<TITLE: African Development History 2: Botswana - A Success Story of Economic Development Policies in Africa
ACADEMIC DOMAIN: social sciences
DISCIPLINE: political history
EVENT TYPE: seminar presentation
FILE ID: USEMP11C
NOTES: continuation of and continued in USEMD26B (USEMD26A and USEMP11A-B part of the same course)

RECORDING DURATION: 30 min 17 sec

RECORDING DATE: 10.4.2007

NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS: 16

NUMBER OF SPEAKERS: 2

S6: NATIVE-SPEAKER STATUS: French; ACADEMIC ROLE: undergraduate; GENDER: male; AGE: 17-23

S11: NATIVE-SPEAKER STATUS: Bulgarian; ACADEMIC ROLE: undergraduate; GENDER: female; AGE: 17-23>


<S11> erm hello everyone my name is <NAME S11> and today with erm <NAME S6> we will talk about erm devel- economic developmental policies erm and particularly erm their implementation toward the success of er economic development in botswana and er in the first part of the presentation i will give an overview of economic development in a global perspective i will talk about the bretton woods erm system erm i will talk about the theoretical framework of international development as well as erm how it's it was put into practice with er structural adjustment programmes erm during the 1980s and 1990s erm and in the second part erm <NAME S6> will er talk about erm the specifics of the economic success in er botswana and exactly what factors contributed to that erm so erm at first i will start with er presenting the bretton woods erm system erm bretton woods er <SIGH> initiated the current international economic order that we live in it started erm as a direct result of the great depression from the 1930s so that erm the idea was that what happened there economically in the world would never repeat itself and in 1944 er 44 countries gathered in erm new hampshire at bretton woods to reach an agreement er which was greatly following the economic ideas of british economist er john maynard keynes erm who put forward er the ideas of a new international monetary order where er a fixed exchange rate er was established where all er currencies were tied to the US dollar because the US then was contributing to more than half of the world's manufacturing production and erm because they also had the the biggest erm dollar reser- erm gold reserves the US dollar was tied to er was er tied to gold er to the gold standard and er at the same time er keynes promoted erm government regulation in order to insure control of unemployment and also control of inflation as well as erm those western erm liberal capitalist er states decided that er the international economic system should develop toward er a system of free trade where there was an elimination of er trade tariffs and er a main- and a balance of trade was maintained now there were two problems with that the first one was so-called wiggins dilemma which pretty much poses the question if the US er if all currencies are tied to the US dollar and the US dollar is pegged to gold what happens if the US prints so much money that it's more than the gold they have in their treasury like what happens then and that's actually the reason for later erm why later the the debt crisis occurred because the US was printing too much dollars and they dropped the gold standard and the other the problem er with the bretton woods system was that it er it was acknowledged that er because it was created from the perspective of of western capitalism it favoured those economies and er not other economic systems erm so bretton woods established erm a number of er financial institutions among which were the former GATT which later became WTO the world bank and the IMF the world bank er was initially established as a former international bank for reconstruction and development and the original idea was for it to finance the reconstruction of war-torn europe er later on however after the the process of reconstruction was finished er it became developing countries' largest creditor and according to a research by the UN it lends about 25 billion dollars per year to developing countries erm that funding goes to financing large-scale development projects and a major critique to the world bank is that the funding er is done regardless of environmental costs of those projects erm and other social social costs are also not taken into consideration and erm in the 1980s er during the debt crisis the world bank took even higher prominence because it was lending enormous amounts of money to developing countries in order to urge developing countries to adopt structural economic reform and recently the world bank is it has taken a new approach towards erm erm ha- ha- making efforts towards programme based approaches and general budgetary support erm now the IMF was initially created to regulate exchange rate stability international trade and monetary cooperation and in 1970 erm after the US dropped the gold standard erm it started facing a crisis of purpose and and erm its functions shifted a little to mai- er to managing the balance of payment difficulties of major-league developing countries and the way they were doing this was by providing conditional assistance to member countries of the m- of the IMF who were experiencing balance of payments problems while urging them to erm reform their economies according to to programmes created by the experts of the IMF and er a big critique erm towards the the IMF both er the IMF and and the world bank is that er with that sort of with that er process of funding they actually erm exacerbated the debt crisis that that started during during the 1970s and according to a UN report on economic development in africa between 1970 and 2002 africa received some 540 billion dollars in loans and despite paying back close to 550 billion in principle and interest it still had a debt stock of 295 billion as at the end of 2002 er now i will talk about erm the the theoretical approaches erm for taking up those kind of th- of policies erm what has been dominating erm international economics for the past 20 years at least is neo-liberalism neo-liberalism was erm was it's pioneers so to speak are erm economists friedrich hayek milton friedman and arnold herberger which er hayek and friedman were er part of the chicago economic