TITLE:
Botswana’s Age Structural Transition Has Unleashed the Demographic Dividend (DD) Opportunities: Is the Country up to the Task of Capitalising on the DD?
AUTHORS:
Neo Nkwe, Elizabeth Poloka Mukamaambo, Brothers W. Malema
KEYWORDS:
Age Structural Transition, Demographic Dividend, Dependency, Economy, Botswana
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.4 No.12,
December
29,
2017
ABSTRACT: 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.