The political economy of inequality : poverty, drought and aid programmes in Botswana, c. 1982 - 1988

Lyons, S

Abstract

Botswana's pattern of economic growth during its first
two decades of Independence has been hailed by many
economists as representing a model for successful
development in Sub-Saharan Africa. From the 1970s the
development of the diamond industry provided the main
impetus to this economic growth, and allowed the
government to make rapid improvements in the provision of
rural health care, primary education, and water supplies.
However, despite these improvements to the rural
infrastructure little has been achieved in stimulating or
even maintaining rural incomes and levels of employment.
The nutritional status and economic well-being of a
substantial proportion of the rural population remains
precarious, especially during periods of drought. This
thesis argues that the present structure of economic
development serves to preserve and intensify these
existing patterns of inequality rather than allay them.
The first two sections of the thesis are concerned with
the political economy of the country, and the nature and
spatial distribution of rural poverty. I argue that the
key to an understanding of this rural poverty lies in the
changing socio-economic role of livestock over the last
fifty years, and the emergence of new class structures
based on the ownership of cattle. A growing exclusivity
in the control of water sources and grazing, encouraged
during the colonial period amongst the tribal elite, led
to a growing inequality in income and assets and the
breakdown of traditional redistributive mechanisms in the
rural economy. It was this privileged and educated tribal
elite, now largely divested of its tribal and kinship
obligations, that gained political power on Independence,
and which now forms collectively the largest group of
livestock owners in the country. With access to lucrative
overseas markets, what had emerged as a growing contradiction between the private ownership of herds and
the continued communal tenure of grazing land, is now
being resolved by sweeping changes to the structure of
land tenure. Whereas water borehole syndicates in the
past had had (theoretically at least) an open membership
and did. not preclude the grazing of smaller herds, the
new land tenure policies now promise an exclusive control
over water and grazing on fenced ranches. The existence
of these ranches now threaten the very subsistence base
of many marginal groups.
An assessment of the government's commitment to tackling
the problems of rural poverty can, be derived from a study
of its own welfare programmes. The third section of the
thesis is concerned with the nature and effectiveness of
the food aid and labour based relief programmes over the
period 1982-88. Whilst these programmes have averted
widespread starvation, they have done little to protect
or restore the productive assets of the poor. Rather they
have served to mask the structural nature of rural
poverty and inequality and left the process of
privatisation of the commons to continue unchallen g ed. In
some cases they have also failed to achieve the more
modest objective of alleviating malnutrition: an analysis
of relief food distribution for the period reveals
serious shortfalls to those marginal groups most at risk.
The final chapter summarises the main findings of the
thesis and concludes that the fundamental issue of
unequal access to productive assets such as cattle,
grazing and water remains unresolved, reflecting the low
priority afforded by the political elite to the plight of
the poor. Without seeking to be prescriptive, it argues
for a radical departure from the present pattern of
economic development to one based upon a more equal
access to productive assets.

Citation

Lyons, S. The political economy of inequality : poverty, drought and aid programmes in Botswana, c. 1982 - 1988. (Thesis). University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Sep 7, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 7, 2021
• Publisher URL: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.293030
• Related Public URLs: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.293030
• Award Date: Jul 1, 1990