school erm and they are pretty much the engineers of the of the IMF's economic er development programmes erm a neo-liberalist viewed er the problem of development purely as as an economic one for them free competition among business firms er within markets notably liberalisation and monetarism is what eco- economic development should be aimed at er lib- neo-liberalism also s- er strongly promotes er laissez-faire economics er which pretty much is a concept that states that markets and the private sector operate the best when they're when they're left on their own without any sort of state intervention and neo-liberalism in that sense was a move away from keynesian economics because keynesian economics at least erm promoted erm regulation within the domestic economy erm now another another perspective on development is the so-called modernisation theory according to which er the difference between modernisation and neo-liberal er theory is that modernisation erm takes into account apart from the economic side of development also social aspects and cultural aspects and according to those theories the western world countries are the most developed while the rest of the world are at the at the earlier stages of development and will eventually reach the same level as the as the western world and development stages go from the traditional societies to developed ones developing countries have fallen behind their social progress they need to be directed on their way to becoming more advanced erm in this sense modernisation theory is closest to the keynesianist approach to economics because er they also promote government intervention as necessary to boost up demand and fight unemployment and deflation and er the bottom line is that n- the modernisation theory views development as something beneficial eventually for developing countries whereas dependency theory which is the most critical approach to international development erm sees erm sees er development as erm a form sort of a form of exploitation er because according to dependency theorists er the third world countries they were not always poor but they became er impoverished because of the colonial dominion and because of the forced inconporat- incorporation into the world economy by expansionist first world powers er and the third world economies became geared more toward the need to their first world colonial masters than the domestic need of their own societies erm and the proof for that is relationships of dependency have continued long after formal colonisation has ended erm and therefore according to the dependency theory the primary obstacles to autonomous development are seen as external rather than internal and erm the b- the bottom line basically the main conclusion that dependency theorists makes make is that erm it is incoherent it's in- it is inadequate and imprecise to try to compare contemporary third world societies w- with those of the first world er in the early stages of development and to expect them to react in the same in in a good way to economic development policies which were created in in the first world societies simply because third world societies have a different cultural historic colonial background and erm the way erm as i said erm eco- international economics has been dominated by er neo-liberalism in the past 20 years at least and erm the way the international financial institutions were doing this was through implementing er the so-called structural adjustment programmes in the 80s and 90s erm structural adjustment programmes were free market economy er economic policy reforms imposed by the IMF upon granting financial assistance to developing countries and erm the thing was that most donor countries would er make a condition erm that er their assistance would be provided to the developing countries only if erm structural adjustment programmes would be implemented in those countries and the the benefit of er structural adjustment programmes was er stated to be that er they developed the private sector foreign investment and that way major-league (xx) erm the measures erm that er were implemented through structural adjustment programmes were erm a shift from growing diverse food crops er to er the production of cash crops or other commodities that are more commercial like rubber cotton coffee copper et cetera erm and that production would be erm later used for export erm also another feature was the abolishment of er food and agricultural subsidies in order to reduce govern- government expenditure erm government spending was also restricted by cuts of the social programmes in the areas of health education housing and massive layoffs in the civil service erm also S-A-P suggested currency devaluation mea- measures which er increase import costs and liberalisation of trade and investment as well as privatisation of government-held enterprises and erm here you can see how during erm the erm the structural adjustment erm programmes in africa how the prices of er agricultural exports er changed and decreased erm now the major criticism to structural adjustment is that it leads to harsh economic measures that deepen poverty it hinders food security it increases corruption erm it leads to environmental degradation unsustainable resource exploitation and population dislocation and displacement er and this is a map of the heavily indebted poor countries and you can see they're like the majority of them are located actually in africa erm a- and the IMF had a special programme erm that was focused on those countries which supposedly erm offered erm loans with better conditions erm , now , after reading some reports on the on the effects of structural adjustment policies the conclusions basically are that developing countries worldwide er s- suffered more than they gained because there was an overall decrease in their economic growth erm there was erm er because countries were forced to er reduce their social spending there was lack of social security and political instability erm there was also a decrease in er their c- capability to deal with their debt burdens and er overall structural adjustment programmes are considered to be a failure now how did botswana erm growing up in in that environment of of failure of er