Botswana’s Age Structural Transition Has Unleashed the Demographic Dividend (DD) Opportunities: Is the Country up to the Task of Capitalising on the DD?
Through review of
available literature and analysis of available data, this paper investigates
the nature and process of age structural transition (AST) in Botswana from 1966
to 2016. It provides a comprehensive picture of the age structural transition
using the censuses of 1971, 1981, 1991, 2001 and 2011. The theoretical
framework used is the Demographic Transition theory and where other appropriate
theoretical frameworks have been used to augment it. Botswana has entered a
demographic transition where the levels of both fertility and mortality have
gone down. Life expectancy that should normally increase during the transition
has fluctuated mainly due to the effect of HIV related deaths in the country.
As a result, the issue of ageing that is usually associated with the
demographic transition does not seem to be a problem for Botswana as the
proportion of those aged 65 years and above has remained almost constant over
the forty years period under discussion. The harnessing of the dividend may be
frustrated by glimpses of perceived increases in corruption and failure to
create adequate employment opportunities for the youth, including graduates.
Cite this paper
Nkwe, N. , Mukamaambo, E. P. and Malema, B. W. (2017). Botswana’s Age Structural Transition Has Unleashed the Demographic Dividend (DD) Opportunities: Is the Country up to the Task of Capitalising on the DD?. Open Access Library Journal, 4, e4189. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1104189.
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