedskills shortage as the key problem (World Bank, 2010a). Thecountry also has high unemployment rates reported atapproximately 17.8 percent and approximately 27 percent,when discouraged jobseekers are included (CSO, 2011). Thisnote reviews the current landscape of the education sectorin Botswana and attempts to identify key bottlenecks in thesupply of relevant skills for economic diversification.Recommendations for preparing students who can be readilyintegrated into the labor market are then offered, usingexamples of best practices from successful case studies.