er economic policies develop er botswana has a very specific relationship with the IMF because erm first of all there isn't much research done on on comparing th- botswana's development with the rest of the african countries but it's important to know that erm it had a very different economic growth compared to the other countries like from 1970 to 1995 it had an average of 7.3 economic growth er which i read somewhere was the second highest in the world in 1996 and erm the difference of that erm because of that erm botswana was considered more advanced than other african countries in order to erm receive the same treatment from the IMF in erm in its development programmes and therefore because it it's considered a middle-income country erm it did not receive funding from the IMF and therefore er structural adjustment programmes were not imposed on it the same way they were imposed on other african countries moreover botswana was not dealing only with the m- the IMF but they also had erm outside advisers who were independent from the international financial institutions and now more about its er economic development you're gonna hear it from <NAME S6> </S11>
<S6> erm botswana's main facts er botswana is is a country between south africa and zimbabwe and namibia in southern africa it's a landlocked country it's around er the size of france the GDP per capita is around 11,600 dollars which is quite a lot of er money compared to the neighbour states er the capital is gaborone and the GDP is growth is actually seven per cent er botswana is the has the highest rate of per capita growth of any country in the world in the last 35 years and we have we are going to analyse this success erm to see the reasons er what was the situation after independence er in 90 si- nine- 1966 there were 22 batswana who had graduated from university 100 from the secondary school and the country was wasn't developed at all by the by the british erm a half of the government expenditure upon the independence had to be financed by transfers from britain and botswana president masire which is the second president er had this had this sentence <READING ALOUD> when we asked for independence people thought we were either very brave or very foolish </READING ALOUD> but after independence there were some advantages for the country there were there was a limited effect of british colonisation on the pre-colo- colonial institutions erm homogenous society and some qualified and honest leaders the picture is about the first president sir seretse khama er who was also the erm the chief of the main tribe of botswana okay about history er in the 18th century tswana tribe er tribes conquered the indi- indi- indigenous san who were amalgamated in the in the society erm in 1830s there were clash between clashes between the zulus and the boers and these two were going in the tswana tswana lands and there were some (xx) and as an effect there was an er all the tribes ba- batswana tribes had to be un- un- had to be unified in order to er control the zulu attacks in 1885 the creation of the bechuanaland protectorate under british domination put the tswana tribes under british domination in order to control the boers er in 1895 er rhodes tried to take control of the region but three tswana chiefs went to see britain went to britain erm to see queen victoria in order to keep control of the ar- area and you have the picture of khama three which is the grandfather of the president and we've seen that this family has done er has been er really (xx) through the botswana's history and for instance in 1934 there are two chiefs challenge british decision to enforce colonial institution because the british wanted to er destroy the er pre-colonial institution in botswana and the chiefs er of er all erm khama two was one of the chiefs went there to er to er to counter this decision and in 1966 was the independence okay er about the society erm i found that there is there are as i said the pre-colonial institution were preserved and there were (xx) the kogtla which is er er in the the tswana tribes the kogtla was an assembly of adult males in which issues of public interest were discussed they were supposed to be advisory but they seemed to have an effective way for commoners to criticise the king erm the limited colonial rules allowed the continue of the pre-colonial institution which provided the legitimate they legitimated with seretse khama and enabled him to form a boer-based coalition the relative security of elites in botswana contrasts with the situation in many post-independence african countries where develop- developmental policies appeared to undermine the power-base of traditional political institutions su- su- as such as chiefs destabilising the power of existing elites and in 1965 the the el- the erm seretse khama decided to create a house of chiefs er in order to er to (xx) the power the pre-colonial power . erm i wanna about talk about now the er the ethnic and the ethnic and social origin you can see that there is the ban- the bantu which is a tswana tribe and which are in red on the on the map and also the black who are the er san the bushmen er who are the the for- er the first inhabitants of botswana you can see here that it's quite they are quite all all the two (xx) are still widespread in the country there is no like special areas which would which could have made some difficulties after independence and , er there is for er one of these reason is that there is a traditional attempt for of tswana tribes to integrate er the other groups into their institutional structure . erm a third reason about why er botswana could have been marked by stability is that there were responsible political leaders after independence er still in- er after the independence and still today er botswana is ranked for many years as the lowest corrupt country in africa in stark to most african countries after independence the ruling party resisted all calls to indi- indigenise the bureaucracy until suitably qualified batswana were available and they were a- they were they were able to adopt good policies and institutions because that was in the interest of political elites elites because er the political elite was made of cattle owner and powerful tribal a- tribal actor then there was continuity between the current er the the colonial institution and the after independence the new institutions there is also for instance these things that the diamond fields that they were finding in botswana were on seretse khama's tribe area er he he he made the choice to give the property right to the country avoiding any conflict between tribes , then we arrive to the diamond era er in 1955 the search for diamonds er began in botswana and in 1967 the it was the beginning of the exploitation and de beers makes 60 million in in a year with 20 million dollars of of investments and they were (xx) there and the bots- the botswana's government had to er wanted to er make new deals with the de beers company who was the owner and there were the creation of debswana it was er was a joint-venture company with er de be- de beers owning er 50 per cent and the botswana's government the other 50 per cent and this is a great success actually because er for instance er er the er the government er when the world bank wanted to er er well de beers called the world the wo- the world bank to to er to back its interest and not to make the government er re-make a new contract with with er this kind of er to in order to get the money for de beers and the government just said that the I-F-Is could go away er they don't care about the er considering diamond industry erm these diamond mining activities have fuelled much of the growth in botswana's economy and largely because of this botswana is considered by two major investment services to be the safest credit risk in africa erm diamond accounts for 35 per cent of the nation's GDP 80 pe- er 90 per cent of earnings from exports and 50 per cent of government revenues , er this is then example of what could er natural resource ca- can do to <COUGH> to other country in africa actually there were like i've just read some reports in the july 206 a UNDP report said that nigeria's vast oil wealth have ba- barely touched people's life and the same one said in burkina faso illegal gold mining in a hill considered sacred by the local community (xx) was producing and smuggling 20 million dollar of diamonds (xx) indeed natural resources have often played a negative role in many (xx) from C-L-O to er G-R-C , moreover there is no better known symbol of the link between african resources and conflicts than diamonds called blood blood diamonds in sierra leone civil war fighting were about control of the diamond fields the same in angola with UNITA diamonds and (xx) and there was this (xx) process you can see there the UN keep- the peacekeepers er it wants to make the er stop the illegal diamond er trading of diamonds and this process' goal is to share the wealth among the population and we're gonna see that why botswana can be an example for this er for this situation where (xx) are used just for a minority er in botswana there was this thing that there is the institution of private property property and there were made like it was the first measure to make that democracy everyone could have have private property could could have a business and to have free money and such institutions protect the property rights of actual and potential investors they provide political stability to ensure con- continuity in these rights they ensure that the political elites are constrained by the political system and the participation of a broad cross-section of the society is ensured i'm gonna show you s- just after and there is no state expropriation neither predation by private agents as a result they have highe- higher investments and also massive government expenditure 40 per cent of GDP has made er botswana as kind of er african model of welfare state there is also a merging civil society and the question is er is this possible er what is the possible impact of a nascent civil society on demo- democratic pra- practice and botswana can be a case because in 1993 there was more than 1,000 organised groups who had registered with the government er we can consider also that ci- civil servants are building a democratic corporatist corporatist state because the the organised the organised groups they go to see the civil servants and then there is this this kind of er interaction between the the administration and the civil society and in many cases the government has been forced to reverse its position and adopt policies advocated by the organised groups involved there was one group in er 91 it was the er er (xx) and they wanted they they said that they w- they wanted to er to er back the women's issues and when the 94 election came they ha- they had to reverse because they were losing part of their electorates and they made er they made er er some erm some issues to back the women's interests with er not to be a kind of i don't remember the words in english erm , erm yeah a seminar for women interested in running for office and also er a manifesto challenging all the women's issues in the botswana society but there is also some er problematic issues in botswana and there is this aftermath of HIV and AIDS and there are er a- almost 30 37 people 33 per cent of the population is infe- infected and there are some now there are some new some new policies but for er for decades there were nothing for today for decades there were pretty nothing and today the government starts to react er because that can er injure the the the economic growth and also could er make the population er er number er really de- er er really decreased there is also some problematic issues like the forced ass- botswana is a nation with er there is a forced integration of minorities and bushmen have been forced out from their land by the government because of the material interests and moreover forced assimilation is enforced and destroy the bushmen's traditional way of life and culture and this is because there are soft authoritarian tendencies and you have here some some image of what er happened and in december in 2006 there were a historic victory for the bushmen because the federal laws said that er what was doing the government was unlawful and unconstitutional then you have the conclusion and what what is the success of er the diamond er @of the@ of botswana's history that's it </S6>
